I found this book really addictive, I read it in a couple of days. It follows Ana who has just found out that the man she has been having an affair with has died. The book was funny, sad and well written. I will be looking out for other books by Sarah Crossan.

An uncomfortable but important read. Ana is catapulted into an awful predicament because of her selfish actions - namely an affair with a married man, Connor. Think it’s safe to say that there are parts of this book that we can all identify, whether you have been the adulterer or the one deceived. Sarah Crossan leaves no emotion stone unturned - it’s raw, ugly and dark emotions. Ana’s journey shows that at the point at which someone decides to consciously act on their desires outside of their relationship, the gauntlet is yet. She has to lead two lives, with all sorts of resentment, jealousy and paranoia gnawing at the excitement and thrill of the affair. What is the price paid by everyone involved or affected? Beautiful phrasing throughout by Sarah, with sentences short, sharp and staccato like at times when Ana is frustrated at her situation and projecting onto Connor’s wife, Rebecca. All in all, the characters are fully fleshed and squirmingly relatable to ourselves or someone we know.

Where do I begin with this book. There are so many things that can be touched on. Mainly, a fascinating and sometimes truthful look at the pain of secret relationships and the struggles we can all relate to. Life is not perfect no matter how much we try. Things we keep closest to us sometimes spill out and we have no control over it. Thought-provoking read for sure.

A short audiobook narrated by the author about a married woman, Anna, who was having an affair with a married man who dies. She befriends his wife and tries to find her lover within the wife's life. Again I had the same ongoing NetGalley audiobook issue I always have, where it sounds like there is an echo when the narrator is speaking, but because the book was short I stuck with it, but I"m going to have to stop listening to NetGalley audiobooks until this issue is resolved.
As for Here is the Beehive, it's a little confusing as the text flips between current day and past days. Days when the lover is dead and Anna is engaging with his wife, and days when she's living her life with her lover, Connor. I don't know if it was because of the echo that I found these flips confusing, or if it was the way it was written. These time flips weren't separated nicely into separate chapters but done in the same chapter.
I love Sarah Crossan's writing, the way she sees the world. It's beautiful and lyrical. But I didn't quite connect with this book as much as I've connected with other books of hers. Therefore I have no shared my thoughts on social media.

I enjoyed the way that this book meanders through time but ultimately found it a litte thin overall.
it was a sad book, but i felt sad for the whole situation rather than for our narrator, it was very difficult to like her much at all when she seemed so indifferent to literally everything apart from this one man, who isn't here anymore;. she seemed so utterly uninterested in everything about her life, her work, her family and i just didn't understand why she had remained in either of her relationships;

This audiobook didn’t grip me in an obvious way, but it was short so I kept listening.
The narrator/author’s tone was a bit monotonous but it reflects the grief portrayed in the story- told in verse.
An unusual audiobook and perspective - when you’re having a secret affair and they suddenly die - how can you grieve? .

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback.

This is very different as its of two married people having an affair, and how ana copes when she learns her lover has died.

The story looks at love, loss, deception, grief, heartache, turmoil.

You do feel for ana as she has to deal with the loss privately, no one to discuss or talk to and you hear her story and struggles.

I listened to this on audio so didn't notice the verses (which is what makes the book different to standard books). I think if i had read the book i might not have enjoyed it as much.

Thank you to Netgallery and the publishers for providing me with the audio version of the book to give an honest review.

This was a short audiobook and as it is written in verse some of that becomes lost in this version. It sounded more like a diary of a scorned lover and with the flicking from scene to scene without the text, it was occasionally hard to follow.

*Review post Archive*

I've been binge-reading to Novels in Verse (Blood Moon, Poet X, Clap When You Land and Punching the Air) Bland everyone told me I needed to listen to Sarah Crossan's Here is the Beehive. I don't often read contemporaries, but there's something powerful about a Novel in Verse. The dark topics explored in this novel are wrapped in a lyricism that makes them poignant and powerful. Which is a pretentious way of saying I was pleasantly surprised. (I'll stop with the P words now).

The succinct storytelling of Ana, the death of her married lover, and her emotional journey after that swept me up, her layered guilt made for a really interesting read. I love an unlikeable character, and Ana and Connor are not 'good people' so the exploration of their humanity was fascinating. I would definitely recommend this to other fans of Novels in Verse or contemporaries that air on the side of 'dark-despair'.

A novel in verse.
If I had seen this book on the shelves and considered reading it, I would have been immediately put off by the verse format. Strangely, however, it came to me in audiobook format and I had absolutely no idea that it was written as poetry until I investigated other reviews once I'd finished. It made me rethink my reaction to the book, although my rating remained the same.

Ana is a married woman, Connor is a married man and their relationship seems to be stuck going nowhere. One or other of them puts a stop to it, only to find themselves together again.
Ana is his solicitor and they met when she was drawing up his will, so when he dies, it is his wife, Rebecca who approaches Ana.
An interesting scenario, a toxic relationship, a short book, written in verse.

The author chose to narrate the audiobook herself. Probably a good idea as only she could really interpret the verse correctly. She did a good job, although it was somewhat monotone in delivery.

The main reason for my 3 star rating, however, was the disjointed nature of the narrative. It seemed to skip about in time and between characters, so that I had to keep readjusting my brain to the changes. This was a shame, because I might otherwise have found myself enjoying my first ever book written in verse.

This is definitely a very interesting book written in an interesting way. The subject of the affair between two married people when one of them dies is not something I have seen before and I thought it was handled well - especially in that the affair itself was quite turbulent due to the outside pressures of the characters' spouses. However, the main character herself I found to be very frustrating - I couldn't relate at all to her or any of the decisions she made.

The writing style was enjoyable to me, it seemed to flow nicely. However, the text jumps between past and present and I did sometimes get a bit confused as to where we were in the story (although this might be better if you read the physical book rather than the audio).

As this was an audiobook, I also feel the need to comment on the narration - it felt very flat and dull, and although in some part this may be due to the subject matter, it was just too much for me. I often listen to audiobooks on 1.25 or 1.5 speed, but this one I really had to speed up as the narration at its original speed was almost unbearably slow and dull.

This book is absolutely stunning. I'm not usually a fan of cheating storylines, but I enjoyed how Crossan doesn't romanticise infidelity. In fact, I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Ana and Connor somewhat disintegrate between the beginning of the book and when Connor dies.

Ana is a character for whom it's difficult to feel any sympathy. She's difficult to deal with in almost every instance we see her, and I don't think she's someone I would want to associate with.

Her obsession with Mark, Connor's friend and their sole confidante, and Connor's wife Rebecca is disturbing, fantastically written. I was gripped by this book, as I have been any other Sarah Crossan book.

My review is for the audio version. Unfortunately, the narrator’s voice meant I could not finish listening, which is a shame. It’s an example of a time when I wished I had a written version as the story did appeal to me when I requested a copy to review. I found the narrator’s voice very flat, it lacked intonation and it wasn’t easy at all, in the part that I listened to, to distinguish between which character was talking so I could not imagine listening to the 7 hours of narration.

Ana has been having an affair with Connor for three years. After meeting when he was a client of hers, they have met in far away cities and secret hotel rooms, lying and hiding from their spouses, children, and friends. Until Connor dies and Ana has no one to grieve to, no way to mourn Connor except in the dark corners of her mind. She befriends his wife, desperate to know what was so great about her that prevented Connor from leaving, and gets more than she bargained for when they start becoming friends. But this secret is not something Ana can keep to herself forever.

Okay, straight up, I didn’t like this from the beginning. For NUMEROUS reasons. So let’s get into it.

Shall we start with the actual story?

I didn’t like any of the characters, particularly not Ana. She was whiney, entitled, childish, and I couldn’t relate to her at all. The rest of the cast weren’t especially enchanting either. They felt flat, card board cut outs of a million other characters in a million other books. Nothing enticing about any of them, stereotypes of what people are supposed to be like.

Plot wise, I didn’t care. It was an affair. That was it. There wasn’t anything special in this book to make me care about these people of what happened to them. It wasn’t particularly emotional, there was no redeeming factors to the affair, nothing.

Because this was a novel in verse, it wasn’t very long at all, and was only a 3 hour audiobook. I always tend to listen to audiobooks on 1.5-2x speed anyway, so I thought I might as well persevere through it so I could write a full review, seeing as the audiobook came through NetGalley. I have numerous problems with the formating and production of the audiobook itself. Now I am no audiobook expert, and only started listening to them in early 2020. But, as a novel in verse I really don’t think this worked as an audiobook at all. The thing about novels in verse is that the line breaks, the spacing, the positioning of words on the page is so important and adds so much to the story itself. This is the first novel in verse I’ve listened to as an audiobook and I won’t be doing it again, because I just think it didn’t work. I think the format of a novel in verse just does not work like this, because the formatting doesn’t come across when it’s being read aloud. So if I didn’t know this was a novel in verse, I wouldn’t have been able to tell.

Also, I didn’t like the narration. Normally, with audiobooks, you have an extra person determining if you like the book or not. A normal book, you have the authors words and your interpretation of them. An audiobook has a narrator, a ‘middle-man’ so to speak, interpreting the words and reading them aloud in a certain way, adding an extra layer to how to interact with the words and how you respond to the book. In this case, the author herself was the narrator, so how she reads the book is how she wanted it to be read when she was writing it. But her voice was flat, monotone, dull. Was this a reflection of Anna? Grieving, sad, conflicted? It could well have been – if you’d just lost the love of your life you’d of course be depressed. But this is an audiobook, there needs to be some element in the narration of it that entices the reader, makes them want to keep listening. There was also some sort of tinny, mechanic echo to the recording, and I don’t know if that was intentional, if that was a production problem, or what, but it didn’t add to the enjoyable experience I was supposed to be having at all.

If I hadn’t listened to the audiobook, and had instead read this with my eyeballs, I don’t know if I would have reacted differently. Would I have been able to project my own idea of Anna’s voice onto her words to make her seem more alive? Would I have seen the formatting of the verses and understood why the novel was written like that and not in standard prose? Who knows. I have seen countless posts on Twitter of people shouting from the rooftops about how they love this book, so maybe it just wasn’t a good fit for me. Or maybe the people who agree with me are shouting quieter.

At least I got one thing from this audiobook – I won’t be listening to novels in verse again. I’ll stick to reading them with my eyes.

"Here Is the Beehive" is a powerful and original story by Sarah Crossan which asks difficult questions about loss, commitment and relationships. The main character and narrator Ana, is a lawyer married with children but also in a relationship with Connor, also married with a family. Connor dies tragically in an accident leaving Ana to deal with the crushing loss but unable to express publicly her true feelings for him. She recalls their blissful trysts while becoming more and more involved in Connor's widow Rebecca's affairs. The narrator switches between timelines which makes for a really engaging experience.

I really loved this book and in particular the supporting characters in Ana's life: her mother and sister but especially her Tanya who works with her is a howl.

I listened to the audiobook version which was read beautifully by Sarah herself.

Was looking forward to this audiobook but unfortunately the day I got the approval email was also the day it was archived so I didn’t get the opportunity to listen and review.

I read this book and then listened to it as an audio book. It was a very interesting book. When I read the blurb I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy this book, I thought I would hate reading about people having an affair. But this book wasn’t really focused on the deceit of the affair. It looked in to love and the feelings two people can have. The added twist was the loss of that person and the main focus was on how someone deals with these feelings if nobody knows you’ve lost someone.

The book was written in a beautiful style, the almost poetic tones flowed throughout the book- the audio version really helped bring the story to life.

The audio of this was very good. I like when an author narrates their own work as you know every inflection is as they intended. Crossan does an excellent job of portraying the story of the other woman after her lover has died. I'm not sure I entirely understood what was so wrong with her own husband, or her life without the affair. I'm not sure I ultimately understood her actions but I was able to see her pain and recognise it. Scattered details of her youth helped to explain in part I think, who she was. I did think she was a bit stupid to think he was ever going to leave his wife for her. The wife, Rebecca is represented in the way that she needs to see her to make her affair more acceptable. I did also wonder if she chose the name as the wife was the spectre that hung over the affair, much like the famous Rebecca looms over Manderley.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the audio in exchange for an honest review.

DID NOT FINISH BECAUSE
As this is a audiobook, the main focus is on the narration and speakers voice, both of which were extremely poor in this audiobook. It did not capture my attention at all. Even if the storyline was a little interesting yet explicit in words, the speakers voice was very dull and made it a long stretch listening to the audiobook. It really was unbearable, that is why I could not hear it any further.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher.

Here is the Beehive - Sarah Crossan

This book is the first book that I have read in verse and I must admit I think it helped me that it was in the audiobook version - I feel much more confident to pick this style of book up again now. We follow the story of Ana and the emotions that she goes through after the loss of her lover Connor, made especially difficult as no one knew the affair was going on. The Narrator pulled me through different thoughts and feelings throughout the story and I felt quite emotionally drained at the end. I believe that there is something in this book for everyone.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury UK for allowing me the chance to read and review this book