Week Thirty-Two Book Twenty-Seven--Kissing the Bee

The cover of Kissing the Bee has always intrigued me, so I picked it up this week for my weekly read. The book follows three friends--Dana (who tells the story), Emil, and Avra. The three are seniors, anxious to graduate and carry on with their lives. In fact, Avra is a little too anxious and plans on leaving home the night of Prom, so her parents will surprisingly find her gone forever the next morning. And Avra plans on taking Emil with her. The only problem is that Dana is madly in love with Emil, so can she really let her best friend and crush disappear on her? And how does Emil feel about all of this?

The book is pretty short, only about 121 pages, and the plot is just....ehhh. I found Avra completely aggravating and even unbelievable at times. And don't even get me started on Emil! After he finally professes his love for one of the girls (don't want to spoil it for anyone!), he still doesn't act on what he says. Just make a decision and go for it already! So the book actually felt twice as long and left me saying "who cares?" at the end. A lot of going back-and-forth in time, too, with dialogue in italics more than quotation marks (kind of strange).


Dana is working on a bee project, so each chapter opens with research she has discovered about bees and their history. I found this more interesting than the plot!


A short read, but not necessarily a fast one.