Mad Honey

I want to say something about Mad Honey

I've just finished Mad Honey and I really want to talk about it but I don't know anyone else who's read it lol

If you're currently reading it and don't want any spoilers, then please be warned that this entire post is a spoiler.

I want to preface this by saying that I have no problem with “wokeness” (as the bitter 1 star reviews on Goodreads say) in novels and am queer myself so it’s not the topic itself that I have a problem with. I think it’s important to have trans characters in books and movies, but I feel like Mad Honey approaches it poorly. The trans character in this book starts out dead, and even though we do get her POV throughout the book (in a strange, disjointed manner to add to the mix), it's the fact that her trans identity gets thrown at us out of nowhere in the middle of the book in the most soap opera way imaginable- on the witness stand at a murder trial. Honestly, something about one of the main characters being revealed as trans in what appears to be a "twist" sat wrong with me for the rest of the novel.

It doesn't help that we've been reading her POV up until this point and this major part of her identity- and the rest of the book- is not touched on at all until the reveal. And with her being dead it just feels almost reminiscent of the "dead hooker" trope, which I also can't stand. There's also the aspect of her being the ~perfect~ trans girl; completely undetectable, right down to her genitals which for some reason it is mentioned several times throughout the book that her gender affirmation surgeon tells her that "not even her doctors would be able to tell". I'm not saying it's impossible for trans individuals to pass completely with their new gender, it's just that it's something consistently mentioned in the book that makes it feel like the authors considered this an important factor.

I’ll give Picoult and Boyland the benefit of the doubt and assume they were trying to educate people about the trans perspective and life, and there were genuinely some moments of this being beautifully and soulfully done in Lily’s narration, but overall it felt alienating. In my opinion, to normalize the POV of people who represent a misunderstood and marginalized minority is to have these characters be just that- people. Not the dead girl whose boyfriend is on trial the entire book, or the perfectly beautiful doctor who also specializes in groundbreaking surgery, or the token “does not really look like a woman” trans woman of the town who takes the time to educate Olivia about what it means to be trans. Do these people exist in real life? Of course. Do they all need to be collapsed together in one book? I don’t think so. It just didn't feel aligned with the plot at all, and I feel like if this had just been a book about Lily trying to live her life with another plot it would have been a much better book. However, as I've mentioned before, I'm not trans, so please tell me if I am overthinking this.

I also wanted to touch on the DV aspect. This also could have been a really powerful and educational message on the subject of domestic violence and abusive tendencies, but it felt like the issue petered out in the end. Asher's obvious violent streak and propensity for lashing out is glossed over completely by the end, and we never really get an ending on Olivia's ex husband. Maybe the message was that sometimes life just means you do your best to move on from an abusive past, but it felt like it was mentioned so frequently throughout the book that being left without a resolution felt off.

I didn’t DNF it but I didn’t enjoy it much after the first half, and it definitely felt a lot longer than it maybe should have been. And the second ~twist~ at the end was one that I had suspected but was also frustrated that nothing came of it. All of that pain and misery and nothing happens to Maya even if it was an accident?

Overall, there were definitely some beautiful moments and I didn't ultimately hate the book, but it just mostly felt unresolved and like the authors had more ideas than they knew what to do with while writing it. Would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this, and please tell me if I am wrong in any way.