I have absolutely loved everything written by Sarah Crossan and so was very much looking forward to reading her first verse novel for adults. It's saddening, as all her books are, but I think I found her YA novels ultimately more moving. Perhaps this is because of the youth of the main characters - when bad things happen, it feels so much worse when they happen to young people. I still found this completely compelling and the dark twistiness of Ana's mind was a slightly unnerving place to spend some time in. Definitely one for adult readers. Oh, and that cover is just so beautiful!

This is the first book I have read by this author. I really enjoyed the style of writing and though not my usual genre, thoroughly enjoyed it.

It is difficult for me to describe this book but it is about a love affair over many years and how it affects the two families involved, particularly when Connor dies. Very sad but difficult to stop reading.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advance copy.

This book is in a format that is totally unfamiliar to me and up to about half way through I was thinking of giving up. I was struggling to follow who was talking to whom and finding that the text was just too broken and bitty. However, when I managed to settle down for a good solid reading session I found that everything changed and there was a flow to the narrative that I hadn't been able to appreciate in earlier shorter sessions.

Ana is such an authentic character and some of her thoughts and feelings resonated really strongly with me.

The twist at the end was a surprise, but it was just right.

The first book I have read told in narrative/verse but sadly this was not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I love narrative told in verse and Sarah Crossan does it so well! A very quick read with a fantastic plot. I cannot wait to read more novels in this format.

I had heard wonderful reports about this author. This is my first reading of a Sarah Crossan book and what a rare treat it was.

From the first page I was involved in the story, I wanted to know what had happened and of course what was coming next for Ana.

Sarah Crossan writes wonderfully. She is able to grasp and encapsulate those small moments in time, when life is pivioting on one chance decision.

It is a mournful and a heart wrenching story, beautifully told. I could feel Ana's anguish and despair at every turn. I could sense her frustration with her life I felt that,as a reader, I watched her privately mourn for what could have been.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Sarah portrayed realistic characters and brought their situations to life. I felt for Ana, for Paul, for Rebecca, for Ruth and for Jon. Those chance meetings, that ignite a spark, can do so much damage to so many lives, in so many little ways. I think that Sarah has shown this to perfection.

I will be reading some of Sarah's previous books, based on how much I enjoyed this book. A real treat.

Having read Sarah Crossan’s previous YA titles I was intrigued and excited how her first prose novel aimed at adults would read. I was not disappointed.
We were introduced to a very believable character and situation, Reading a book in this style you would think that sub plots and background stories may be dropped, but they were all there. It made you think about characters, their characteristics and what lead them to the decisions they have made after you have put the book down.

This style of writing is just not for me. It jumped around too much and as it's supposedly in verse I found it difficult to read. The only good thing about this book was that it was short!

This was fantastic!! I have never read a book written in verse before and loved the experience. I sad story of love, loss, infidelity, obsession. Highly recommend! Many thanks netgally for providing me with the ARC in exchange for my honest review

I have always loved Sarah Crossan’s style of storytelling through verse. I love her young adult stories and she is one of the few writers whose new book releases I will anticipate. However, I did find it hard to connect with Here is the Beehive and I think I know why.

Whereas One and Toffee are primarily for a younger audience, Here is the Beehive is very much a novel for adults. It focuses on the extra-marital affair of Ana and Connor and I think it was the quality of the problem that made me feel disconnected. With the protagonists in Crossan’s YA fiction I think I allow an additional level of sympathy. Whereas, I was very direct with my response to Ana and her problem. She, as an adult, chose to act on her feelings and I just couldn’t marry her actions with my own attitude towards them. I disagreed with the infidelity and therefore found it hard to sympathise with her.

However, I believe that this is actually a strength in Crossan’s case. It takes a talented writer to be able to make me read a book if I actively dislike the main character. That is actually quite impressive.

I think you should read Here is the Beehive and see if you have a similar response. Was it the same as mine?

Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan is available from 20th August 2020.

For more information regarding Sarah Crossan (@SarahCrossan) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Bloomsbury Publishing (@BloomsburyBooks) please visit www.bloomsbury.com.

Ana is a married woman who is mourning the loss of her married lover, Connor. After his sudden death, she and Connor's wife have to come to terms with their own personal loss and learn how to move on.
An original journey of grief and extra-marital obsession,
incredibly moving accomplished story.
I want to thank NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd (UK and ANZ) and Sarah Crossan for a pre-publication copy to review.

I wasn't sure what to expect with 'Here is the Beehive' but after seeing some recommendations I had to give it a read. I haven't read any Sarah Crossan books and I've never read any stories written in verse but I was drawn into it straight away and couldn't stop reading.

It's straight to the point no fancy fluff padding the story out and I enjoyed that.
No, Ana isn't a likable character but I didn't need to like her. The story describes the physiological turmoil Ana faces after her lover dies unexpectedly and the heartbreak that she can't express.

It really is a unique book and I will be reading more Sarah Crossan books.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC

'Here is the Beehive' by Sarah Crossan is a book in verse form, depicting the aftermath of an affair between Ana and Connor, cut short by his death.

I have read other books by Sarah Crossan, who has used verse form with great effect in YA novels, but I have to admit to being less enamoured with it here. Beyond it making this a quick read, I am not sure it adds to the narrative and instead makes it shallow and fragmented. In a YA book this works, but in an adult novel I wanted more. I also struggled to empathise with the characters, which means that they didn't get under my skin, and I didn't feel compelled to sit and read.

This is not a terrible book by any means, but not one I am left feeling excited about.

This book has such pace in the way it delivers. It is a sad story of an affair between two rather selfish people.

Sarah Crossan is not a new author to me. I’ve spent many hours transfixed within her YA verse novels and highly recommend them to all my high school students. I was eager to read ‘Here is the Beehive’, her first adult novel, and had high expectations, especially as her YA novels all more than hold their own for adult readers also.

‘Here is the Beehive’ tells the story of Ana, who learns that Connor, her lover, has died suddenly. It’s complicated. When they first meet, both Ana and Connor are already married. As readers, we are taken on a journey with Ana through her grief and the impact this has, not only on her, but on those around her. The story shifts effortlessly between life before and after the affair and with her characteristically sparing, but oh so powerful, prose, Crossan’s sentences pull you right into their orbit and illuminate the complex emotional lives of her characters.

Whilst Ana as a protagonist, and the relationship she chooses with Connor, may not instinctively garner much sympathy (at times I did want to shake her!), the story left me heartbroken for her, being cast adrift in an ocean of grief that could only ever remain unacknowledged.

Reading this book gave me ‘all the feels’ and I highly recommend you read it too. It is published by Bloomsbury and is expected out on 20th August 2020.

In the meantime, make sure you read all of Sarah Crossan’s YA novels!

Thanks to @Netgalley for my advance digital copy of #hereisthebeehive

Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years but suddenly, one day he is gone. Ana must grieve for the relationship in secret, reach some kind resolution with Connor’s wife, and find a way to move on with her own life.

First person narration can sound glib or melodramatic, but Sarah Crossan’s signature style, poetic fragments of thought and memory, is incredibly intimate and authentic, particularly as Ana addresses her thoughts to ‘you’—Connor. Ana’s affair has forced her to keep secrets and compartmentalise her life, and this allows the reader to make assumptions about her and be blindsided by new information as she gradually allows it into her conscious thoughts.

From a situation that seems sordid and depressing, and a protagonist who doesn’t evoke much sympathy, Sarah Crossan distils pure pain in a cathartic, lyrical process that is somehow life-affirming and redemptive, as well as devastating. Exquisitely done.

Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years and now comes the fallout.
Here is The Beehive presents a much- told tale almost as a painting, where the more you observe the canvas, the more you learn about it, but without judgement. Ana’s anger and frustration screams from the pages as she searches for a solution that isn’t there. And then there is nothing.
Here is The Beehive is compulsive reading with its unusual structure and passionate language.

I loved this book! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with short and snappy sentences like this, I loved how I finished it so quickly but still felt like I’d read a full novel.

I requested this book because I know the author is rated highly for her YA verse novels and I was intrigued; it's not as popular a form adult fiction as YA. I found it breathtakingly good. It is quite simply one of the best books I've read all year. It really got me in my guts and read like a thriller even though it was really about the narrator's unravelling from secret grief. The intimacy that Crossan was able to capture was astonishing - I felt like a voyeur at times - and I felt unsure whether I should be rooting for Ana or not. No easy answers. Lots to think about. This would be a great choice for a reading group and I'll be buying it for all my friends.

This is such a beautiful novel. Haunting and elegiac it is a work of art. I found myself reading aloud sometimes as the poetry of it really begs to be 'performed'. I really hope to see this on the A Level syllabus by the time my 10 year old reaches that stage!
I was once the other woman. I was much younger than Ana, and not married myself but so much of what Ana felt and said seemed to be taken directly from my own experience. I wonder if Sarah Crossan has ever experienced it herself as if she hasn't then she is incredibly insightful and well researched. I identified with Ana and was completely on her side until I, and Ana, remembered her children. I found it incredibly hard to stomach that a mother could spent so much time in hotel rooms and on weekend breaks when she had two young children at home. Crossan really pushes us to confront our own feelings about adultery and how motherhood is affected by that. My only slight niggle with the plot is that we didn't really get to know Paul so it was easy to discard his feelings and see things purely from Ana's view point. Could this have been deliberate?
Ana's growing... what? Friendship? with Rebecca was one of those read it through the gaps between your fingers while cringing and trying not to look. It was gloriously uncomfortable and like the rest of the novel there wasn't a single word wasted or out of place.
The final paragraphs made me gasp and want to read more. Crossan is very wise to have ended it there as it leaves so much to imagine and Ana is still firmly in my mind.
I really hope that this book is the first of many adult novels that she writes. Rating this book out of 5 just seems too stingy, this really is in a class of its own.