This was my first Sarah Crossan book and I was surprised to find that it is actually a novel in verse! I found it so easy to read, the story slipped away at such a fast pace, I was really shocked to find it was over. Certainly a sign of an enjoyable read.

The thing that I liked most about this story was that the protagonist, Ana, is absolutely remorseless about embarking on an affair with her client, Connor. While Connor struggles with his responsibilities at home and the constant web of lies he is weaving, Ana is assured in her decisions. Connor's manipulation of Ana is clear, but I think it's even clear to Ana herself. She is waiting for Connor to leave his wife, while surely knowing that day will never come. She was frustrating at times, due to this, however I really liked that she was relentless in pursuit of her goal (which she ultimately failed to achieve) and the self reflection she engages in after Connor's death was fascinating. Ana is certainly a very sinister character and I found myself feeling sorry for Connor's wife, Rebecca, her name surely a nod to Du Maurier's first Mrs DeWinter,) who Ana so desperately wanted to hate, but ultimately, like her affair partner, found that she could not.

Thank you for providing the galley!

I really loved this latest offering from Sarah Crossan. Having read Toffee, I was hoping that this book was going to be equally brilliant and it was. Each word and each sentence is carefully chosen and constructed. Not one word is wasted. I wasn't sure about this book initially as the story revolves around cheating and affairs, however, the story certainly made me consider the situation from all character perspectives and highlights how, in the end, there are no winners. It's an emotional read and one that can be read in one sitting. I loved it. Another sure winner for Sarah Crossan

My thanks to NetGalley

I found Here is the Beehive rather bland overall. Although it lends a little poetry to the novel in some places, I didn't really see the point in using verses. The plot is unexceptional. The book is rather depressing, sometimes to the point of cynicism, and none of the characters are very likeable. It was a quick read, and will probably be as quickly forgotten.

Sarah Crossan has a beautiful spare style that I have really enjoyed in her YA books, and she uses the same style in this, her first book for an adult audience. Her writing works really well for me, I love how she says as much with the words she doesn't use as with the ones she carefully does.

The book examines the destructive force of love in an extramarital affair. Told from Ana's point of view, Crossan slowly and purposefully reveals more of the affair, deliberately shocking with the hurtful details of an affair Ana has had with a man who dies, leaving her to grieve alone and unrecognised.

The book is a raw picture of how devastating an affair can be, to those involved and to those on the sidelines, and as Ana's actions become increasingly bizarre, although it's hard to have sympathy with her you can see the extremes she is facing and can't help but follow her through the stages of her grief.

Told in Sarah Crossan's distinctive style, Here Is The Beehive is a story about two intertwined marriages. Ana and Connor have been having an affair for years but when the unthinkable happens Ana finds herself alone and mourning a loss that she can't talk about. It's a quick read as the book is written in verse and I think its Crossan's first adult novel. I didn't find it hugely gripping but it makes for a pleasant enough read.

Really interesting concept that felt realistic and believable. Lyrical exploration of grief created by Crossan’s signature poetic style which fits so naturally to her storytelling and it never seems forced or odd. Enjoyable and engaging read.

Crossan's "Here is the Beehive" is intriguing, especially the stylistic choise of a verse novel is absolutely to my liking and is excecuted exceptionally well, yet the novel itself falls flat and, overall, feels, unfortunately, really bland.

God, this book is awful. In the sense that I had a really powerful reaction to it... so I guess it's good?

I requested Here is the Beehive from Netgalley because I have read and enjoyed a couple of Sarah Crossan books in the past. However, I wasn't totally sure about it. I read the blurb and thought it sounded like maybe it was condoning cheating. It's about a married woman grieving the loss of her lover. For a long time, Connor kept promising that they would leave their spouses for one another, but he died before that ever happened, and now Ana is left with nothing but a painful secret and grief she can't express. So she seeks out the wife she has heard so much about.

This little verse novel has a lot to say, but it isn't condoning cheating. If anything, it shows how truly destructive an affair can be, not just to the cheated on partners, but, ultimately, to the participants themselves. The relationship in this book is not healthy; it is toxic. It consumes and destroys everything it touches.

While I know Ana was in the wrong, it is hard not to feel for her. She is in such a dark mental place, full of self-doubt and in need of psychiatric help. As the reader, it was deeply discomfiting to witness her destructive behaviour, both outside and within her own mind. The situation she and Connor have created with their secret is not a sexy affair; it is a nightmare. Now she wonders: Was it ever real? Did he ever have any intention of being with her? If nobody else knows about them, did it ever really happen at all?

The ending felt very sudden and I can't decide if it was too abrupt or just perfect. I definitely wanted more closure, wanted to know what happened with Paul and with Rebecca, but maybe this way, this lack of neatness, is more true to life.

A horrible little book that can be read in one sitting.

I appreciate the popularity of Crossman in store......but sadly, I must be so set in my ways - I just can't get to grips with the layout! !

Thanks to Bloomsbury for allowing me to read this for an honest review.

So to start things of, I decided to give Here is the Beehive 4 stars. After reading two of Sarah Crossan's work before (which both I rated highly), I went into this with fairly high expectations. And to be honest I wasn't feeling it initially. Though, once I hit about a quarter of the way through, I found that I actually was gripped and it was hard to put it down.

Here is the Beehive is about Ana who has been having an affair for the last three years with Connor who are both married with children. However, while at work, Ana receives a call from his wife Rebecca saying that her husband has passed away. Ana initially things it's just a ploy because she'd found out about the affair, but quickly realises she's not joking. As the story goes on, we see flashbacks to when Connor and Ana were together as well as he journey with Rebecca in the present.

At first, I was confused with all the jumping around but quickly got the hang of it. I found that the writing in second person added to the story and it felt like a final letter to Connor after he passes. It was interesting to follow along with her personal life with Paul her husband and her two children, Ruth and Jon and I enjoyed understanding her relationships with every other character. I loved that we got to know Rebecca who Ana previously despised and often wished dead. There were certain aspects of this that I weren't expecting along the way and I was constantly pleasantly surprised. I most certainly wasn't disappointed by Sarah Crossan's on this occasion and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a deeper contemporary fiction read that shares a lot of emotion.

Here is the Beehive is a beautifully written verse novel exploring grief and loss from an interesting perspective. I really enjoyed Sarah Crossan's writing and would possibly read some of her other works.

However, I struggled to finish the novel purely because Ana is such an unlikeable character. Selfish, obsessive, narcissistic and downright spiteful. I found it hard to relate to the choices she makes and despised the way she treated those around her.

Despite the story appearing to be emotionally driven, I didn't feel any strong emotions towards any characters besides Ana as they are barely mentioned and certainly not explored to an extent where they could become interesting. Even Connor - whom Ana is having an affair with - is a shell of a character and I couldn't find any connection between the two that would lead to any form of relationship. Perhaps this is intentional in order to focus on Ana's obsession. Despite the lack of exploration into the characters, the story is very repetitive and would have benefitted from less repetition and more character evolution.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved all of Sarah Crossan's YA books so I was delighted to get my hands on an advanced copy of Here is the Beehive, her first book for adults.

The blurb immediately caught my attention. Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years when Connor dies suddenly. “How can we lose someone that the world never knew was ours? How do we grieve for something no one else can ever find out?” This is a truly unique exploration of grief and obsessive love.

As with many of Sarah's books, I read this in one sitting. The prose flows so beautifully that it is impossible to find a satisfying point to put it down.

Thank you #NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ana and Connor have been having an affair for three years. In hotel rooms and coffee shops, swiftly deleted texts and briefly snatched weekends, they have built a world with none but the two of them in it.
But then the unimaginable happens, and Ana finds herself alone, trapped inside her secret.
How can we lose someone the world never knew was ours? How do we grieve for something no one else can ever find out? In her desperate bid for answers, Ana seeks out the shadowy figure who has always stood just beyond her reach – Connor's wife Rebecca.
Peeling away the layers of two overlapping marriages, Here is the Beehive is a devastating excavation of risk, obsession and loss.
–

Having read the author's YA work and being an adult I knew I wanted to read this book, Crossan's verse novels are never disappointing, and Here Is The Beehive certainly doesn't change that. Beautifully written, raw to the emotion and packed with feeling, this book is crafted so well as the author delivers something incredibly powerful until the very last page.

Though in moments I did feel the narrative jumped around a little bit too much, I felt the story was really well told and every character is written with such humanity – flawed and broken and just trying to make it, especially Ana. Ana is the narrator of the story and she is trying to figure out her life post her relationship with Connor and how much of what they had was real and what was made up and how Crossan does this throughout the book is done with such subtle genius.

A heartfelt, poignant story in moments and intense in others, Here Is The Beehive is a great read that once you're in, you just can't stop reading.

This is the first of this authors work that I have read but it definitely wont be the last.

The style of writing is not one I am used to but I quickly fell into the flow and became engrossed. I think the short, snappiness of this style makes what is actually being written more powerful as its all there, laid bare, you don't have to sift through all the descriptions and build up.

A very powerful and moving story but may not be for everyone due to the subject matter

Well. I really adore Sarah Crossan's verse novels from young adults and I was excited to read something from her aimed at an adult audience. I was intrigued by the title and the cover is gorgeous.

Sarah Crossan has such an incredible skill of creating relateable characters with interesting relationships. And Here is the Beehive was such an emotional journey for me. Already it takes such skill to write a novel in verse, but I was amazed by how many surprises there were in this book, how I really came to know Ana and understand her decisions. Here is the Beehive is about Ana, a solicitor who has been having a three year affair with (married) Connor but when the worst happens and Connor dies, Ana's grief is largely invisible because nobody knew that he meant anything more to her.

This story is told in the present as Ana is struggling to come to terms with her own grief and complicated feelings about her relationship with Connor but it's also told in the past, so we can see Ana and Connor's relationship forming and the lines that are crossed and the decisions that are made, the justification. I loved that as soon as I thought I knew these characters something unexpected is revealed.

Here is the Beehive was one of the stories that creeped up on me. I hadn't realised how emotionally attached I was until that final quarter of the book where all the heartache just built into this crescendo. Beautiful.

Ana is making a will for her client, Connor, and they begin a three year affair. When she receives a call from Connor’s wife, Rebecca, Ana struggles to hide her grief.
I absolutely loved this book. There is just something about Crossan’s style of writing that is so captivating. She is one of the most unique authors I have ever come across.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This novel is superbly written. It is the first adult verse novel I've read and it definitely won't be the last. I've enjoyed Crossan's YA novels in the past and it was great to read a story with adult characters.

Here is the Beehive is full of complicated characters, whose lives are messy and imperfect, but refreshingly real. There were so many moments where I wished I could speak to Ana - perhaps a result of the style it is written in, but also because she was so fleshed out. There's so much to talk about with her - she's a character you could study and write essays on. I could definitely write an essay on all my thoughts about her (the only reason I'm keeping this brief is because I was to avoid spoilers). I didn't agree with a lot of her actions, but I understood why she was making them and throughout the novel I desperately wanted her to heal and be happy. She is a character I could discuss endlessly and I can't wait for more people to read this book so that I can.

Crossan writes in first person but addresses Ana's partner, Connor, as 'you' throughout. This heightens the emotion within the verse and also assumes the reader already knows everything, which leads to some big surprises in the plot. I was never sure how or where Here is the Beehive was going to end. The final page brought me to tears.

Crossan's attention to detail is brilliant. I loved the tiny character studies of figures in the background which brought the world vividly to life and small moments have stuck with me long after I read the last page.

I enjoyed this book. Written in classic Sarah Crossan prose with not a word wasted. Intriguing and so very different from anything else I’ve read.

Ana is making a will for her client, Connor, and the pair begin a 3 year affair. Ana receives a call from his wife Rebecca to say Connor has died. Struggling to hide her grief, Ana tries to cope with losing Connor whilst also drifting apart from her husband Paul. Rebecca is her last link to Connor but will befriending her reveal their affair?
I have conflicting thoughts on this because I thought this was a really interesting exploration of grief and loss and parts of the writing were beautifully done. However, it felt very surface level in that for such an emotional story I didn’t feel anything. I don’t think it’s a matter of being too short, I thought this ended at an appropriate part of the story. I found Ana as a narrator to be unnerving, her detachment to her family was surprising and her obsession with Connor’s was uncomfortable in parts.
I’m glad to have read this, I finished it in one short sitting but I can’t say that this is something I will be thinking about in the future.

If I've not read all of Crossan's books I've read almost all of them. In her early career she experimented with style, Breathe is a very standard 2012 dystopian thriller and Apple and Rain uses poetic prose. Fortunately she has found and stuck with verse novels, most famously with One but also my favourite The Weight of Water. This is her first book for adults and unfortunately doesn't break ground in the way she may have hoped. If anything, my disappointment reminds me of reading Almost Love by Louise O'Neil, something about the transfer to adult has made her more ordinary. This story of hidden grief is oddly repetitive yet leaves areas underexplored, with too tidy an ending. It's also overlong, taking me two sittings and hours to read.

It's also worth mentioning the shocking typesetting on this Netgalley edition, which was scarcely eased even by reading on Kindle Fire. There's a significant copy and paste error affecting around a page at around 80% and the -1-0-1 interrupts the text every page. As a verse novel, losing clarity of the line breaks has inevitably affected my enjoyment as well.