The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray was published in 2023. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023 and named a Book of the Year in a variety of publications, including The Times, Guardian and Independent. I’d seen it in bookshop windows. I picked up a copy when I went into Waterstones looking for more Val McDermids to read (they only have the same ones in stock and I’ve read them all!). I read the blurb on the back and knew I had to buy it.

The Bee Sting is a big read. It’s nearly 650 pages of small text. When I posted a pic of it in my to be read pile on Instagram, a couple of people said they weren’t impressed by it or had heard mixed reviews.

I loved it as soon as I started reading. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the best book I’ve read this year.

Set in the present day in Ireland, The Bee Sting is the story of a formerly successful family – the Barnes family. Now their business is in trouble and they’re running out of options to save it and themselves…

The first part of the story is told by their teenage daughter, Cass, who is approaching the end of school. Elaine is Cass’s best friend in the world and they are almost exactly the same. Until Elaine starts doing things without Cass. Is it because the family business is in trouble? Cass has to throw herself into drinking and boys to get her social life back. Will she get the grades for university in Dublin?

Having just got used to the story being told by Cass, suddenly it is being told by her younger brother, PJ. PJ is fascinated by nature and facts. He doesn’t have many friends. But he still spends much of his time messaging people. Sometimes when he talks, it annoys his parents. And it always annoys his sister!

Then it is the turn of mum, Imelda. Imelda is angry with her husband, Dickie, for losing the money. She is embarrassed to be seen out in a town where she used to feel like the queen bee.

Finally we hear from Dickie. Rather than address his problems head-on, Dickie seems to want to hide from them. He has lost all respect from his wife and daughter, but finds a way to bond with his son. What will happen when his dad comes home to see the mess he has made of the business?

The Bee Sting is a brilliant read. There are little details which are mentioned by all of the characters, but seen from slightly different angles. Something or someone who gets only a passing mention by one character may turn out to be pivotal in the story of another character. There are also sections going back to Imelda and Dickie’s teenage and young adult years, which show that life wasn’t always easy for either of them.

There are no speech marks in the book, which I found a bit odd at first. Even more odd, Imelda’s section is written without punctuation at all, just some capital letters in strange places. This is obviously to do with Imelda’s lack of education and also the way she thinks very fast and goes from one subject to the next very quickly. I found this difficult to read at first. Being obsessive about proper grammar means I can’t read properly without proper grammar. But I got used to it!

If you’re looking for a moving and sometimes traumatic read, I can’t recommend The Bee Sting highly enough. But if you don’t like really long books, you should probably give it a miss.