Kissing the Bee Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Kissing the Bee? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Kissing the Bee. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Kissing the Bee ReviewKathe Koja, Kissing the Bee (FSG, 2007)
While Kathe Koja is one of those authors who can do no wrong, that is not to say that Koja's work has not had varying degrees of rightness over the years. Kissing the Bee is the rightest, in its earnest and seductive way, since Straydog five years ago.
Dana is a high school senior working on a project about bees. Her best friend is Avra, high school culture's version of a queen bee, with all the qualities that entails. Avra's boyfriend is Emil, the somewhat disaffected hipster who never quite fits in, but is all the more popular for it. The three of them are a unit unto themselves within the boundaries of that high school culture, but their unit is straining; Avra is champing at the bit to run away from home, and is planning on leaving straight from the prom. She expects Emil to go with her, though has never actually asked whether he will. Dana and Emil, both of whom are friendlier with Avra's parents than she is, are the only people who know. And Dana is in love with Emil. How can things not fracture?
Among the many strengths that have marked Kathe Koja's writing for the past decade and a half, the greatest has always been her ability to create simple, understated, completely real characters. She usually sticks them in more fantastic situations, as seen recently in The Blue Mirror; in fact, she's trod this very road before, in the fantastic adult novel Kink ten years ago, though with a much more dark-fantastic spin on things than can be found in this almost grittily realistic novel. Dana is my favorite Koja lead since Grant Cotto (Strange Angels); she rarely comes right out and says what she's thinking (and when she does, it's usually to throw us a curveball), but Koja lets us know through her actions. And (for the most part, though the whole toasting-of-the-bees scene does get a little heavy-handed) we're not talking about the whole Hollywood heavy-lidded stare thing here, either. Small jumps of muscle or cocks of eyebrow, to continue that parallel-- to put forth an example, when Dana wants to express her frustration with the events around her, she picks up the wings from Avra and Emil's prom costumes, puts them in her car, and drives around all night. I mean, come on. Even Dana doesn't know what she means to do by this-- but by this point in the book, you will. And that's what makes Kathe Koja such a powerful writer.
I was sad when I found out that Kathe Koja would no longer be writing adult novels, but she has certainly translated her talent wholesale into the young adult arena. And it has rarely shone the way it does here. **** ½
Kissing the Bee Overview

Want to learn more information about Kissing the Bee?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now