The Book: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

The Story: For the first time ever, I’m just going to copy the “teaser” on the back of the book:

“We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book.  It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.  Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we’ll just say this:

This is the story of two women.  Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face.  Two years later, they meet again- and the story starts there…

Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it.  When you do, please don’t tell them what happens.  The magic is in how the story unfolds.”

What I Thought: Rarely would I describe a book as “magical” but this one really was.

I picked this book out for my “vacation read” based solely on the pretty cover and the mysterious description on the back.  And I am just so glad that I took a chance.

Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but I just want to say that Little Bee is one of the best characters I’ve read in a really long time.  Her life, her story, her perspective was happy and sad at the same time.  I just felt for her so much and fell in love with her right away.  There were so many times that I just ached for her.  Nothing but good writing and a great character can make me develop such an emotional attachment. So frigging good.

The other woman in the story, Sarah, was going through some crazy stuff too.  While I didn’t love her like I loved Little Bee, I did ache for her.  Her life and her strength, balanced with her pure old confusion, made her a totally “normal” person who had been put into extraordinary situations and rose to some and shrunk back from others.  She just seemed very real to me.

I’m just going to cut this short because I really, truly, don’t want to give the storyline away.  Just trust me when I say that you will not regret reading this one.

Conclusion: Absolutely worth the read. A great story with seriously wonderful characters.  Don’t miss this one.