My favorite read of the month for April was The Honeys by Ryan La Sala. I heard about this book from tiktok during the trans rights readathon and immediately put it on my hold list at the library.
Right from the first page, this book packed a punch. There was immediate drama and chaos to work through before the mystery is even introduced. But once Mars plans to figure out what really happened with their sister, it was a continual roller coaster.
The pacing of this story worked perfectly. Even as we go through ‘regular’ days at camp with Mars, we feel the tension and darkness lurking behind every turn. And the slow reveal of what happened to Mars the first time they went to camp worked well with the storyline. It unfolded in a realistic way and never felt like an info dump. And when the whole thing came out, my heart ached for Mars and what they had to go through.
At first, I really appreciated Mars’ parents for being on board with their identity. They didn’t try to hide them or shame them. But of course, when the drama of the story comes to light, I wasn’t super fond of the parents anymore. But I won’t say more than that to avoid giving spoilers.
Most of the other campers weren’t outright hateful either. Only a few, and they were dealt with in their own way as well. And each time it gave Mars the opportunity to display their wit and sarcasm and I loved them even more for it.
The setting of the story – the mountain campsite – was beautiful. The descriptions were so vivid, I could picture every detail and aside from the culty aspect, I would love to have gone to a camp like that when I was a teenager.
And when the mystery is solved – wham. I can’t say much without revealing the end, but it was shocking. Like I said last week, I only guessed one of the MANY twists in this story. And even the one I guessed wasn’t that major, haha. It was so well written and the reveal was amazing. I wish I could read this book again for the first time. But I will definitely be reading it a second time, and maybe I’ll be able to pick up on details I missed the first time.
I hope you give it a read. And if you do, I’d love to hear your thoughts.