Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

The cover is so pretty. But that’s not all that makes this book special.
What a magical and unforgettable story. I honestly didn’t think I was going to go into it liking it. But I was totally wrong.
There is just not enough words to describe how great this book is. All I can say is read it so you can experience it for yourself.

I wanted to like this one more, but it was tough for me to get into and just overwhelmingly sad. It looks like I’m an outlier, so this may be for you; it just wasn’t the right read for me.

Sigue sonando en mis oídos, aún después de haber terminado de leer el libro, que es la más lírica historia que he leído en mucho tiempo.

This is a hard book to review because it has many pros and many cons. The most "plus" factor is that it is SO beautifully written. The prose is lyrical and veers towards the magical realism which is appropriate for a novel covering the historical Mexico (during the early 1900's). Simonopio as a character is fascinating and his bees are criminally underused there,there impact to the story might be much, much higher. And there is that authoress' love for her characters - Ms Segovía cares for them deeply as the human beings and this care shows in her attention to the details of their lives.
Yet...there is an other side to this peso coin. The novel has a very slow pace. The plot meanders into many, many subplots and some of there rods are going nowhere, being cul-de-sacs of the story. There is beauty, but the internal plot logic is not always present.
Simonopio IS fascinating, but his story, motives and life is not very much present in the meaning of his identity. Most of the book he simply serves as a tool, as a reflection of others' choices. Only in the last chapters he comes alive as a living, feeling person.
If you want to fully understand the plot, you should know Mexico, its history and people. The authoress is Mexican and I am sure she did not know her novel would be worldwide famous, so of course the flow is distinctly Mexican. Some things are overexplained, some things should be given more explanations (like the distinctive social and economical differences between the parts of Mexico, what the "cristeros" war is and so on).

So, I liked this reading. But the potential is much higher! But still, thanks for the warm feelings of the last chapter, very touching and full of heart!

This was a beautiful translation in my favorite genre: magical realism. The characters are memorable and I found myself becoming quite attached to their fates. Segovia has a wonderful way of writing that's very descriptive but also entrenched in the earth and nature.

It was interesting reading this book during this time because there's a section that's all about the Spanish flu. Super weird to read about a pandemic that's so similar to what we're currently going through (some things don't change!).

I did feel like this was a bit of a slow burn. The opening images are incredibly intriguing and moving but the first half of the book really dragged for me (enough where I was kinda dreading reading). But about halfway through, the action picks up and there's plenty of conflicts that made the story more interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind waiting awhile for the true magic of the story to come out. Because once it does, it's truly moving and captivating.

Incredible and unforgettable. Believe the buzz. Mexican author Sofía Segovia’s first book translated into English is epic storytelling at its best. Set in Linares, a small city in Mexico during the time of the Spanish Flu and Mexican Revolution, it’s the story of a disfigured baby found one day amidst a swarm of bees who becomes a boy of wonder and protection for the family that takes him in, capable of communicating and seeing things in ways others do not. At close to 500 pages, you might think it’s too long and swat it away, but I found myself wishing I could have more of this beautifully written and creative story. Pair with honeycakes and a bee's knees gin cocktail.

I really loved this book in a new to me author. The characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end.

Beautifully written and hard to forget, this is a story of family and love and life and a very special young man. Part historical fiction, part magical realism, it is translated from Spanish and reminiscent of some of my favorite authors: Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Loved this one!

Thank you for my review copy!

I adored this book. There is so much heart and soul in this story. It is simply beautiful. I haven’t read anything quite like this since reading A Gentleman in Moscow, it has the same sort of charm, as you follow a journey through a significant time in history. The story is so full of love and warmth. All the main characters feel so real and likeable, I’m going to miss them. I hadn’t really appreciated when I picked this book up of my TBR pile that the Spanish Flu would have such a large part to play in the telling of the story, and that made it a perfect lockdown read as it gives hope for the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

There's some sort of magical realism in here but it is not a magical realist novel. The magical realism is primarily restricted to one character so it's more of an epic set in early 20th century Mexico when the landowners were fighting against land reform and the economy was beginning to diversify between classes. There's a clash between cultures and there is the difficulty of kind of looking to the future rather than being stuck in the past. I really really enjoyed the setting of this novel against the Mexican revolution and influenza pandemic of 1918 and the constant war and the class clash in the agrarian reform all mixed together into a family epic and it's written wonderfully.

I just finished this and now I'm ugly crying way after I should be in bed. Such a good story. An epic story of a family in tumultuous times, with a little bit of magical ability thrown in. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

I had slightly problems following the story because it jumped back and forth between characters and sometimes i didn't know who it was and what happend. I'm sure it's a beautiful story, but it wasn't for me.

The Murmur of Bees is about a boy, Simonopio, who was found abandoned under a bridge and covered in bees. Many of the locals in the nearby Mexican town are afraid of the boy because the bees follow him everywhere and his face is disfigured. The Morales family decides to take him in and care for him. The reader learns his story through the stories of many of the people around him. He is a gifted child and affects the lives of the Morales family in many ways. In time, as the family continues to deal with the struggles brought on by the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish flu pandemic, they learn just how special Simonopio is.

I had trouble getting into this book. Each chapter was narrated by a different person. At the beginning, I had trouble connecting the chapters to each other and finding the thread that would tie it all up in the end. There were obvious connections of course, as they all revolved around one family and community, but it wasn’t always clear who was telling the story or even in what time the chapter was taking place. I was quite intrigued by the description of the book but it was taking me so long to get to a point of feeling engaged in the story that I almost gave up. However, I brought the book on a trip with me and had a lot of time to read in the airport. I finally got to a point where I was engaged by the story and actually wanted to keep reading.

Once I got to that point, I began to enjoy the book. The chapters began to narrow their focus to the most important people’s perspectives, I was almost always aware of what time the chapter was taking place, and I could finally start to follow the thread and understand how it all connected. And there were still plenty of loose threads to carry me along until the end for the final resolution in the last chapter.

It ended up being a good story about the relationship between a boy and his brother and a boy and his bees. There were beautiful acts of love and humanness in the book which is something I always enjoy. Seeing the story of the family unfold and experiencing it from several points of view was a good choice on the part of the author. The reader is given a well-rounded view of the story and can see the motivations and emotions of so many of the people involved and that was integral to understanding what happened.

If there had been less information in the beginning to get through, I would have enjoyed it all the more. Since finishing the book, I can see why it was important to have a lot of that information, but I also think some of it could be taken out and the story would still convey the emotion and relationships it was meant to. I felt that it took too long to get to the real meat of the story and to finally meet one of the most important characters.

If you are looking for a quick read, this isn’t the book for you. But, if you are up for the challenge of working through the beginning of the book, I would say it's worth it because of how much I enjoyed the middle and ending.

Darling characters, but desperately slow, with a disappointing lack of dialogue. I especially liked Simonopio and Nana; they were written with so much affection, it was impossible not to appreciate them.

Elizabeth / Literary Hoarders

Translated into English the book is a mix of history, a family saga with a touch of mysticism, something faintly not quite of this world which is not understood by all and misunderstood by many.

Mexico is on the verge of revolution, bandits and the rule of force apply but in this small town
Francisco is able to maintain his position as head of the estates he owns by a mix of firm discipline and kindliness to all. In the midst of all this is born a mute, a child who is led and protected by bees and seems to have his own fore knowledge of events about to happen. Francisco is blessed with a son years after the birth of his two daughters who are now married. This boy is the link between the mute Simonopio and the little boy whom he takes under his wing as a guide and protector.

The story evolves with the background history of Mexico turbulent at most times but the story seems to be set in an oasis of peace till of course strife hits out in the most heinous way.

Unlike others I found the story very slow moving at the beginning, but by midway it picked up and I did want to know how it all ended.

A very unusual read combining many genres all fascinating.

I am not even sure I can write anything coherent to describe the beauty and magic of this book.

Originally written in Spanish, the version I was reading is an English translation by Simon Bruni and if the translation was this beautiful and evocative, I can only imagine the magic of the original.

Beautiful, mesmerising, magical. Simonopio and his bees are just the kind of guardian angels people would love to have in their lives.

Thank you NetGalley, the author Sofia Segovia and Amazon Crossing for giving me an e-ARC of this book to read and review and I will definitely buy a physical copy for myself if I ever get my hands on one.

The Morales family adopt an abandoned baby found covered with bees. As he grows up, magical things seem to be associated with him, as he sees things no one else can. Set in 19th century in the time of the Mexican Revolution and the influenza outbreak, this is a unique and well written book, reminiscent to me of some of Isabel Allende's novels.

The Murmur of Bees is a beautiful book about a family during the World War I time frame in northern Mexico. This is a family epic of the Morales'. This is a family who "adopts" an abandoned baby who was found under a bridge covered in bees. Simonopio, the baby, becomes the protector of the family and is guided through life and the plantation by the bees.

The story is told in both modern time by Francisco Junior, Simonopio's little brother, and in the time of the story. The Murmur of Bees is one of those stories that you want to continue reading, This family lives in a time and place so different from now yet they go through such joy and tragedy that anyone could relate. I would highly recommend this to any fiction reader.