Haunting drama that stays with you long after you have closed the cover. It cults for the most part, seem to end in one of two ways: they die slowly due to a lack of fuel and ventilation (similar to an untended campfire) or too many of the leaders pronouncements fail to come true so he decides upon one that will, as he controls the ability to force his final proclamation come to fruition in a wail of loss and tears.
The author of this novel does a wonderful job of unfolding the multiple facets of loss, betrayal, friendship, and the insanity of greed and power in this spellbinding offering.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Really wanted to like this book, thought it would be better ngl, it just missed the mark for me. The audiobook was confusing i found timewise, would consider rereading it in the future

Unfortunately I missed the chance to finish listening to this one! So bummed! Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen, I look forward to purchasing when released.

I tried twice on this one. The story is just not holding my attention. I can type on the computer and my mind can wonder in a 1000 directions and I did not miss anything important in this book.

3/5 stars

🐝 Thanks to Netgalley for providing an audiobook e-arc!


✨Now...this was awkward timing. We follow characters intertwined in different ways to a white supremacist doomsday Y2K cult. It was a good book that fascinated me, especially with Silva and Nick with their own interests. One tiny detailed adore is how meta pur protagonist is. Silva in itself means forest. At thw same time, her occupation is to study and take care of trees, bonsais to be specific. Unfortunately the ending felt a bit meh and predictable. Predictable to the point that I sort of knew it from the beginning. Not to belittle the author's ability but this was perhaps intentional and if so, props to them!

The classification of mystery/thriller for Sins of the Bees is a misnomer. While there are mystery components and suspense, I think that classification is a stretch. I would instead recommend this to readers who really enjoyed the sort of vibe of Where the Crawdads Sing (another misclassified book in my opinion). We follow Silva, a young woman who in mere months has suffered the loss of her grandfather (and only parental figure) and a sexual assault. When Silva finds letters and paintings from her estranged grandmother Isabelle she packs up and goes on a search for her grandmother and what she hopes will be answers to her history. Her search leads her to rural Idaho (think what would even be rural for such a remote state) and the Y2K cult of Almost Paradise. As tensions rise between the members of Almost Paradise, the townsfolk, and Silva the suspense of the mystery of where Isabelle is ramps up. With everything coming to a fiery end, Silva not only finds her answers but also finds herself. With heavy themes of nature coming from bee keeping and care for bonsai, Lampman creates a lyrical and blossoming literary journey for readers. As always, Cassandra Campbell's narrative voice brings what was already a strong story to an even higher level. Again, while I was incredibly engrossed and greatly enjoyed the title, if you go in expecting a typical mystery/thriller you will be disappointed as this title should really be classified as literary, in my humble opinion.

“Nobody had ever warned her that in grieving the ones you’ve lost, you’re really grieving for yourself the most. Your whole world, the story of your life, shaped and defined by your loved ones’ experience of it. That without them, you can’t ever see or understand yourself fully again.” - Annie Lampman, Sins of the Bees

I listened to this on audiobook from Netgalley! For a debut, this was a pleasant surprise! I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but I really enjoyed this one! The writing style was quite poetic and I liked the dual perspectives of Isabel and Silva!

Even though this book has multiple mentions of a religious cult, that isn’t really the main focus of the story, in my opinion.

To me, it’s about the underlying meaning of fractured relationships and broken families as well as the true meaning of what it means to discover what really matters in life.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen!

Recommend for anyone who like thrillers!

#DreamscapeMedia #Netgalley

When I began this book earlier this week, I felt like I was a on a merry go round as a bunch of children get it going at an insane speed that make you feel sick, but you can't get off because you're going so fast, and also you need to hold on desperately because the centripetal force does not care if you go flying off.
Having put it down and then come back to it later, I find it somewhat humorous to have had that feeling, and I'm sure I wouldn't have if I had been reading the physical book as opposed to listening to the audiobook. Because in my listening I missed the point of view change from Isabelle to Silva. Instead of my brain separating them out into different people, it was trying to put the pieces together to combine Isabelle and Silva into one continuous story.

But in coming back to finish this book I found myself entranced in the story about the 12 maidens and also Silva healing from her trauma and grief. It felt genuine, and made her a much more intriguing character, especially as she is faced with more troubles.

I think the story was incredibly interesting, I'm not sure I'd consider it a Thriller... Like the growth we see throughout the book makes me feel like it is a coming of age story, but that doesn't feel appropriate as Silva is in her 20s. But also with how Lampman dishes out the ending both in the Epilogue and Before. Doesn't give the same resonance. No matter the Genre this is an interesting read,
4/5 ✰ {-1 star for not having enough bees)

Full Disclosure: I received an audiobook copy of Sins of the Bees by Annie Lampman (narrated by Cassandra Campbell) from Dreamscape Media via NetGalley in exchange for possibly writing a review.

Let me start by saying that this would probably be a five star review had I read the book instead of listening to it. There were parts I really wanted to savor but couldn't because of the format. There were also parts that made me really, really sad, and I couldn't skip over them because of the format. Maybe that's a good thing for me to confront, but it was also sort of excruciating. If you like audiobooks, don't let my issues deter you. Check this out!

What I really loved about this book was all the bee stuff. There are very few fiction books that really delve into bees with the kind of detail you find here. If you love bees like I do, you will want to give this a read. But it is not just bees, there's a cult! If you need more than bees and a cult, this book is beautifully written, and the author clearly has a strong connection to nature.

Bonus points for so much love for animals. I have a soft spot for characters who love animals nearly as much as I do.

Poetic and engaging tale of loneliness, abuse, complex family relations and finding one's own place in the world.

I really enjoyed this one! I knew I was going to love Sins of the Bees because of the subject matter. It's a story of Silva, a young woman alone in the world, who becomes pregnant as a result of sexual assault; so when she finds out about her long-lost grandmother who joined a cult, she moves close by to learn about it and find her.

There's something deeply engaging in the psychological aspect of books about cults. The existential conflicts that arise in this novel really got me thinking about my own life as well - my beliefs and my relationships with the people close to me. What's more, Annie Lampman's writing is very poetic and lyrical, which is definitely my thing. If you're into uncanny language and style, this is a novel for you.

I listened to this novel in the form of an audiobook, which I highly recommend. The narration is excellent and goes perfectly with the language and style.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First I have to say that the narrator for this audio book did a fantastic job and really brought the story to life. There are a few spots where the story is slow and the writing overly descriptive but having such a great narrator helped with that. As for the book I love the characters and thought they were very well developed. I enjoyed the setting and found the descriptions vivid and compelling. The writing style was very lyrical and lovely but it bogged down quite a few parts of the story and I think some tough editing to cut that down a bit would have really helped. Overall though I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of Lampman's work in the future.

"Sins of the Bees" by Annie Lampman follows Silva, a young woman who leaves everything behind to track down her long-lost grandmother, Isabelle. Silva finds evidence that her grandmother became part of a Y2K cult before everyone losing all trace of her, so she moves near the cult and tries to learn more about it and its members in the hopes of finding her grandmother and rebuilding a family with her.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book very much. Part of my disappointment lays with its marketing. Since it was categorized as a mystery/thriller, and it was included in various selections for awards in the thriller genre, I expected ....well, a more suspenseful and thrilling book. I am fascinated with the topic of cults and cult leaders, and going into this book I had different, darker expectations. Some of those expectations were briefly met in the passages focused on Len Dietz, the Almost Paradise compound, and the different initiation rites, but those were very short and too far between to keep my interest. The majority of the book was focused on Silva, her past and her rebuilding of her life. There were a lot of descriptions and a lot of feelings, which doesn't make this a bad story or book, but it didn't make it very enjoyable for me.

The narrator, Cassandra Campbell, did a good job with the narration. However, I feel that the book itself would make a better physical read than an audio experience, as it was too easy for me to space out through the wordy descriptions as not much was happening plot wise. Overall, if planning to check this book out, I recommend going into it expecting a character drama with a bit of suspense, rather than a thriller. Perhaps if I would have gone into the story expecting that I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Pegasus Crime for the opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance read copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Please, please, please work with your best editor. This copy is much too wordy. Annie Lampman would be a beautiful poet, if you could contain things to a couple pages. But 12 hours is just too much.

Rounding up from 2.5. 2 stars because I actually finished.

I did not really enjoy this book much at all. It seemed to drag on forever. I honestly did not really get what the point of the book was. I felt it was way more of a love story than a mystery at all. The ending was a nice, happy ending, but it is not at all what I expected and it was a bit boring to me.

I was immediately drawn to this book because of the unique title and cover, and I also loved that Cassandra Campbell reads it because she is one of my absolute favorite narrators. Unfortunately, I was not able to get through it. I'm not sure if she was asked to read this book differently than she typically does, but it was very one note. It almost sounded like she was told to make it sound a lot more high brow and thought provoking rather than reading it as a novel. It bored me to tears. I found my mind wandering and it losing my attention constantly. I hike several miles a day with my dog and generally blow though 3 audio books a week, and I've listened to a lot of non-thrillers, some narrated by Campbell, but for some reason this book was just absolutely impossible to finish. I was astonished because the plot, about a girl looking for her long lost grandmother and finding a dooms day cult sounded fascinating, and I was an old enough to be aware of what was going on during the Y2K panic so I also thought that would be interesting but the tone of this book was just terrible. I wish she'd read like her reads her other books, or that at least they'd alternate narrators, anything to break up the monotony. It was so distracting that I'm not even sure I could review the content of the book for you, because it couldn't hold my attention long enough. I'll probably give the print version a go at a later date. Sorry!