Apocalypse preppers, luck and how it can alter the course of one's life, and can a young kid right the ship. Murray again comes out swinging with the humorous; enjoyed it, but if there's any complaint with Murray, his books tend toward the overly long.

The fact that this book had little or no punctuation made it hard to read. Also, I’m not quite sure what the author was reaching for, but if were the butterfly effect, he totally missed it. By the end, i wasn’t sure what the point was. I did not find the book in the least humorous. Dickie seems crazy. Imelda, in spite of her horrible upbringing and greed, does seem to be trying a good mother. The bunker, the missing money and the stolen catalytic converters all add to the confusion. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

The Bee Sting is an incredible task to undertake, and the beginning 5% just didn't capture my attention - I suppose it seemed to be a young adult story - the adventures of a couple of high school girlfriends trying to figure out their friendship. I felt I wasn't up to this very long task and I abandoned it. From reading the other reviews, the story becomes heartfelt and lovely, but I just didn't have the patience. The problem here, sorry to say is "reader error", and not the fault of the writer.

Thanks, anyway to NetGalley for the opportunity.

So grateful to FSG and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and comment on The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

Skippy Dies is behind me on a bookshelf as I write this. I very much enjoyed An Evening of Long Goodbyes and The Mark and the Void but Skippy Dies is one of my favourite books to have ever read. I was hoping that The Bee Sting wouldn't disappoint, Murray isn't the most prolific of authors after all, and I've very glad to say it did not.

The lives, loss, loves, and tragedies of a few connected families in small town Ireland. We follow multiple story lines from the point of view of multiple characters.

Those sections start of being quite long but as the story begins to pick up pace and we hurtle towards to conclusion each character's segments get shorter and shorter and more and more breathless. I found it a very clever structural approach. Another structural/stylistic element that at first I thought was a formatting error with the e-ARC is that the Imelda sections are, with the exception of paragraphs and upper case letters, almost completely unpunctuated. Some people will hate that but it's a connection with the character that really works.

Version after version of key occurrences in their lives are related by various characters and layer after layer of their lives and stories are uncovered.

You don't have to have grown up in a small Irish town in the late 20th and early 21st century to enjoy this but it definitely helps. Having come from that background so much of it was all too familiar. The 'elites' and the hand-rubbing glee when there's a fall from grace, the insecurity and inferiority complex when moving to Dublin, the fear of being 'different.' Just so well captured.

Then there's the climax ...

Astonishingly good and up there with Colum McCann as our finest writers of the past several decades.

If we have to wait another decade for another one as good as Skippy Dies and The Bee Sting I'll be impatient but happy to wait.

A depressing, gripping novel about the tragedies that befall us and the tragedies that we write ourselves into. I hope Paul Murray never writes about me.

Nothing really happens for the first half of the book and yet it’s still oddly compelling. And then everything began to happen in the last half and it made me so anxious I wanted to stop reading. But I didn’t, because: compelling.

Murray has such a beautiful command of his writing here. The characters, the settings, the pacing of the plot. I loved Imelda’s sections, the writing was unique and the flow brought her character more to life.

This would be a brilliant book club pick, there is so much to dissect in these characters and the ending.

This is an oddly wonderful book! It revolves around one family: Imelda, Dickie and their two children, Cass and PJ. But there are oh so many other characters and plot lines involved that my head is still spinning! It has all the family drama: heartbreak, jealousy, lies, lust, regret, and often love (both requited and not). But once you start reading, don't even try to put this down as you'll be sucked into it in so many ways! I'd never heard of Murray before but now I'm on a quest for more!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Loved it. Thought it was paced really well, enjoyed the family dynamics, Thought it was written brilliantly, give this all the awards.

Interminable. Monotonous. Repetitive. Miserable. And very long.
This was dreary stuff from an admired writer. I found it unbearable.

I wanted to love this! I really liked it in the beginning but there were too many POVs that I felt were unnecessary and Imelda’s in particular was difficult to get through. I liked the plot but it definitely felt overly long.

the only way i can put into words how this book made me feel is: the heart's invisible furies by john boyne + armond in white lotus S1. and by that i mean i felt irish and anxious.

this books SLAPS. i read its 700+ pages in 2 days. i wanted to grab every character by the shoulders and tell them to get. a. grip.

the bee sting centers around a nuclear family in modern day ireland. dad is distracting himself with doomsday prep as his business goes under; mom is bitterly reigning in her shopping addiction as she recounts her unpleasant girlhood, daughter is dabbling in binge drinking, questionable men, and arduous friendships in her final year of high school; and son is finalizing his plans to run away from home.

admittedly i avoided starting this novel, in part due to its length but also i just wasn't excited about it. but wow. these people are DISASTERS. the plot constantly thickened. i was panicking on all of their behalf. frankly, i'm obsessed and counting down the days until 8/15 when i can talk about it with all of you. if you don't add this to your "want to read" pile i'm taking it as an affront.

What makes a life? A sense of duty? An obligation to your loved ones? To take the path that has been proscribed for you? Dickie Barnes is the brains of the family, attended college at Trinity. But a tragedy has him setting roots in his hometown, anchored by a miserable marriage. What’s worse, the life he carves for his wife Imelda, is a step up from her childhood. A bee sting is metaphor for the troubles we navigate in life. The novel could use editing in the early chapters but the build-up to the spectacular ending is worth it all.

From the author of Skippy Dies!

A long rollicking and expansive novel of a family of prominence falling in a small town in Ireland. The Bee Sting, is a true look into a flawed family's fall from grace. Each section presents a member's point of view. The portions are layered and layered upon each other, providing more background to the full story.

One thing is for sure, you will never forget the Barnes family. Their fall from grace, is known town wide. What everyone doesn't know is where and how it all went wrong. Delicately balances, perfectly paced, I loved this family and this story and so will you!

If you love your humor dark, love being immersed inside a dysfunctional family, or just want your next read to make you laugh out loud, The Bee Sting is for you! #TheBeeSting #PaulMurray
#farrargiroux

This was great. I loved getting to see things from each family member’s perspective and getting all the backstory that we did for Dickie and Imelda. Covering the lives of all four family members, and in some cases going back decades, it felt like there was a little bit of everything in this book, but it all worked and came together to form their sad, messy lives.

The only thing that I didn’t like was the choice to give Imelda’s parts very limited punctuation. I think it was to help distinguish her parts from the rest and to reflect her character maybe, but I honestly just found it slowed me down while reading her parts. Still loved them though.

The Bee Sting
A Novel
by Paul Murray
family book with Dickie, Imelda, Cass, and PJ . The novel was a good one. Sometimes heartbreaking, full of laughter .and what makes a family in the end. A story with a message,

I LOVED this book. I am a huge fan of Paul Murray and I think this is his best book yet; even better than Skippy Dies. It is heartbreaking in parts but also emotionally uplifting without ever feeling cheap or twee. I was equally interested in all of the sections on Dickie, Imelda, Cass, and PJ and equally invested in all of their storylines, which I think is unusual. This is funny and moving and ahh just so very good.