Honeyeater Founded on a floodplain in the midst of stolen land, Bellworth seems like an idyllic Australian community on its surface. But the river that runs through it is deep and full of the secrets Bellworth's residents have tried to bury. As the climate warms and the river rises, the people of Bellworth begin to discover that secrets never stay hidden forever and there is a price to be paid for their happy lifestyle. Charlie Wren is a painfully ordinary young man notable only for having a remarkable sister and a history of departed friends. When he inherits a share of the old family house situated on the riverbed, he plans to get what he can from his inheritance and get out of town so he can try to get out of his sister's shadow and make what he can of his life. Then Grace appears, having crawled out of the river muck with no memory of who she is and a blossoming of roses growing beneath her skin. The longer Grace stays with Charlie, the more he is dragged into the town's dark history, and now that old secrets have been dredged up, they refuse to be hidden again. Once Charlie uncovers his family's most disturbing secret, he and Grace will have to make a decision that will change both their lives forever. Whether you call it climate fiction, gothic horror, or both, Honeyeater is a wonderfully weird little book that honestly won't be to everyone's taste. Its prose is lush, its structure demanding. This is not a book that you can read with one eye on the television, and you may not want to take it to the beach. It is unsettling, full of ghosts, and makes you wonder if that rustling in the bushes was a squirrel or something else. If you like a weird little book, though, this is absolutely for you. Honeyeater is a marvelous tale of strange beasts and ghosts, family secrets, love, ambition, and what we owe to each other as human beings. Heady stuff for a 272 page book, but Kathleen Jennings is proving to be adept at packing as much meaning as possible into a single, lyrical sentence. Her 2020 novella Flyaway gave readers a similarly airy weird book but at just 176 pages it didn't quite have the space to expand upon its ideas, leading to a story that was more abstract and somewhat less satisfying than Honeyeater. That's not to say that Honeyeater lacks abstraction. A weird little book like this one revels in abstracted ideas and images that let the reader come to their own conclusions regarding its themes, meaning, and even what happens in the end. A less confident author would overstate their themes and repeat themselves to ensure the reader knows exactly what they were thinking at every moment to the detriment of the story. Fortunately, Jennings writes with a sure hand and faith in her readers, giving us a spellbinding story that pulls you in and doesn't let go until the bizarre, beautiful ending. So as we approach the changing of the seasons, and as nature reminds us that nothing lasts forever, pick up a copy of Honeyeater. Then hide your smartphone for an afternoon, put on some eerie music, and let Jennings work her magic. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the advance copy for review. Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Book Review: Honeyeater
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