Author: Bar Fridman-Tell
Publication: March 24, 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Folklore
Find it on: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's | Waterstones
Rating: 5/5★
The Bear and the Nightingale meets Weyward in this deeply compelling debut about love and power, autonomy and consent.
Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate—Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend.
Rory couldn’t be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last.
As Rory and Daye grow older, and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye's existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.
As a loose reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is an entrancing, inventive, and unsettling debut.
Daye was woven from flowers to be Rory’s childhood playmate to keep him occupied. But each season Daye must be rewoven or risk falling apart for good. As they grow up their friendship turns into romance and Rory gets more desperate to stop Daye from unraveling. The boundary between love and obsession starts growing thin as the years go on. As Rory’s experiments to keep her alive grow bolder, Daye begins to doubt her own autonomy and see how little control she really has.
Honeysuckle is Bar Fridman-Tell's debut novel and it impressed me so very much. It was wonderfully written, even when things turned hauntingly dark. Daye and Rory's relationship started innocent in a friendship as children but as it turned to romance as they grew up it was hard not to wonder how much it was actually shaped by Rory's desires. Could Daye truly consent to any of it since she was created for Rory?
Honeysuckle explored the themes of dependency, the ethics of creation and the delicate balance of power and consent. The story also showed how a relationship can turn toxic when one person manipulates or disregards the other's autonomy. It was an atmospheric read with touches of botanical horror and dark fairy tale vibes. I would highly recommend it!
About the author:Bar Fridman-Tell has a BA in art history and an MA in English literature. (She gleefully wrote her thesis about Victorian vampires.) She has worked as a bartender, a bookseller, a translator, and a library assistant. She is currently studying for a master's in library and information sciences, hoping to stay in a library for good. She lives in Toronto with her professor husband and two very fluffy cats. Honeysuckle is her debut novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts! ♥