'Moving, original, and accomplished ... wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and takes a line which is - refreshingly - strongly female without being cliche-feminist. It is also deliciously eccentric, which lifts it out of the usual category of a rite-of-passage novel into the realms of real distinction. Do read it'
- Joanna Trollope
'Charming, funny, moving and unmistakeably from the American South ... a story that whips together heat, violence, eccentricity, madness and the Gothic'
- The Times
'This is a wonderful book, by turns funny, sad, full of incident and shot through with grown-up magic reminiscent of Joanne Harris.'
- The Daily Telegraph
'Eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving ... a truly original Southern voice'
- Anita Shreve
'Monk Kidd has created a narrative as skilful and sweet as a honeycomb. Uplifting and warm-hearted, this is a moving novel and Lily is a fascinating, funny and clever narrator'
- Literary Review
'Sue Monk Kidd... Illuminates what is beautiful ... The Secret Life of Bees is a gift, filled with hope'
- Luanne Rice