"A lushly illustrated set of dark, captivating fairy tales
The beauty of stories; you never know where they will take you. Full of dreams and nightmares, Honeycomb is an entrancing mosaic novel of original fairy tales from bestselling author Joanne M. Harris and legendary artist Charles Vess in a collaboration that’s been years in the making. The toy-maker who wants to create the perfect wife; the princess whose heart is won by words, not actions; the tiny dog whose confidence far outweighs his size; and the sinister Lacewing King who rules over the Silken Folk. These are just a few of the weird and wonderful creatures who populate Joanne Harris’s first collection of fairy tales."
This is a gorgeous collection of super short (2-5 page) stories that read like a cross between fairy tales and fables, each interconnected to a larger picture. The Lacewing Prince is a selfish and cruel ruler of the Silken folk, touching many lives with his behaviour, but as time goes on he starts to face the consequences and mature.
They’re really easy to read and particularly good if you only have a couple of minutes to spend reading at a time, though I will admit that I read the whole book in a couple of settings.
The stories carry a mixture of moral messages and explore different themes. She’s unapologetic in her criticism of certain characters and themes, without ever directly even criticising them leaving it up to your interpretation.
They’re really easy to read and particularly good if you only have a couple of minutes to spend reading at a time, though I will admit that I read the whole book in a couple of settings.
The stories carry a mixture of moral messages and explore different themes. She’s unapologetic in her criticism of certain characters and themes, without ever directly even criticising them leaving it up to your interpretation.
Honeycomb is a book that you need to take time with, but will pay back richly if you do. It mixes myth and magic, nature and fear to form an intelligent and multi-layered prose poem that both celebrates traditional dark Fairy stories and brings the style to a modern-day audience. It is one to dip into, to read and reread, and I rather suspect would be excellent read out aloud. I really can't tell you how much I loved this book, there where moments I just had to look up from my book and relish the images conjured up. This is my second of Harris's books and I must say I am really blown away by her prose. It is poetic and lyrical yet never becomes overblown or shies away from the less beautiful aspects of the stories theme. If anything, the beautiful prose serves to highlight the pain or fear or horror of what is occurring.
As someone brought up on Fairy-tales, this had a very nostalgic air to me and accurately revived the aesthetic/feeling of the originals, though still being so unique and original.
Age Rating 15+. These are adult fairy-tales, and while some stories are okay for children, certainly not all. There are some very dark themes that are explore such as abuse, sexism and death.
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