Honeycomb Hardcover – May 25, 2021

I’ve never lost my love for fairy tales - and these are truly satisfying. Beautifully written, descriptions that will delight your senses! The overarching plot enhances each tale and it’s deeper meaning. I will definitely be checking out more by this author!

I enjoyed reading Joanna M. Harris's Honeycomb; an adult fairy tale that weaves through adventures and leaves the reader a profound message in living life more successfully. Charles Vess's illustrations are wonderful, bringing the story extra life. Honeycomb is a very successful partnering of writer and artist.

I've read several of her books before and really enjoyed them. But, they were all novels and this was a collection of very short, somewhat dark, but totally brilliant and imaginative original short fairy tales. They're pretty much all tied together around a central character and theme, so you might even consider it a 'novel' with very short chapters.Illustrations in both color and black-and-white, full-page and 'sketches' really add to the stories.They're perfect for reading when you don't have a lot of time - on vacation running around seeing the sites, breaks at work, between classes at school, on the bus - pretty much anytime you have 5 minutes to yourself.

well done fantastic tales that all eventually link up, gorgeously illustrated. Very satisfying how the author brings everything together in the end.

Excellent book awesome artwork

<i>I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>This book isn't to my tastes but I still think I can give this a fair review. I probably should have read the summary more closely but I saw "new fairy tales" and just jumped on it! I was expecting more of an anthology of fairy tales (like Hans Christian Andersen) and what I got was an interwoven epic a la Neil Gaiman's Sandman.There were a lot of characters. Some were interesting, compelling, and unique. Some were boring. Some were annoying. It was cool to see how all the stories came together in the end. I loved to hate the more traditional fairy tale style: a mix of the fantastical, the mundane, and the casually gruesome. It worked for the larger story and I can appreciate that. I hated the heavy-handed moralizing that came along with it.My biggest issue these stories is the almost pre-Raphaelite style. I am not at all a fan but if that's what the author was going for, they exceeded expectations. Minus the hints of modern technology and the plain language, these could easily fit in with other works from that time. So while this isn't for me, I can recognize that other people DO like this kind of thing. If you're that person, go read this. You'll love it.

This book is beautiful.The illustrations. The tone. The stories. How everything ties together. Beautiful is the only was to describe it.This books combines many short stories written just like those classical fairy tales. Each story is only a few pages with clear beginnings, endings, and morals. Most of the stories focus on the Lacewing King or his family, but there are a few that are not. (These a probably my favorite.) Though the farmyard stories may make you shift uncomfortably or smirk as they hit a little too close to home in politics.The voice of these stories and how each individual story could stand alone but ultimately creates a much bigger story... Just masterful.I highly recommend this book.

*I received a free ARC of this book, with thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*Haunting. Breath-taking. Spellbinding. I’m struggling to find the words to do justice to this beautiful volume (inside and out), so please bear with me!Honeycomb is a series of very short stories, held together by the worldbuilding wax of the Silken Folk’s world (as opposed to the clumsy oversized world of us Sightless Folk) to form an intricate wider pattern full of stories within stories and insects, lots of insects, especially bees.I utterly refuse to believe that these stories haven’t always been out there – familiar, classic folktales handed down through the generations to warn us of the perils of accepting gifts from beautiful strangers, or wandering alone in the dark – and yet there is something completely fresh, strange… almost alien… about the world Joanne Harris has created here and the characters that populate it.Certain characters reoccur – the Lacewing King, the Harlequin, the Spider Queen, the Barefoot Princess – as do certain settings, like the farm. Other stories are as individual and fleeting as dewdrops on spiderwebs. Each is so, so perfectly imagined and expressed.Within and throughout, you will find love and kindness, cruelty and spite, sacrifice, revenge and redemption. I could go with the obvious simile and say this book is as sweet as honey, but also carries a few stings, which would be true, but doesn’t really do it justice.This book is exquisitely written and imagined, and I am still captured by emanations from its world now, months after first reading it. I have never looked at insects, or fairytales, in the same way since.Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Ziet er prachtig uit, fijn om te hebben.

Bought for me by my son. This honeycomb of stories, so brilliantly told whisks you away into a world so beautiful it makes you smile and cry.I feel very privileged to have read it. This book will remain in my mind for a long time to come.

A fantastic voyage through short takes and inter-linking stories that speak to love,desire,loss,vengeance and justice. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the dark fairy tale themes of the book. I loved this and read it so greedily that I am now looking forward to a more leisurely 're-read to absorb every magical detail

I got this because Joanne Harris is one of my favourite authors. I also greatly admire the artwork of Charles Vess. His drawings really compliment Harris' pose. The book is a collection of fairy tales, mostly set in the insect world, and its magical beings, for example, the Lacewing King. The stories are ephemeral yet sharp, in the manner of older such tales, though there isn't always a moral attached, which I like. It's entertaining, sometimes witty, sometimes mysterious, and I have to say, it is one of my favourite books so far this year. I'd got it on Kindle, but I think I might treat myself and buy the actual book, as it is something to savour.

This is the first Joanne Harris book I ever read and having now read others I can say it is completely unique. The storytelling is absolutely fabulous and different and all of the stories work very well together in a very clever way. Would 100% recommend.