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Summary
Summary
The drought has discontented the bees. Soil dries into sand; honeycomb stiffens into wax. But Cynthia knows how to breathe life back into her farm: offer it as an artists' colony with free room, board, and "life experience" in exchange for backbreaking labor. Silvia, a wide-eyed graduate and would-be poet, and Ibrahim, a painter distracted by constant inspiration, are drawn to Cynthia's offer, and soon, to each other.But something lies beneath the surface. The Edenic farm is plagued by events that strike Silvia as ominous: taps run red, scalps itch with lice, frogs swarm the pond. One by one, the other residents leave. As summer tenses into autumn, Cynthia's shadowed past is revealed and Silvia becomes increasingly paralyzed by doubt. Building to a shocking conclusion, The Honey Farm announces the arrival of a bold new voice and offers a thrilling portrait of creation and possession in the natural world.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
An aura of mystery, faintly tinged with menace, permeates Canadian author Lye's sensuous debut novel set in a remote, drought-imperiled part of Ontario. Farm owner Cynthia has attracted some desperately needed extra hands by advertising free artists' residencies in exchange for farm work. A couple of the young arrivals quickly determine that the exhausting daily round of gardening, beekeeping, and other chores leaves scant time for creative pursuits (or anything else) and split. But Ibrahim, a painter from Toronto, and Halifax native Silvia, nominally an aspiring poet but mostly a directionless recent college grad chafing at her rigidly Christian parents' expectations, embrace the opportunity and, eventually, each other. Casting a shadow over everything, however, is queen bee Cynthia, who may have a hidden agenda hinted at by references to her vanished former partner, Hilary-apparently a dead ringer for Silvia. Though the plot falters somewhat toward the finish, Lye offers an achingly lyrical excursion into a lost Eden. Agent: Stephanie Sinclair, Transatlantic Literary Agency (Canada). (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Two young artists grapple with love, purpose, and identity in a paradise turned sinister.In Lye's debut novel, a once-prosperous, now-troubled farmknown as The Honey Farmis beset by problems of biblical proportions: frog-filled lakes, lice infestations, and diseased livestock. In an effort to save her land of milk and honey, the farm's enigmatic owner, Cynthia, and her assistant, Hartford, offer the property as an artist's retreat in exchange for manual labor. The summer brings together a group of artists including Silvia, a recent college graduate fleeing her religious family, and Ibrahim, an artist for whom "nothing exists...until he paints it." As the two grow closer, they slowly learn about Cynthia's pastand begin to see glimpses of a looming danger. For every intricate description of a delicate honeycomb, there's a worrisome image like hundreds of dead bees. The good exists among the bad; the light balances the dark. Short chapters, which shift between Silvia's and Ibrahim's points of view, help build suspense. As the book races to its close, the secrets beneath the surface begin to buzz as loudly as a bees nest. For a psychological thriller, the novel sometimes shows its hand too much, making the characters seem nave or willfully ignorant. Despite this, there's a lot that's done right: the use of biblical verses and stories; the meticulous rendering of the farm; the unsettling tone woven throughout. Most important is Lye's lush, poetic prose, which soars off the page: "the earth soaks up water like someone thirsty for love," and "the world breaks and heals itself again, eternally." Each lyrical line feels like a gift left at the reader's altar.A honey-mouthed debut ruminating on creation, possession, and faith. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Cynthia's honey farm in rural Ontario has been dealing with months of drought, and she and her assistant, Hartford, need help with the upcoming summer harvest season. They advertise the farm as an artists' retreat, where painters, writers, and others can live for free in exchange for their labor, and soon a dozen artists from across Canada arrive. Silvia, who applied as a writer, though she has no writing experience, recently graduated from college and wants to escape her religious parents. Ibrahim spends his nights painting massive works on pieces of found cardboard. The two are immediately drawn to each other at the isolated farm. As Silvia and Ibrahim thrive, though, the other artists begin to question Cynthia's demands as well as her disregard for the odd things that begin to happen on the farm, such as when the water turns blood-colored for a day. With a strong command of tone and a haunting sense of atmosphere, Lye's first novel will transfix readers. At times lyrical, biblical, and otherworldly, The Honey Farm is a suspenseful and well-crafted story.--Chanoux, Laura Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
bees are weird. The peculiar mating rituals, the doomed drones who wait all their lives for a single sexual encounter with an omnipotent queen, leading to immediate death. As humans, we find them fascinating: perhaps the only species whose gender politics are more screwed up than our own. In "The Honey Farm," the debut novel by the Canadian writer Harriet Alida Lye, the inner workings of a bee colony become an eerie metaphor for communal living gone awry. At the center of the novel is Silvia, a recent university graduate who replies to an exuberant online ad for "THE HONEY FARM. Free retreat for artists, writers, thinkers! " It's unclear which category Silvia belongs to, but she is nonetheless offered room and board in exchange for work on the farm. It seems, at first, an idyllic setting: Think Yaddo with bees. Running the show is the mysterious Cynthia, the farm's proprietor and queen bee, who supervises the chores that occupy most of the day. The residents - two brothers who make documentary films, a French Canadian artist couple and Ibrahim, a driven young painter from Toronto, among others - are shocked to find that the farm has no internet access, no cellphone signal. Its only link to the outside world is a phone booth at the end of the lane. It's a satisfying setup, reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery, the entire cast of characters marooned together in an exotic locale. Strange events ensue. Silvia drinks from a garden hose and finds the water blood-colored. The group is afflicted with head lice. A swim in a murky pond disturbs an unimaginable number of frogs, which soon infiltrate the house. The incidents seem related to an unprecedented drought that's making the bees anxious. Clearly, evil is afoot. The writing is uneven, but Lye is at her best when describing the natural world. "By the end of June, the fuzzy-headed clover will have finished its season," she writes. "The bees will have sucked the purple straws dry." Her fascination with apian life and the little-known techniques of beekeeping give rise to the most memorable scenes in the novel, as when Silvia learns to harvest royal jelly from the hive. Raised in a conservative Christian home, Silvia seems younger than her years. Her innocence is believable, but her passivity is narratively problematic. She is a character to whom life simply happens. She drifts into a love affair with Ibrahim and feels guilty about not telling her parents. She sleeps a great deal and has cryptic dreams. The story gathers momentum when, to her utter astonishment, she finds herself pregnant - a fact she discovers only when a clerk in a grocery store inexplicably hands her a pregnancy test she doesn't ask or pay for. Ever obedient, Silvia finds a restroom and pees on the stick. The story takes a dark turn when Cynthia shows a disturbing interest in Silvia's unborn baby, building to a climax that should be harrowing, but isn't, since Silvia lacks the drive to save herself or even understand the nature of the danger she's in. When it comes to creating suspense, "The Honey Farm" succeeds almost too well. The unexplained phenomena of early summer, so vividly rendered, in the end amount to nothing. The drought eases, the bloody water clears and the frogs are gone as quickly as they appeared. In the end, the novel doesn't deliver on its sinister promise. "It starts with the bees," the spooky prologue tells us, "and it'll end this way too." If only that were true. ? JENNIFER HAIGH is the author, most recently, of "Heat and Light."
Library Journal Review
DEBUT A mixed crew of young writers, artists, and dreamers impulsively answer a classified ad to live at an "artists' colony" in remote northeastern Ontario that promises free room and board in exchange for labor. Cynthia, the honey farm's enigmatic leader, needs many hands to keep her business alive during a devastating drought. The -farm-fresh produce, bountiful larder, and idyllic views sustain the newcomers initially, but before long warning signs arise. The heat is unrelenting. Water in the taps runs red like blood. Thousands of frogs rise from a nearby lake. Soon Ibrahim, a talented painter, and Silvia, his innocent muse, are the only ones remaining with Cynthia and acolyte Hartford. Ibrahim and Silvia seem impossibly naïve, slow to react as the situation degenerates. As the bees start to swarm, one senses that all is not sweet despite the honey that drips from every comb. Brief chapters cut from character to character, building tension. VERDICT Brooding and suspenseful, this first novel works best as a literary horror story. Although the characters seem distant and their motivations largely unexamined, the bee motif is strong throughout, and the biblical references, while obvious, are ominous. [Previewed in Barbara Hoffert's "Spring/Summer Bests," LJ 3/1/18.]-Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
