A review by alexture
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

4.75

I could not put this book down. If you asked me what made it so great, the only answer I could give you would be a confused shrug - I have no idea.

Choral cast novels have always been a soft spot of mine, so maybe it's that. Maybe it's how incredibly well-defined each of the four points of view is, with extremely different writing styles (Imelda's section is 100 pages without punctuation, which is about as enjoyable as talking with her must be). Maybe it's how everything converges and how you want to mutter "oh no please don't do that" every three pages for six hundred pages.

Maybe it's the Big Gay, maybe it's the Irish village, maybe it's the broken college student or the child who thinks he'll get sent to boarding school if he tries to get his needs met.

Maybe it's the ending.

Maybe it's all of this and more, mixed into one big block of "oh no god no".