Little Bee

Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
★★★☆

A young Nigerian woman, who calls herself Little Bee, tells the story of her journey from her country to the UK. After spending two years in a detention camp she finally heads to London to find an English man, Andrew, who she met briefly in Nigeria.

Andrew’s wife, Sarah, narrates the other half of the novel. She’s a mother and editor of a magazine. She’s attempting to balance her work, raising a child and struggling marriage, all while coming to terms with a recent trauma in her life.

To me, the most fascinating part of this book was the dueling narration. Having two very distinct voices in a book often doesn’t work. The story can get muddled, the point of view becomes confusing, but in this book it was absolutely necessary and I was never unsure of who was speaking. It made the story richer to hear it from two incredibly different people.

Although I enjoyed it, I did have a few problems with the book. Everything leads up to one critical element of the story, but after that point (about midway through) things seem to just putter along. I enjoyed the story and distinct voices, but it would have benefitted from some different pacing. I also thought there were some unbelievable elements in the story, which made it hard to stay in the grip of what was happening. Whenever I read something that was too far fetched to be believable, it halted the flow of the story.

I’d say it’s worth reading, but don’t go into it with expectations set too high.

“We must see all scars as beauty. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”

“Isn’t it sad, growing up? You start off thinking you can kill all the baddies and save the world. Then you get a little bit older, and you realize that some of the world’s badness is inside you, that maybe you’re a part of it. And then you get a little bit older still, and a bit more comfortable, and you start wondering whether that badness you’ve seen in yourself is really all that bad at all.”