Book Review: ‘Honeyeater’ by Kathleen Jennings
Something without a name and with barely a form has crawled out of the river in Bellworth. It doesn’t know who it is or even what it is. All it knows is that it is being drawn to one particular house. That and a name, “Wren.” As with most mysterious things in that town, it seems to be connected to the oldest family around. Will it be the downfall of Charlie Wren or his salvation? Find out in Kathleen Jennings’ new novel Honeyeater.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Tor Books for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Honeyeater contains some spoilers!]
Small towns and rivers both like to hide secrets in Honeyeater
The Wrens are the oldest family in town. Their hands seem to be in everything. But they have fallen on some hard times, and the matriarch, Aunt Ida, has passed away. Now the task of cleaning out the family home has fallen on young Charlie Wren and his sister, Cora. But Cora is the community’s shining light. She is far too busy running the town to deal with cleaning out a house. So the work falls to Charlie, the family screw-up.
But Charlie really doesn’t want to be back in that house. His mother died in that house when he was a child, leaving him and his sister to be raised by their aunt. However, Aunt Ida never did like Charlie. After he nearly died and was saved by his hero sister, he felt even more unloved. Then the disappearances started. They could never be traced back to Charlie, but they could never be fully explained away either.
So Charlie begins cleaning. Then something shows up. Or someone? Charlie isn’t really sure. She looks like a young woman, but she has no idea of who she is or where she came from. She just knows his house and his name, “Wren.” To be honest, Charlie isn’t 100% sure that she’s even real. He wants to call the police to help her, but she refuses, and it’s not like Charlie has the best track record with them, so he allows her to stay. The longer she stays, the weirder things get. Charlie doesn’t know what’s real and what’s fantasy, and Grace, what the woman/creature/thing decides to call herself, doesn’t seem to know either. Together the two try to piece together the past to understand the present and maybe survive until the future.
Honeyeater is a really weird fever dream wrapped in Gothic splendor
Like all the best Southern Gothic novels, there is a small town with hidden secrets. The small town is in a constant war with some essence of nature that is trying to reclaim it (in Honeyeater, the river is always flooding the town). There are old families that know the secrets and a young generation that either hasn’t been let in on the secret or doesn’t believe them. Don’t forget the protagonist that is very possibly crazy (or maybe the only sane one but is being gaslit). Then the creepy things start happening.
It isn’t unusual for Gothic stories to feel all over the place when you read them. The inability to tell if what is happening is real or just in the narrator’s head is a hallmark of the genre. But Honeyeater takes that uncertainty to the next level. None of the characters seem to really know what’s going on. There are a couple that you’re pretty sure know more than they’re letting on, but they play dumb really well. The three main characters we follow (Charlie, Grace, and the nameless taxi driver’s daughter) don’t seem to have a strong hold on reality, which makes all the text surrounding them somewhat twisted and difficult to get through. I understand that Jennings was trying to create an uncertain atmosphere, but it’s all a bit much for me. One character that walks the line between sanity and madness is fun, two is pushing it, and three is more than I can take.
Jennings uses folklore to amp up the creepiness in Honeyeater
An interesting trick that Jennings uses to rev up the unease in Honeyeater is folklore. She shares “local” stories from the different residents of Bellworth in between the chapters. She presents them as family legends being shared between neighbors during floods. We have all heard these stories in our own neighborhoods. Tales passed down from one generation to the next about a brother’s sister-in-law’s niece or a great-uncle’s father’s friend. Rarely is it a story about the actual speaker. They’re all told in hushed voices in the dark and are sworn to be true. By the light of day, no one really believes them. But in the dark, maybe?
Honestly, I liked the flood stories more than I liked the main story of Honeyeater. I love personal tales of encounters with the unexplained. They were short and just a little off-putting. But they lacked the uncertainty and confusion of the main story. This made them enjoyable instead of ambiguous. I could have read a whole book of her little folktales.
Is Honeyeater worth consuming?
Lovers of Gothic literature might enjoy Honeyeater. It is very dark and has a mystery wound through it that both binds and divides all the characters. They’re caught in a web that has been woven for generations. But eventually the truth is revealed, no matter how hard you try to drown it out.
My rating for this book: 6/10
Those who like the darker side of fantasy will probably enjoy Honeyeater. It wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but it wasn’t bad either, and I know there are those out there who will look past all the madness to the redemptive story at the heart. For those who are ready to brave the river, Honeyeater is available September 2nd, 2025.
Also check out: Book Review: Managing and Other Lies: A Queer Horror Collection by Willow Heath
