Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

 

Built from abuse, built on abuse, and built on abuse once more, Honeysuckle is an unsettling slow burn of a book. The story initially takes the form of a dark fairy tale, complete with flowers, strange magic, loneliness, neglected children, and a girl made of need and words. However, as the book progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that its real horror is not just magical—it’s personal, emotional, and generational.

The children at the heart of the story are neglected and unwelcome. The boy’s older sister, who has outgrown him and no longer wants to entertain him, treats him as an annoyance. Instead of caring for him, she creates Daye—a Blodeuwedd-like construct—to keep him busy and out of her way. While this might seem like a strange way to address loneliness, it’s actually much more disturbing: a neglected child is handed another being created solely to meet his needs.

From there, the book grows increasingly uncomfortable. Over time, the boy’s relationship with Daye becomes sinisterly controlling. Here, there is grooming and abuse. There is the twisted idea that love can exist where one person holds all the power and the other never truly has the chance to say no.

Honeysuckle is most disturbing in how it portrays abuse—not as a single, isolated act, but as a pattern. Neglect creates need, need becomes possession, and possession masquerades as devotion. Daye is not simply loved; she is kept, shaped, and claimed. The horror is not that she was made from flowers, but that she was created to be useful.

The writing is lyrical and eerie, using floral beauty to hide something profoundly rotten. The delicate prose only intensifies the discomfort of the darker themes. It’s like discovering something buried under a garden—lovely from afar, horrifying when you dig deeper.

This is not a fast-paced fantasy or an easy read. It is quiet, strange, and deeply uncomfortable. For those who appreciate dark psychological fairy tales exploring consent, autonomy, neglect, and control, Honeysuckle is a haunting and thought-provoking debut—a stunning, complex, and deeply unsettling novel about what happens when love grows in neglected soil.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

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