ALC Review: Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell
- Story Eater
- 31 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Release date: 24 March 2026
Rating:4.5/5
Narrators: Catrin Walker-Booth, Geraint Rhys
Synopsis: The Bear and the Nightingale meets Weyward in this enchanting, deeply compelling debut about love and power, autonomy and consent.
Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate—Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend.
Rory couldn't be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last.
As Rory and Daye grow older and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye's existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.
As a loose reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is an entrancing, inventive, and unsettling debut.
Review
Brimming with foreboding and sporting an expertly immersive atmosphere, Honeysuckle gave me a lingering sense of dread mixed with an insatiably piqued curiosity. I was fascinated the entire time I listened, and the narrators only added to the wonder. This one is of my favorite reads of the year so far, and I'm pretty surprised and disappointed that there aren't any deluxe first editions or even signed copies up for preorder. I would consider this a horror novel, and it does contain some grotesque descriptions, but they don't feel gratuitous. I'd highly recommend Friedman-Tell's debut for folks who like multi-genre stories with an intellectual presentation.
For context and background, Honeysuckle is a very loose retelling of a mention of a Blodeuwedd from The Mabinogion, which compiles Welsh mythology into a collection of tales, much like Grimm's Fairy Tales. Lady Charlotte Guest translated the volume in the 19th century, and her translation was incredibly popular. I feel the plot in Honeysuckle doesn't so much retell the myth but borrows the character and general circumstances surrounding her creation. Interested readers can search the Internet Archive for a free copy (because it's in the public domain), or drop by Delphi Classics and and pick up a nicely formatted ebook copy for a nominal price.
The setting gives off steampunk vibes combined with cottagecore and meshed with enchantment and horror. I felt dropped in the late Victorian/early Edwardian period with some Hitchcock thrown in for good measure. Every sentence grounds the reader in a dark, hypnotic spell. Rory and his sister grow up with practically no parental oversight or moral guidance, and the considerable age gap between the two children naturally leads Rory to develop an unhealthy amount of loneliness and dependency, which only becomes exacerbated when Rory's sister uses her magic to keep him busy while she studies instead of finding something constructive for him to fill his time with, which is a natural way for a child with no parents around to raise their own children and provide a good example of behavior to solve a problem. The extra trouble is, the friend is only temporary, and in order to keep Daye alive, Rory must become the very center of Daye's universe.
Aside from providing one of the most immersive settings in a book I think I've ever read, Fridman-Tell also gives a perfect example of how to get a point across using fiction. For this hypothetical, the author shows that even with the most good-natured and innocent beginnings, relationships with power imbalances can turn darkly sour. Rory and Daye make a great pair for serious discussions on consent, what it does not look like, and what having power over someone else can do to a person, even if that person thinks he is in love with another. As a bonus, there's no browbeating or moral peacocking in the telling of the tale. Friedman-Tell uses logic combined with skill and gives a very realistic scenario wrapped in a combination of mythological parable.
Narrators serve to enhance or degrade a story, and Catrin Walker-Booth and Geraint Rhys without question bring this story to life. I couldn't imagine Rory and Daye sounding like anyone else. I recommend listening to this one if possible; the audio serves as a great experience.
Overall, 4.5/5 for both narration and story. I only wish this one came out in September or October. It's absolutely perfect for that time of year.
My thanks to Bloomsbury via Libro.fm for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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