5 Of The Best Fiction Books About Bees That Had Goodreads Users Obsessed

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World Bee Day may be celebrated annually only on May 20, but there's no reason not to celebrate our fuzzy flying friends all year. Bees are a crucial part of our ecosystem, but one in four native species is at risk of extinction, so their conservation is a top ecological priority. Also, they're really cute. Have you ever just sat down and watched a nature documentary about bees? It's a great way to spend an afternoon.

On the other hand, bees might seem like a better spring manicure idea than a topic for fiction, at least if you're over six years old. Think about it, though: Their hive behavior is ripe for metaphor, beekeeping is one of the cozier homesteading activities since it doesn't require a massive factory farm, and they carry the slightest air of danger. It's no surprise, when you look at it that way, that Goodreads is full of massively popular fiction books about bees that have stung users right in the heart.

If the names Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan sound familiar, you might remember Boylan's groundbreaking memoir "She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders" and Picoult's bestseller-to-big-screen sensation "My Sister's Keeper." In "Mad Honey," the authors team up to tell the story of Olivia McAfee, who leaves her abusive husband for more northern pastures to take over her father's beekeeping business. Things are buzzing right along until her teenage son falls for another new arrival, and when the girl turns up dead, she starts to wonder if the boy is more like his father than she realized.

From there, the story takes more twists and turns than a bumblebee zooming through a farmer's market. Readers will definitely learn a lot about bees, whose dual nature serves as a potent metaphor for the book's characters and themes but also provide a source of fascination all on their own. Fans of "Big Little Lies" will find the same brand of intrigue and drama in "Mad Honey" — or should we call it "Big Little Hives"?

"The Beekeeper of Aleppo" follows Nuri, who is, well, a beekeeper living in Aleppo. His reality is so much more than that, however. With his artist wife, Afra, he lives an idyllic existence surrounded by friends and family until the outbreak of the Syrian war tears that bliss to shreds. The couple is forced to flee their homeland, a journey complicated by the loss of Afra's sight in the explosion that destroyed their lives.

Their only chance of survival is reaching the English apiary run by Nuri's cousin, fellow beekeeper Mustafa, where the bees provide refugees with a connection to their past and hope for a better life. Upon its publication, "The Beekeeper of Aleppo" received acclaim from critics and juries alike, winning the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and it became England's third-bestselling fiction paperback in 2020. It was even named one of Amazon's best books of the year in 2019.

For the Boatwright family, nothing is more important — or powerful — than the sisterhood represented by the bees they keep. Before we meet them, however, "The Secret Life of Bees" introduces Lily Owens, a 14-year-old girl living with a kindly Black maid, Rosaleen, and an abusive father in South Carolina in 1964. After an altercation with a group of white men lands Rosaleen in jail, Lily decides she must break her out and takes the opportunity to flee her father in search of Black Madonna Honey, one of the few clues Lily has about her mother's life and death.

At the honey farm, Lily and Rosaleen meet the Boatwright sisters: August, May, and June. Lily decides to become an apprentice to August, the head beekeeper, while she searches for answers about her family's history and connection to the farm. Unfortunately, it's 1964 in the American South, so things don't stay harmonious for long. If you didn't catch the 2008 film adaptation, "The Secret Life of Bees" is a must-read before you do.

Those who like some magic with their entomology will enjoy Sofía Segovia's first English-translated work. "The Murmur of Bees" begins when the Morales family's wet nurse discovers an abandoned baby swaddled by a swarm of bees. Some people might be wary of such a creature — the superstitious townsfolk of Linares, Mexico, certainly are — but she brings him back to the ranch where the family and its servants live and work.

Though the child, who is named Simonopio, is born with facial deformities that leave him unable to speak, he develops powerful clairvoyance as he grows from an unwanted infant to a perceptive young man, still surrounded always by bees. When first the Mexican Revolution and then the Spanish flu epidemic ravage the country, the Morales family's acceptance of Simonopio pays off, and his supernatural abilities provide them with crucial protection — until they don't. 

In a completely different but no less wartorn time and place, Eliane Martin works as a kitchen assistant and beekeeper with her family on the Château Bellevue. Sparks fly when her beehives bring another young laborer into her path, but their happiness is short-lived in rural France in 1938. When Nazis move into the Château, and Eliane is separated from her paramour, she resolves to do what any heartbroken young woman would do: join the French Resistance.

Decades later, Abi Howe is battling her own heartbreak at Château Bellevue, where she hopes to put her abusive marriage and mental health struggles behind her. When she learns of Eliane's story, she becomes enthralled to the very end, much like the audience inevitably will be. For fans of wartime historical fiction, "The Beekeeper's Promise" will surely be as hard to forget as their first bee sting.

We compiled a list of all books shelved by Goodreads users under the category of "bees" at least five times. We narrowed this list down to books with at least 50,000 ratings to ensure significant popularity, then ranked the remaining titles by average review score.