If you ever wondered what a dysfunctional family was, read THE DEATH OF BEES, and you will no longer be wondering.

Marnie and Nelly lived with their parents who were not married and who never paid attention to them. They were too busy being on drugs and selling drugs. The girls had to take care of themselves and were always left alone. Then one day they were truly alone...their parents went missing and never returned. The girls knew what happened to them, but they couldn\\\'t tell anyone. Their neighbor Lennie saw their parents had been gone for a long time and instinctively knew they wouldn\\\'t return so he stepped in to help. Lennie had issues of his own.

The book was somewhat disconnected and shared all the awful things that normally occur in a dysfunctional family. The author portrays scenes very vividly and leaves nothing to the imagination. She lets every detail of the family\\\'s life out in the open for all to see and does it cleverly by having each chapter\\\'s contents be the voice of one of the characters. I believe she was making the reader aware of how often this type of life happens more than we know and what many children live with on a daily basis. She was also showing that the cycle continues from generation to generation.

Despite the author\\\'s attempt of trying to enlighten what we as a civil society do not want to face, this book definitely would not be good for young adults. There is a lot of vulgarity, sexual situations, drug situations, tension between parent and child, and even murder. On a positive note, it does touch on strong friendships. If this book were being rated as a movie, I would give it an R rating.

It did get a little more interesting as the book continued, and there were some funny parts. You can\\\'t help laughing at the absurdity and utter unbelievability of some of the circumstances, but the book\\\'s disconnection with following the plot, the vulgarity, and the unpleasant, but informative topic makes me give the book a 3/5.

This book was given to me free of charge without compensation in exchange for an honest review.

Chapters by different characters that give different points of view of the same information or incident. Dark but interesting and quick read.

This book is not for the squeamish - edgy, razor sharp dialog and writing style. Very on the edge of your seat. I didn't pick this for our book group but glad to have the chance to have read something I would have missed - not an easy read, but thought provoking.