Honey

By Imani Thompson
** Publication Date 5 May 2026 **
3.5 stars 




I’ve always been fascinated by serial killings. The motives, the reasoning, the psychopathy. Those of us who love shows like Criminal Minds or Dateline, I think, are curious as to what it takes to be that person. 


In Honey, Yrsa is a very bright PhD student in Cambridge. Her dissertation is based on Afropessimism, which in itself sounds like a fairly depressing topic. There is much violence and killing in the works she is studying for her PhD. As a doctoral student she teaches undergrads, which she finds very unsatisfying. 


When her close friend Nina is jilted by her married lover, Yrsa finds an opportunity to get back at him for his abhorrent behavior. Just a little nudge of a bee in his direction. Suddenly the man is in anaphylactic shock from a bee sting. Yrsa waits until it’s just gone a bit too far to summon help. So begins her fascination with murder, or in her mind, justified killing.


On the outside Yrsa seems like any other mid-twenties young woman. Trying to find love. Trying to finish her studies. Just getting by. She has amazing friends. Men seem to adore her. But as her unexpected desire to kill grows stronger, she loses a sense of where she was and now finds herself obsessed with men who misbehave. 


I found this novel interesting. To the reader, Yrsa is definitely off. There is nothing normal about her behavior, even stretching back into her younger life. As the book continues, her behavior is in so many ways normal, but also so deviant. Her ability to basically split herself into two completely different women is wild. The writing is fabulous to convey the sense of Yrsa being the ‘normal’ woman and Yrsa the ‘killer.’ 


Incredible writing, very well contrived, but the ending just left me wondering, WHAT?