The Honeys Review
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As soon as a video about The Honeys by Ryan La Sala popped up on my FYP on TikTok, I immediately preordered it. I love queer thrillers, and though I was hesitant because it’s also pitched as horror, and I don’t do too well with reading horror. I attempted to read Stephen King a few times, but something about straight up horror novels get deep in my brain and give me horrible nightmares. However, this wasn’t too deeply horror, so I was able to read it no problem.
That being said, this was definitely one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. The plot was perfectly placed, the setting descriptions were absolutely gripping, and overall this book had me entrenched in the mystery from the first page to the last.
The basic premise of the book is that the main character, Mars, is a genderqueer person from an uppercrust family whose twin sister, Caroline, attempts to kill them before accidentally dying herself. Mars decides to return to the summer camp Caroline was at before she died, the one she somehow escaped to come home and attack Mars, to get answers about what exactly happened to their sister.
Okay, now I’m going to get into my specific favorite parts, which will contain spoilers, so you’ve been warned.
Like I said above, the descriptions of the camp were literally *chefs kiss* amazing. The camp felt like a character in its own right from the very beginning, and in the end its revealed that, in its own way, it’s true, and it was (is, always has been, etc) actually a sentient being. The setting descriptions in chapter seven are some of the best I’ve ever read. I mean, read for yourself:
“Aspen stalks us from behind the dense forest. Coy. Carnivorous. Through the trees I glimpse neon fields, stone walls laced with ivy, and red-stained buildings aflame with afternoon sun. The invisible bugs envelop us in their chanting. This is how Aspen has felt to me all these years away; like the specter of summer itself, a warmth that could be recalled but never felt.
Now it reaches for me. I’m not ready, but it doesn’t matter. The forest slides away and all the winking details – the glimpsed buildings and the walls and the fields – crash together, forcing apart the brambles so that the sky rushes in, so big and blue you could choke on it.
I clench my jaw as the camp locks into place around us. The heat of the forest was smothering, but this heat under the open sun is invasive. I feel the last particles of cool air – from the car, from the restaurant – burn from my lungs as summer swallows me from the inside out. I am claimed. The uncanny familiarly is within me now; there’s no going back.”
Once Mars decides that they are going to get to the bottom of things no matter the cost, I was undoubtedly and all-consumingly hooked. I was excited to read the book right from the beginning, but the end of chapter ten strikes right at the heart of what this book is about. The question “Do I integrate or do I defy?” applies not only to Mars’ struggle to fit in at Aspen, but is also such a common question that queer people ask themselves in situations where they feel uncomfortable expressing their queerness. And Mars decides to lean into their feminine side despite the discomfort it causes the boys in their cabin.
“I leave the lip gloss on. Bright things in nature are often poisonous. Let that be my defense, then. Let Aspen watch, and predators prowl, and all the waiting jaws yawn wider.”
The chapter ends with the line “I will be a ruin to consume,” which just blew me away. I mean, what an incredible way to phrase the inevitability they feel about their failure to figure out what Caroline went through. And even knowing that there was no way they could succeed and beat Aspen at its own game, they were determined to see things through to the end.
I also loved the subtle nod to “Jennifer’s Body” that La Sala wrote into the climactic reveal that Mimi was the one attacking the Honeys and trying to get Mars out of the group. The classic line (“I’m not killing people, I’m killing boys”) from Jennifer’s body is reworded and updated to fit the moment itself. It almost reads like Mimi is subconsciously quoting the movie, and honestly, it made me reevaluate her entire character as being similar to Jennifer Check – a girl who was given power she was never really meant to have that, in the end, corrupted her and led to her death. She truly believed she was doing the right thing, just like Megan Fox’s character in the movie.
“‘I’m not hurting people,’ Mimi pouts. ‘I’m hurting boys.’
Bria, to her credit, throws me a sideways glance and asks, ‘What are your pronouns again?’
‘Uh…’ My throat still feels raw from being choked within an inch of my life. ‘I’m cool with really anything. I’m fluid.’”
Another thing that I loved was the way that Aspen is described as being so entirely separate from the rest of the world, but for whatever reason the closest hint of civilization turned out to be an Applebees. I made a stupid TikTok about the line “It’s an Applebees. I cannot imagine having an opinion on Applebee’s.” in chapter 6, but after Mars thinks they escaped Aspen, they end up at Applebees while waiting for their parents. And then, they very much do have an opinion on Applebees:
“Maybe it’s the drugs, but I barely grasp the horror of it. Instead, I think: I can’t wait to tell Caroline I was abducted behind an Applebee’s, how embarrassing, oh my god.”
“The mask scratches as it’s lifted away and I can finally see. For the first time in my life, I wish with complete conviction to be back at Applebee’s.”
And lastly, the ending was absolutely gripping to me. I loved was the way that, in the end, Mars was always going to end up as the Queen. They lived their entire life feeling othered and ousted, especially at Aspen where they were the target of a vicious hate crime, but in the end they save Aspen. They are the glue that keeps the dark magic of the place alive, and they end up finding complete acceptance there.
The final conversation in the Lace that Mars has with Caroline was also very gripping. I think the idea of getting to have one last real conversation with the people we love that die is something so many of us wish we could have. Conversations between the living and the dead are something I always feel are so impactful when they’re written the right way, and I think that La Sala did an incredible job. He captured the wistfulness and the common human pain that come with mourning, seeking closure, and trying to move on while balancing the conversation with the insanity of the world he created. It was a wonder to read.
In all, I can’t recommend this book enough. I already have several friends that I’m going to loan the book out to ASAP so I have more people to talk to about it. If you have opinions, PLEASE drop a comment I would love to hear about other people’s thoughts on this book!
