Lost in the Beehive

At age seven, Gloria Ricci, the resilient narrator of Young-Stone’s emotionally rewarding third novel (after 2015’s Above Us Only Sky), is stung by a bee when she finds out her twin brothers didn’t survive their premature birth, and the bees continue to appear at pivotal points, providing a strangely reassuring constant in a life frequently touched by tragedy. In 1965, at age 16, a doomed romance with a girl named Isabel lands her at the Belmont Institute, where doctors plan to “cure” her homosexuality. It’s there that she forms a deep attachment to Sheffield Schoeffler, a young gay man whose pain mirrors her own. After her release, Gloria runs away to New York to live with Sheffield, but she’s devastated when he commits suicide. Years later, she marries the seemingly kind Jacob Blount, moves to rural North Carolina, and endures years of mental and physical abuse at Jacob’s hands. When Gloria befriends the kind, beautiful Betty Jenkins, a local bakery owner, she is enamored, and her quiet desperation becomes quiet agony. Young-Stone addresses themes like self-acceptance and domestic abuse, adding a touch of magic realism. Readers’ hearts will ache for Gloria as she strives for courage, self-realization, and, ultimately, the freedom to love and be loved. Agent: Michelle Brower, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.)