Honey

by Imani Thompson

A wickedly funny, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction

Yrsa is in a funk. She’s bored of her PhD program, bored of her research on Afropessimism, bored of the entitled undergrads she has to cater to. But most of all, she’s bored of the men in her life—especially the bad ones.

When her best friend, Nina, confesses to having an affair with her professor, and that he’s stolen her research, Yrsa is mad. On the quad, Yrsa bumps into the professor and witnesses his an unfortunate incident involving his San Pellegrino and a bee allergy. What she sees that afternoon awakens something in a taste for murder.

Emboldened, Yrsa decides to chase that high, and soon, no sexist, misbehaving man within commuting distance is safe.

With each murder, Yrsa feels a greater sense of meaning and purpose—finally, her doctoral research feels useful. But how long can killing in the name of feminist and racial solidarity justify her actions? Will her rampage ever assuage her feelings of rage and revenge? And how long until her actions—and buried family secrets—come back to haunt her?

Genres: Thriller, Horror, Fiction, Feminism, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Adult

384 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 5, 2026

Reviews

[Liv Kaelin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a smidge confused with this one. This is described as "wickedly funny", but I'd argue it's more serious in tone and academic than that would lead you to believe. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the more serious topics surrounding racial justice and inequality more than the otherwise silly thriller that this is pitched to be.

Unfortunately, the writing here didn't really work for me. If this had been a general fiction novel surrounding race, afropessimism, and revenge as a concept I think it would've worked a bit more for my personal taste. However, I feel like we were trying to dive so much into those topics that the thriller plot points would just kind of fall off and never be fully developed, and because we were trying to make this a thriller, it didn't dive into other topics as thoroughly as I felt like I wanted it to. A classic case of trying to do so many things that it didn't really commit to any of them.

Unfortunately, 2.75 stars rounded up from me. I look forward to seeing what else this author writes in the future!

Thanks so much to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Zana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this would be my new favorite unhinged female serial killer novel, but the stars weren't aligned this time.

There were funny one-liners (presented in a very British-style dry humor manner), and I really liked the discussions on being a Black academic at Cambridge. Unfortunately, most of the good stuff happened offscreen.

It wasn't until the last 25-30% that we actually see what's happening with Yrsa and her victims. I understand that it was due to the FMC's drug abuse (so she most likely was mentally checked out most of the time), but the drug abuse didn't even happen onscreen either. It was disappointing and it didn't make for an exciting read.

If you're a fan of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, then you might like this. Both feature sarcastic, disaffected, and (at times) mean FMCs who aren't satisfied with their lives and who self-destruct in unhealthy ways.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this arc.

[evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ☆ review to come 🐝

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published May 5, 2026.

3 stars

Yrsa is a PhD student writing her dissertation on Afropessimism. Her best friend, Nina is having an affair with her professor and he steals Nina’s research. Yrsa is furious. Then Yrsa gets to watch him die due to his allergy to bee stings and it changes something in her…she starts chasing that high.

Feminist and fun, I enjoyed this dark academia thriller (though it bothered me throughout that I have no idea whether I’m pronouncing “Yrsa” correctly in my head.). No idea whether it will stick with me though (and, now, I mere two weeks later it’s already pretty fuzzy.)

[Ashlee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yrsa is certainly a morally grey and interesting character, and this novel spent a lot of time providing context for her motivation to kill. This was a twisty, funny read, and I liked the tie to her research with Afropessimism and the nuance of her being a Black woman seeking retribution. I was puzzled at her choice to constantly engage and spend time with problematic men, even in pursuit of kills, and personally found her inner monologue a bit aggravating. The ending felt rushed and I would've liked to see some threads further fleshed out. Nonetheless, this a strong debut. This will appeal to readers who enjoy diverse, feminist suspense and eccentric character studies. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Eve L. Fell · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨Releasing May 5th, 2026✨

4/5 🍒

Yrsa is a professor for a college in the UK. She is passionate about the content of her work and the trouble that women of color go through in today’s society. She begins her descent into madness because of men.

Men who she has a tendency to sleep with. She gets pleasure out of using them to fill her desires and not be used herself. She has a hard time developing feelings for people period. Whether it be men, her friends or her family. Early on it’s pretty safe to assume that she is mentally unstable, possibly sociopathic.

As the book progresses we see her snap. She is done being nice to men. Especially men who are pieces of crap in her eyes. She makes a silent vow to herself to do something about these men who she knows. In her mind they don’t deserve to live for one reason or another. Even though to a normal person those wouldn’t be reasons to murder someone.

She starts on a killing spree. Slowly she becomes a serial killer. In her mind she has a good reason as to why she’s killed each person and nothing can change that. But will she eventually feel bad for what she’s done? Or will she full steam ahead and continue her spree?

So this is the authors debut novel. I agreed to read this in exchange for an honest review through Net Galley and Random house publishing company. I think some of the chapters fell a tad flat for me. I also don’t understand this being advertised as a “funny” book. It’s not funny at all and touched on a lot of racial issues within our society in present day.

This book was dark, serious and at times disturbing. Nothing about it was comical to me. I also wished certain characters and relationships were fleshed out more. But I did enjoy Yrsa and everything she had to offer in the book. I will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors work.

[jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strong debut, and the author included a lot of themes of treatment of black women in society, complex family relationships, and justifications for murder, just to name a few. However, a lot of the plot lines didn't feel properly wrapped up, and the ending had me wishing there was more left.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

[Jen G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deranged yet funny. Sadistic yet sweet. I predict Yrsa is going to become one of the decade’s most controversial characters. I found the last quarter particularly powerful, especially once readers learn the back story of Yrsa's relationship with her grandmother and estrangement from school friends. This is a real sensation, particularly for a debut novel. I predict that a movie adaptation will arrive shortly.

Favorite quotes:

"DNA. Trace it back and her lines become crossed, polluted and pollinated. An Irish man and an enslaved woman, some say. The Sargasso Sea and hot work. Body work. Oranges and tobacco. A mistress, a master, a boy who decided to take a boat. Others say Egypt and the Nile to Calcutta. But it's hard to know. Back when they drew maps for the world they wanted to see. Then back before, when color wasn't color and the gods were closer to the earth. Imprints in the red soil. In land spoiled and unspoiled and spoiled again. When tongues spat different syllables and all the patterns, all the shapes, were newfound. Cinnamon to the bark. Where is she in this, in lines twisted and sequenced to their double helix. Because the dead aren't dead, they carry. Bone lines, blood lines. The bodies that the sea swallowed and dissolved and turned to sand. Is she, the maternal, stronger? Back before it was women and women and men. When it was finding feet and star worlds. Was it built on violence—or love—in the nucleus, in the chemical base of this, here, her."

"In a moment, she stands, watching the bottom of the elevator as it climbs the shaft, her mind full of men who think the entire world belongs to them. They are like dogs, marking everything in sight, and the minute a woman claims something for herself, they piss on it, too."

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for eARC.

[Briana Shuman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story about a woman named Yrsa who kills a man with a bee. That’s how it starts, anyway. But really, it’s a book about control who has it, who’s taken it, and how far one woman is willing to go to reclaim it. Yrsa’s voice is sharp, academic, and restless. She is not here to be liked. She is here to think, rage, dissect, and dismantle and she invites you to watch.

The themes of Afropessimism and justice, intellectual theft and power, are heavy and rich. The book hums with ideas. But often it hums louder than it speaks. Yrsa’s inner monologue, while intellectually charged and fiercely singular, sometimes feels like trying to listen to a symphony while assembling IKEA furniture you know something important is happening, but you're not entirely sure where to put the screws.

Some plot threads start with intrigue but fade rather than resolve. And while the narrative voice is undeniably bold, the emotional core felt distant at times.

I appreciated the academic lens, especially the exploration of Afropessimism and justice, but the pacing and dialogue often left me disengaged. Some plot threads felt underdeveloped, and the emotional core didn't quite land for me. Still, Imani Thompson is clearly a bold new voice, and I'm curious to see where she goes next.

Readers drawn to character studies over clean plots, and to questions over answers, may find more sweetness in the sting than I did.

2.5/5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Imani Thompson for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

I cannot tell you why this book is "wickedly funny," as described. I enjoyed this read. I had a lot of feelings and thoughts about the content and tone. Funny? That was truly never on the list. If you're coming here because of this billing, please know that you may have to travel to the Upside Down to find out where this is supposed to be happening. I...just don't get this at all. If you're coming to this book for any other reason, great. It's a wild read in a good way.

Yrsa is over it. And by "it," I mean gross men behaving in disturbing ways. The challenges include but are not limited to (1) Yrsa decides what is disturbing and (2) her punishment methods are extreme and permanent. Creep her out. She'll kill you. You must give her this; she's committed to the bit.

One of several aspects of this novel that I loved and feared is that the nasty stuff Yrsa encounters is ubiquitous. These dudes aren't outliers. I know these guys, and so do you. I'm also fed up with this behavior, and certain events of the last few years have further exhausted some of us. You know the part where we're going backward in obvious ways and terrible treatment of women is regularly applauded and rewarded, including by folks in high power positions. So the world Yrsa exists in isn't some bizarro dystopia. It's just...this. Her reactions are big, but also I can't say I haven't had the thought. So there's that whole thread to think about from cover to cover.

Another riveting element of this novel is what slowly unfolds with Yrsa's backstory and family history. What I wouldn't do for a prequel. My main gripe - aside from having to suspend a lot of disbelief (and still being confounded by the hilarity promised here) - is that I wanted more of that origin story.

Reading this made me feel like a voyeur, a cheerleader, a potential killer, and...a fan of Thompson's. Go off, Yrsa. I never want to meet you, but I will always be happy to read about your escapades (and anything else Thompson produces, too)!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Lauren Chrisney at Penguin Random House for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[Trisha]

oooh this sounds so good! I'm in!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at Yrsa, a PH.D. student who meets Ethan online and hopes it goes somewhere. But things soon spiral out of control and there are bees, poison,, murder plans, and so much more! It's wacky and often unbelievable, but it's a hoot and unlike anything else I've ever read! Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

[Adelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

October 2025:
Publishing date: May 2025
Reviewed by @literary.listener

Wowza. I got this ARC from @netgalley and I am so thankful!! @_imani_thompson_ hit it out of the park. What a well written and interesting story.

The story follows the female main character in her exploration of violence. She is currently doing her doctorate at the University and struggling to find a way to finish her dissertation. She also is dealing with the complex relationships between friends, family, and exes. When the buzz (🐝) of an opportunity comes, she takes it. And the reader gets to follow her linking the past to the present.

Really think this a great quick read that explores a lot about not only being a woman, but a Black Jamaican young woman trying to find a place in this world that fits their mold. Beautiful!

[Haleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC review! :)

This book is a solid 3 stars for me. I think, for me, it took almost half the book to get really interested in it. Outside of the actual killings and oddly enough, the relationship with her mother, I find that it fell flat and hard to keep my attention. The dialogue was extensive and while it was realistic and easy to read, it just really did not keep me interested and at times it felt more like a chore to get through the conversations and the reward was the little bit of action we got with each kill. The men in this book also…. while written accurately, it just annoyed me that we had SO much time with them. I really loved the premise of the book, I love feminine rage, I love realistic and complicated relationships, and I loved the view point this book offers of feminism and a women of color seeking revenge. It just felt boring at times.

[whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I breezed through this wonderful novel, not just because it is good but because I was ridiculously invested and stressed out over Yrsa’s circumstances. I ended up rating this one a 4.5 because it was truly just so much fun.

Honey is about a PhD student named Yrsa who goes on a killing spree, which she justifies both for feminism and research purposes. A decent amount of her dissertation is building off of theory by Saidiya Hartman, describing the ways that violence is repeated by oppressed peoples—Yrsa specifically talks about Black people/descendants of slaves. She claims that it is her methodology, therefore, to repeat violence against (mostly) white men who have horrific ideas about race and women. While this may sound strange and easy to mess up, Thompson makes Yrsa a truly compelling character in how she works out her ethical logic. Also, the novel is ridiculously funny and I found myself laughing out loud by the end. Thompson is a terrific writer and has elevated a simple archetype of a serial killer into a provoking novel that is incredibly fun to read.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!

[Samirah · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC Received: NetGalley - Random House
Publication Date: May 5, 2026

Honey is sharp, unsettling, and very different from what I expected. I actually had no idea what to expect. What looks like a feminist revenge story is really an exploration of how theory can become a shield for personal collapse. And Yrsa is mentally collapsing for real.

Yrsa, a Black PhD student, understands power, history, and violence with striking clarity — but the further the book goes, the more obvious the gap between her insight and her actions becomes. The violence feels less driven by belief and more justified after the fact.

The ending offers no closure, which is exactly why it works I feel. Yrsa remains unseen not because people around her are naïve, but because she still sounds legible. Remember she is highly intelligent which beg the question to me, why is she doing this?? I didn’t feel comforted by this book (which I don’t think is the point at all), but I did keep thinking about it long after finishing. A lot of people may now mesh with style of character development, she didn’t make you want to root for her. For me it was a solid 4.5 stars read.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hated the first two-three pages (the writing was atrocious, like Imani Thompson tried to pack every cliche of the insufferable Gen Z Cambridge PhD student there), but so glad I kept reading because the rest was fun and well-paced, witty and really entertaining. Ysra is a PhD student in Cambridge, writing about Afropessimism. When her friend's PhD supervisor, who stole her research after having an affair with her, chokes on a bee in his lemonade in front of her, she doesn't call the ambulance straight away as she realises how fun it is to watch him choke and die. (No spoiler, this is the summary of the book.) She obviously develops a taste for blood and... starts thinking about how she could get that thrill again and again.
It made me think of My Sister The Serial Killer, it has the same vibe, similar humour, similar enough plot. The author has tried to make this more about race and academia as well, which works, and I liked how much of the sociopath Ysra is at every page.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

[Cindy (leavemetomybooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

* thanks to Random House for the NetGalley review copy (pub date: May 5, 2026)

Review TK

[Miss Murder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yrsa is in a funk. She’s bored of her PhD program, bored of her research on Afropessimism, bored of the entitled undergrads she has to cater to. But most of all, she’s bored of the men in her life—especially the bad ones.

When her best friend, Nina, confesses to having an affair with her professor, and that he’s stolen her research, Yrsa is mad. On the quad, Yrsa bumps into the professor and witnesses his death: an unfortunate incident involving his San Pelligrino and a bee allergy. What she sees that afternoon awakens something in her: a taste for murder.

Emboldened, Yrsa decides to chase that high, and soon, no sexist, misbehaving man within commuting distance is safe.

This was a unique and fascinating read. I was expecting some comedic, half-assed “thriller” that leaned in on tropes I’ve seen before. Instead, I got a surprisingly academic and morally gray story about an intelligent woman who gets herself into trouble by testing her hypothesis that killing “bad men” can release Black women from oppression.

Maybe it’s because I’m a sociologist myself, but I loved the interwoven academic theory and discussion that was key to Yrsa’s development. Although I can’t say Afropessimism is something I’m familiar with, it provided a unique plot device that kept me coming back for more.

I do think there were some storylines that felt unfinished, and the ending itself was a little abrupt. But all in all, I loved the change of pace this book had in comparison to my usual books - I am sure this is just the beginning in Imani Thompson’s writing career.

Thanks to NetGalley/Random House Publishing for the ARC!

[Cory ⛤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you so much netgalley for the opportunity to read this book as an arc

honestly this wasnt quite what i was expectin, ence my rating. the premise sounds really interesting to me but based on it, i was expecting a much funnier silly book. however this book holds a few important topics on a more serious note
so this isnt to say this is a bad book whatsoever, just not what i was expecting from it and what i was craving. but still really reccomend.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading this book, described as “wickedly funny”. Unfortunately, I found this unusual tale to be more sad than funny, as the main character seemed depressed and dissatisfied with her life. The story started out very slowly, but picked up significantly at about 50%. I received a complimentary copy of this book and chose to write a voluntary, unbiased review.

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Afropessimism is a social critique that theorizes that Black people will always be seen in a civil society as enemies due to the racial structure of a society built on slavery, colonialism, and racism. Blackness is something that was born from enslavement and colonialism because of the way people of color were seen in society and this view has not changed nor will it change in the future. The only way that racism will end is if society ends. (I know there is more nuance to these ideas, but this is a very basic outline.) This is the backdrop of Yrsa’s thinking in Honey, the debut novel by Imani Thompson. Yrsa is studying at university and writing a paper on Afropessimism, and after a colleague steals her friend’s research and publishes it as his own, Yrsa starts to see that there is only one way to really deal with the frustration of being a black woman in society. Kill horrible men.

The story really makes sense in the simplest terms. Women are growing tired of terrible men, but most women do not do anything about it. Since Yrsa does not feel like she is in a society that accepts her anyway, she might as well try to change society in the small way that she can. When Yrsa confronts the research stealing colleague, they are talking about on a park bench. She sees a bee flying around his drink, and her intrusive thought to knock the bee into his drink win. Yrsa watches him die. This gives her a high that she has been craving, and the more that she looks around her, the more she sees that it is easy to point out terrible men who are successful while she is struggling. Horrible men are everywhere, and this makes it easy for her to start hunting for men who are sexist, misogynistic, and/or racist, and teach him a lesson.

I like Yrsa for her bored mischievousness. She does seem like someone who is having an existential problem with not feeling like she belongs anywhere in the world, and she is overwhelmingly bored by it. The only thing that makes her feel important is getting rid of horrible men. She is someone who needs more help than society is willing to give her, and this also plays into her feelings on society due to her research on afropessimism. She feels like the social structure has let her and all women down, and there is no real redemption through the expected channels. She finds her own way to help herself, even if that has turned her into a monster. I enjoy thinking about the questions that this novel asks, and it makes me wonder how many women will read this novel and completely agree with Yrsa’s actions. Honey reminds me of American Psycho in a way that it is more about the commentary on society than it is about a clean resolution of the story.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[MundiNova · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gotta love an evil antihero to enjoy this book

If you like Ottessa Moshfegh, Mona Awad, or Agustina Bazterrica, be prepared to add Imani Thompson to your must read list.

This book is 100% my jam!
I love villains. I think they're infinitely more interesting than heroes. A good person doing good things is boring! It's so much more satisfying to try and understand why villains do the things they do. That's what I want to read. And Yrsa is an amazing villain/antihero I could empathize and understand even when I didn't agree with her reasoning.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but all the little set-ups led to an amazing mystery with literary reveals that provided many emotional 'gut punches' along the way. I think that's what I'm so impressed by, that Thompson was able to leverage mystery genre elements to layer into a literary novel to utilize red herrings and trauma backstory 'clues' along the way (like eating sweets after a kill). It made the story structure solid and impressive. I had theories about who was sending the blackmail emails--because several possibilities were set up beautifully to be suspects--but was still surprised in the end. Then the whole mystery with the grandma paid off brilliantly and added depth and meaning to the overall story.

But let's talk about the gem of this novel: Yrsa. I've never read a character like her. She makes choices I think are crazy, but the choices all make sense in who Yrsa is as a person and her past experiences. Her choices drive the story to it's inevitable conclusion. Literally :-) But more importantly, I could understand her pain, her mania, her ennui, and her anger. I didn't agree with it, but it made sense within the context of her character and that's why I love villains! Yrsa isn't a true, mustache-twirling villain, but killing that many people for the reasons she did definitely puts her in that category. I wanted her to succeed in her endeavors, even when it meant innocent people had to die.

What more can I say? I loved this and ended up staying up too late at night reading because I had to know how it all ended.

I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Story: 5 stars
Character Development: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars

[kiki’s delivery witch ౨ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I respect the swing but wish the ball hadn't veered into the bleachers. The blurb had me at "PhD student turns her dissertation on Afropessimism into a how to manual for offing dudes." Sold.

Yrsa is a masterpiece of moral quicksand. She’s a disaffected Black woman in a Cambridge quad, stewing in boredom and that bone deep rage at how the world chews up and spits out anyone who isn't a straight white guy. The themes hit like a seminar on steroids: Afropessimism isn't just jargon here, it's the engine revving under her vigilante joyride, unpacking how violence cycles through Black bodies and women's silences, all while she justifies her body count with footnotes on racial terror. It's feminist revenge porn, fury at how power hoards itself like a miser's sock drawer.

It did get a bit repetitive after a while, and plots got sidelined constantly. It's like the book remembered it was supposed to be a thriller and panicked, hurling plot threads like confetti. Yrsa's descent gets repetitive.

The humor promised in the blurb skews more pitch black than punchline, which is fine if you're in a Sylvia Plath mood, but I wanted more of those savage murder. I can’t do anything about the state of the world’s injustices without catching life in prison, and I’m not affable as Luigi, so I’m trying to live vicariously through fictional women and their rage.

Also, this needed another lap with an editor. Missing commas so frequent I wanted to pencil them in like a feral proofreader. Spellcheck misses the sneaky ones, but oof, they yanked me out semi frequently when they began to feel commonplace.

Still, it's a good debut. Yrsa's not someone you'd invite to book club (unless it's for the drama), but damn if she doesn't make you question your own simmering grudges. I'd read Thompson's next just to see if she'll tie up those loose ends or leave us dangling again. Go off, I guess? But maybe pack a thesaurus.

- Unhinged female rage (the academic edition)
- Morally gray serial killer (with a bibliography)
- Vigilante justice
- Ambiguous ending

[Stephanie Kollgaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny, feminist novel about murdering terrible men sounded so intriguing and promising, yet unfortunately this novel didn’t quite deliver. Yrsa is a graduate student at Cambridge pursuing a PhD and doing her thesis on Afropessimism. After a chance opportunity to kill a professor who harms one of her friends, Yrsa becomes addicted to the concept of killing awful men and begins to not only deliberately seek them out to kill, but connects it to her thesis work.

Rather than being funny, this novel felt very awkward and cringe with many of the interactions and Yrsa was draining rather than being an energizing, feminist vigilante. Her interactions with basically everyone are primarily negative and the plot became repetitive with her barely being able to function in her daily life and then going on the hunt for men who definitely were bad, but also just pathetic.

Yrsa has a secret which partially explains her penchant for killing, which was an interesting reveal, however a lot of the other exploration into Yrsa’s life seemed only superficially explained. The drama around a variety of her friendships was also ultimately not that interesting.

This book really picked up toward the end when a mystery that’s been present throughout the book is solved and also when some of the positive relationships in Yrsa’s life collapse. I felt like the last part of the book really captures what it’s like when a situation truly spirals out of control. I also appreciated the larger philosophical questions that this book raises about violence and power structures.

I don’t think this book came across as funny at all, but it’s an interesting read for those who are interested in dark and uncomfortable books that raise interesting questions and topics.

Many thanks to Random House and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Honey follows Yrsa who starts killing men after she accidentally kills a professor. She flicks a bee into his drink in the hopes he will get stung but it turns out he has allergies and ends up dead. The professor stole her friend’s research so Yrsa doesn’t care about his death and it actually wakes her up. Killing gives Yrsa a sense of control and makes her feel alive.

I had a really good time reading this and I found this book to be very enjoyable. I liked the academic setting this book had and whilst I don’t have a PhD, I recently finished my MA so I could relate to quite a bit of the university setting. Yrsa wasn’t a very likeable character but I found it interesting to follow her. There is a twist in this book that I really enjoyed and I liked how this book wasn’t just about killing. There was a lot of depth to it that I appreciate. I will be recommending this book and I enjoyed my time reading this.

Favourite Quote: ‘Set texts: Hobbes, Weber, Hayek, Arendt, Madison, Robinson, Doyle, MacKinnon, Constant, Runciman, Schmitt, Marx. Well done, they squeezed Fanon and Gandhi on there but you do not have a single set text written by a woman of colour. What do you reckon, Damien, has no woman of colour had anything worthwhile to say about the modern state and its alternatives?’ Damien is looking at his Mac. ‘That was a question for you.’ Damien is all but muttering. ‘No, they have.’ ‘So, my next question to you is, on this topic of free discourse, who might we say is finding it difficult to speak? Who might we say has always found it difficult to speak?’ Damien looks at his shoes, clean white trainers, and mutters something else. ‘Sorry, I didn’t catch that.’ ‘Women of colour.’

[Susan Poer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is advertised by the publisher as 'Wickedly Funny', and it's far from it, depending on your sense of humour. Yrsa is bored. She's a student at Cambridge who also teaches feminist theory and is getting her PhD on 'Afropessimism', which frames society as anti-Black and rooted in slavery. You can't argue with that. She's tired of the same old students, the same questions, the tedium of trying to complete her thesis. One day, she finds out her friends' work is being stolen by a professor who intends to make it his own. Suddenly, he accidently meets his untimely death and Yrsa suddently feels alive again.

What if, what if, what if, she decides to dispose of unwanted/racist/misogynistic men in tiny little ways and noone ever finds out???

So this was an interesting premise, but then went off the rails a bit when she takes things a bit too far and does some deeds too close to home, to the point where her mother starts to suspect something is off. Is my ex-boyfriend a racist, well let's take care of that, etc..

When she decides to go after a big alt-right, sexist political figure, I thought that was an interesting turn, but then that plotline is not followed through.

You just don't get a good idea of what drives Yrsa. She spent a lot of time with her grandmother growing up, who apparently had lots of secrets, but that is never revealed. So the back story of why just one death, sets her off on a mission, might have been more interesting. None of her friends are that likeable, or well developed either. Your aren't really rooting for Yrsa to find herself and are shocked at the ending that doesn't happen.

This would be better with more character development and history, but still a solid debut.

[alyssa]

Honey by Imani Thompson is a dark, unsettling, and at times funny novel that sits somewhere between dark academia, satire, and thriller. We follow Yrsa, a PhD student whose boredom with her dissertation and academic program morphs into vigilante justice against the men who wrong her and her friends. What seemingly begins as revenge quickly becomes an intoxication with power itself: “To kill and get away with it. There is something spectacular to it.”

Thompson complicates the story by tying Yrsa’s choices to her academic work on Afropessimism, leaving the reader to puzzle over what is part of her narrative and what is a larger critique. I loved puzzling over how the book was in conversation with some of the very same ideas Yrsa was toying with in her thesis. In my opinion, the book is at its best when it leans into this ambiguity and explores Yrsa’s morally gray psychology. Yrsa's inner narrative is captivating and I appreciated how the novel wrestled with themes of feminism, race, power, and vengeance in complicated, even messy ways. Though the pacing occasionally dragged for me, especially in long stretches of dialogue or time spent with the very men Yrsa targets, I felt that overall the book was a quick and compelling read, and took a series of unexpected twists that were fun for the reader.

Honey won’t be for everyone, but for other readers drawn to feminist thrillers, academic satire, and at times erratic protagonists, it’s a bold debut worth picking up.

Thank you to Imani Thompson, Random House, and NetGalley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

(ARC - out 05/05/26 via Random House) I cannot wait to get a physical copy of this so I can write and highlight to my heart’s delight. What a debut. Yrsa is feeling bored. The man she’s seeing isn’t worth her time, her work as a doctoral student studying afropessimism has her feeling apathetic, the students she interacts with are entitled and frustrating. After finding out that her friend Nina has not only been left by her boyfriend, but said boyfriend is also her supervisor and is stealing her research, Yrsa “accidentally” kills the supervisor with the help of a bee, an allergy, and a lemon sanpellegrino. Then Yrsa finds that she has a taste for dispatching shitty men. This is such a prescient story. Thompson elides so clearly the ways racism and sexism impact women of color, from the quiet insidiousness of white people who believe they’re progressive to the overt, casual racism of people who have no issue with being openly racist. Intersectionality is presented in a way that makes it obvious how different aspects of a person’s identity overlap - Yrsa is a Black woman and those two parts of her identity inform each other and the way that other people treat her. The writing is in this so sharp, and the humor, which is definitely there, is pitch black. The story is painful and speaks so keenly to our current moment, but Thompson writes in such an engaging way that I had trouble putting this down, even when it was anxiety-inducing. I will seek out everything Thompson writes and I loved, loved, loved this.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had trouble connecting with this book, though I do think it was quite unique. PhD student Yrsa accidentally kills someone when trying to teach him a lesson and this sets her off to rid the world of other bad men who take advantage of women. While I wouldn't say the book was "wickedly funny" as the synopsis described, Yrsa had a dry humor about her that made her an interesting character. I was much more interested in her overall psychopathic thoughts than in either the murders or her PhD studies.

The book spends a lot of time on Yrsa's studies and while I found the subject interesting, the reading itself was often boring. I did like the way her actions tied back to her overall thesis and the way she connected her actions to her overall thought process. While the murders were somewhat intriguing, I found it HUGELY hard to believe that no one was suspicious of her based on her proximity to these men. I also never really understood why she chose to go on a killing spree and was willing to take so many risks all of a sudden- I know she was "bored" but it felt extreme. I enjoyed the dynamic with both her parents and her friendships and felt that those were the most believable and interesting parts of the story. I don't want to spoil the end but it left me somewhat unsatisfied.

Overall, I didn't fully get there with this book but I do think it was a unique read that did a great job at tying together theories an actions in an interesting way. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.