Honeysuckle
A Novel
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A darkly enchanting fantasy debut about love and power, autonomy, and consent.
An Instant USA Today & National Indie Bestseller | Named a Best Book of March 2026 by Barnes & Noble and Apple and A Goodreads Most Popular Horror Novel of 2026 (So Far)
Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate-Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend.
Rory couldn't be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last.
As Rory and Daye grow older and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye's existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.
As a loose reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is an entrancing, inventive, and unsettling debut.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A childhood wish becomes an unsettling gothic story in this literary fantasy from Bar Fridman-Tell. Eight-year-old Rory is lonely and desperate for company, so his older sister, Wynne, fashions him a magical playmate named Daye from living forest matter. Rory adores Daye until he begins to notice the rules of her existence, including what happens when the season shifts and Daye’s body starts to fail. As Rory grows, devotion curdles into something sharper, and their bond becomes both a refuge and a threat. Fridman-Tell writes with lush control, letting beauty and dread share the same page without cancelling each other out. The novel’s sharpest cutting edge is its emotional logic, which makes the ethics of creation and possession feel immediate rather than abstract. Scenes of wonder, decay, and repair build a tense rhythm that keeps the story intimate even as it turns ever stranger. Tense and intoxicating, Honeysuckle is a haunting tale of love and control.
