Amanda Pearson’s life is a wreck. At one time, she was the hottest rising star. Now washed up with no income, she comes running when her old manager gives her an option. For a week, she and five strangers will live in an isolated mansion. They will each be given an experimental drug. They don’t get to know what’s in the drug, what it does, or if the promises of no adverse side effects are real. However, if they spend the entire week under observation, they will be given money, and lots of it. Amanda Pearson sees no other option and signs up. She quickly learns that everyone here has their own demons, and that the experiment may be a lot more dangerous than expected.
It can be very easy to want to be loved and cherished publicly, and Amanda Person’s wreck of a life seems to follow the after-existence of many a popstar. Writer SB Caves captures the lengths that one will go to in order to survive, but also explores the downsides of obsession and parasocial relationships. While many of us reading Honeycomb would say there’s no way they’d ever undergo an experiment like this, let’s be real about how many of us would be on a reality television show. Honeycomb is a quick read, and once it gets its claws into you, you’ll find yourself turning pages as quickly as your eyes can follow the page.
Honeycomb is now available.
