This is the kind of sugary feel-good chic drama that aims to praise the power and strength of the female spirit but actually does the opposite because it's so full of corn syrup. Now there's nothing wrong with a little syrup or sugar once in a while, but this has gobs of the bad kind: high fructose corn syrup and aspartamine--the bad fake stuff. Because although it introduces serious--even ugly--issues, (like racism and child-abuse) it doesn't deal with them realistically; it sprinkles a little pixie dust here and there, tells a parable now and then, and ties everything into a flimsy new-age pseudo-religion that has associations with the virgin Mary. 
 The Secret Life of Bees swarms with bad stereotypes and cliches. Various aspects of nature are supposed to represent the female spirit: like the queen bee from a hive, the moon, and the sea. Here is a passage about the moon: "She is strong enough to pull the oceans, and when she dies away, she always comes back again. My mama used to tell me Our Lady lived on the moon and that I should dance when her face was bright and hibernate when it was dark."This mumbo-jumbo is all over this book. 
 This flimflam bothered me most of all at the suicide of a certain character. This character was super-sensitive to life's sorrows; small things could trigger a depression; she couldn't stand to see a cockroach die. In a ridiculous scene she lures one out of the house with marshmallow bits. So she can't kill any living thing but she can walk into the river with a heavy rock and kill herself? Well, OK she was mentally unstable; but I couldn't buy that the suicide was triggered by a friend's arrest for a minor charge (which is dropped later). With all the things that could push someone over the edge? 
 But my main problem with this is the way the death is treated by the other characters. They're very sad, yes, but there's an acceptance of what's meant to be and the suicide victim's "time to die." And again, the corn syrup: "The river had done its best, I was sure, to give her a peaceful ride out of this life. You could die in a river, but maybe you could get reborn in it, too..." Blech. Not that I've ever slurped syrup right out of the bottle but I imagine it would be not unlike reading this novel.