Exactly how steamy is this story?
PG-13
At no point do we ever see any of the characters in The Bean Trees actually getting it on (except for a couple of turtles in the zoo, that is!), but Taylor and Lou Ann do talk frankly about sex and sexuality, and that can make for some racy language now and again.
If anything in the novel is likely to shock and disturb, it's the after-effects of the sexual assaults that Turtle survives. It's a painful topic, and one that's not easy to read about, but by addressing it frankly, The Bean Trees opens up space to think and talk about an important social issue.