Book Blurb:
Enter a whole new world, in this thrilling debut novel set entirely within a beehive.
Born into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen.
Yet Flora has talents that are not typical of her kin. And while mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is reassigned to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. Then she finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous.
Enemies roam everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. But Flora cannot help but break the most sacred law of all, and her instinct to serve is overshadowed by a desire, as overwhelming as it is forbidden…
This is actually Laline Paull’s first novel, however I read her most recent novel, The Pod, first simply because it was the only one available from my local library at the time. I enjoyed The Pod for what is was worth and so made sure to reserve The Bees. This book has actually been on loan at my local library for months, so I must admit I had some high expectations for it.
This book follows the story of Flora 717, who is born as a sanitation worker in her hive. The story follows her as she works her way up the ranks of the hive though, moving from sanitation, to the nursery, to the fliers and then eventually working her way up to the queen’s inner chamber. I will try not to give away spoilers in this review just in case you want to check it out, but one thing I can say is that this book has a LOT happening.
I personally really liked that the story just started. There wasn’t much build up and I don’t think it was really needed. The first few chapters do a great job of introducing you to the hive and to the world of Flora 717, and also to the way the hive as a whole functions and operates. I really enjoyed seeing how the different hierarchies of bees interreacted with one another and also how they all seemed to have their own way of speaking as well as how this changed depending on who they were speaking to.
I also have to say that a lot happens in this book. One issue I had with The Pod was that there were too many characters who all seemed to be telling different stories, so I very much appreciated that this whole story is told from Flora’s point of view alone. There are recurring characters throughout the story that come and go, but I think having the one main narrator in Flora helped to give the story a lot of cohesion and therefore made it much easier to follow. Which is also a plus because as I say, there is a LOT that happens in this book. I cannot even begin to list the things that happen but as a small snapshot Flora will meet bees, wasps, spiders and flies, throughout the story so there are a lot of characters to keep track of. I did however like that each of the different species again seemed to have their own ways of speaking and also their own understanding of the world that in many cases contradicted what Flora was raised to think by the hive.
The use of the hive mind is prevalent throughout this story and I really enjoyed seeing how it was used. It was also interesting how it seemed that Flora could choose when to hear the hive mind and when not to, and as a result was able to keep a lot of her adventures secret to the rest of the hive. I thought this was a neat little feature to add, because usually when a story refers to a hive mind it is one that is involuntary – either you are a part of it or you are not – so I found it quite cool to see someone who could chose whether or not to be a part of the hive mind at any given moment.
The aspect I really liked about this story though was the focus on actual bee behaviour. There was a very spiritual approach to the Queen Bee that reminded me a little bit of the Handmaiden’s Tale, since the Queen is the only one who can lay eggs and therefore the entire safety and efficiency of the hive is based on her ability to lay and to continue laying. One of the biggest conflicts of the story (without giving anything away) centres around how new queens are found for hives and this was all very interesting to see it play out as part of the story. I also liked how often the bees would dance for one another, with there being many occasions throughout he story where a conversation needs to be stopped midway through because a drone has just returned and has valuable information to give the hive and he must do this via dance. It was also interesting to see how a lot of the conversations – especially when Flora starts to integrate with the forager bees – were done exclusively through dance, as the bees share directions, warnings and new finds with one another following an expedition outside of the hive.
The one issue I had with the story is the violence. Now I am not someone who is overly adverse to gore and violence, and I think in this story especially the violence serves a purpose. I am not a fan of books that use violence purely to try and be shocking, or are so gory with the details that it actually makes me a bit queasy. However I know some people may not like violence at all in their stories and so I wanted to make you aware that there is a lot of violence in this. Some aspects are more gory than others – there is an incident with a wasp at about the half way point that did give me a few grimaces with the descriptions – so if you are someone who doesn’t enjoy that sort of thing then I don’t think you would enjoy this book. As I say, the violence within this book is needed in every situation and in many cases is a key plot point of Flora’s story and a key turning point for her character, and I honestly do not think the story would work if the violence had all been removed. But I wanted to make it clear so that you could all make informed decisions.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and did prefer it The Pod. Laline Paull manages to build the world of the hive very quickly but also very subtly, so you aren’t hit with this massive load of exposition or anything like that. The characters are all well rounded and Flora herself is truly the definition of an underdog. She begins as the literal lowest of the low in her hive and I did find myself rooting for her at certain points to prove the other bee classes wrong. I would recommend you read this book first if you are new to Laline Paull, as I think it very much showcases her ability to story tell really well, whereas I found The Pod could get very confusing and a little convoluted at times.
Taylor Talks Vegan 