Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Bees by Laline Paull

9 reviews

davbat's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Gripping and an emotional read- but also quite odd and not very satisfying. Glad I read it. 

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luckythenoun's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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labeanorita's review

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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cammiem8's review

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was SO GOOD and especially interesting for me to read as an entomology student!  Strangely human for a story about bees, this is at its core about the love between a mother and her daughter. 

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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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kander1412's review

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Interesting concept but fails to Deliver half way through. The POV is good, but the other characters it’s hard to care or want to keep up with. 

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adventuryn's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The book is described as a mix of The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale, but with bees and while I've not read either, from what I have heard and seen that would be accurate.  The story itself was engaging and very well written.  However, while it is well written and engaging, describing insect society in a manner that you would a human society gets rather grim, incredibly fast.  

The depictions of violence and death are, from what I am aware, accurate to bee activity and societal structure.  There is a queen, who lays eggs.  There are drones (male bees), that are only really in the hive for mating purposes.  Wasps kill and eat bees when they are able to get access to them.  Bees are beautiful, complex creatures with highly detailed lives and roles.  They can also be terrifying when viewed through the eyes of a fellow bee.

If you go into it expecting there to be graphic depictions of death from the perspective of the creatures going through it, you will likely be better prepared for the plot than I was.  There is also a repeated theme of psychological manipulation that I wasn't expecting, but is in line with what I know of how bees operate with certain scent markers.

Overall, it was well written to evoke a visceral response from the reader.  However, you also have to be in a very particular headspace in order to read this and not have a negative response.  

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judereadsalot's review

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

At times, I forgot I was reading about bees. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this one but it was very enjoyable.

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umbreon's review

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if i wanted to hear about a society where disability is tied to the idea of personal moral failings, men are treated as superior beings who not only are able to sexually harass people without consequence but still get what they want in the end, the most important part of the story of a woman is her getting pregnant, and old people are considered useless wastes of space that are better off killed, i would have simply went outside

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