Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Bees by Laline Paull

5 reviews

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is really really cool. I loved the audiobook, very engaging. The whole story is really ominous and interesting and dark and gorgeous. I really love how sensory experiences are described--the author clearly worked hard and is very skilled at describing scents, sounds, visuals.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Death, Body horror, Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Violence, and Xenophobia

atamano's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Xenophobia, and Animal death

Moderate: Grief, Gore, and Violence

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Violence, Ableism, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Classism, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

adventuryn's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

judereadsalot's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Grief, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Police brutality, and Pregnancy