careinthelibrary 's review for:

The Bees by Laline Paull

3.0

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While I enjoyed Flora 717's progress from Sanitation Worker to Forager to Mother, I found myself more interested in the inner workings and organizations of the Hive than the character's thoughts and the plot. I'd like to talk to a bee expert to find out how much of the book was accurate to the layout of a hive and if bees are segregated into hierarchies as in The Bees. The idea for the novel is so unique that I was kept intrigued with no idea of how it would play out. The creativity went too far in a few instances such as saying the bees had hands and stating that they had dishware and cutlery. Too far-fetched! I would have preferred the author kept it as close to natural processes as possible. Things like that drew me out of reading and broke my immersion. I would also have really appreciated a map of the hive as I found it hard to picture which rooms were connected to others and how big certain areas are like the Dancing Room and the Morgue. Flora and Sir Linden were both intriguing characters and I wish we got to see more of the Queen's perspective. This book could have really benefited from different points of view. That being said, Paull did a great job introduced many levels of the Hive at the beginning of the book by having Flora move around from the Nursery to the Sanitation Worker's ignorance to the soft glow of the Queen's quarters. The descriptions of flowers and nectar/pollen were beautiful and gave a new light to humanity's effect on wildlife. Smog coated flowers and cell towers disrupt their natural patterns that have existed for thousands of years and threaten the survival of thousands of beautiful and unique creatures. In summary, I liked this book more for its uniqueness in subject matter than the plot and characters although those were good as well. This is a great novel from Paull and I look forward to reading more from this new author!