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rogue_runner 's review for:
The Bees
by Laline Paull
This took me a while to read, in comparison with the other books I have recently been storming through. I've read books from animal viewpoints and the like before, but there was always a lot more fantasy and anthropomorphism than in this.
Flora-717 and her kind were distinctly insect, and very alien as a result. Thanks to my Mum I know a fair bit about bees, so I was constantly scanning this for slipups, just through habit- most of it actually seemed to stand up to scrutiny however, which I was pleased about. There was, of course, some artistic licence, although it mostly seemed to fit.
How can you make a story about a bee colony in a hive? I found myself wondering this more than once, as the story seemed to stagnate at various points, and only the desire to actually read, rather than find out the story, kept me going at the pace that I was. There were parts that were repetitive and slow, and didn't seem to connect. There were no characters to really respond to, apart from perhaps Linden, who by the end, I couldn't quite work out my feelings towards; a spoiled brat, the underdog, an unpleasant drone, a hero? Who knows. Personality and character was distinctly lacking; it worked for a while, here and there, adding to the alien of the colony, but I found myself disengaging fairly often due to a lack of interest in any sort of character development.
Very different, but not sure I'd hurry to read it or anything similar again.
Flora-717 and her kind were distinctly insect, and very alien as a result. Thanks to my Mum I know a fair bit about bees, so I was constantly scanning this for slipups, just through habit- most of it actually seemed to stand up to scrutiny however, which I was pleased about. There was, of course, some artistic licence, although it mostly seemed to fit.
How can you make a story about a bee colony in a hive? I found myself wondering this more than once, as the story seemed to stagnate at various points, and only the desire to actually read, rather than find out the story, kept me going at the pace that I was. There were parts that were repetitive and slow, and didn't seem to connect. There were no characters to really respond to, apart from perhaps Linden, who by the end, I couldn't quite work out my feelings towards; a spoiled brat, the underdog, an unpleasant drone, a hero? Who knows. Personality and character was distinctly lacking; it worked for a while, here and there, adding to the alien of the colony, but I found myself disengaging fairly often due to a lack of interest in any sort of character development.
Very different, but not sure I'd hurry to read it or anything similar again.