A review by booksthatburn
Their Heart A Hive by Fox N. Locke

mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I wanted to like THEIR HEART A HIVE, but things started to go downhill when I realized the protagonist was not the immortal genderqueer aristocrat, but a fourteen-year-old boy (Lowen) who is summoned to pay off his debt for accidentally killing one of their bees. The narrative seemed to act like there was some big mystery that Lowen was gradually unraveling, but I found myself quite unimpressed. The synopsis spoils that the genderqueer noble is immortal, the title spoils that their heart is full of bees, and the remaining mystery as to exactly which historical person they might have been was so uninteresting that I didn't even realize it was supposed to be a mystery. The answer to why no one is allowed on the second floor, a trope endemic to gothic literature, was ultimately boring. There's a message towards the end about all the servants being like one big family, but that fell flat when Lowe eats almost all his meals alone and mostly doesn't interact with more than one person at a time.

The topic of sexual content in YA books is a tricky one, because many real teenagers do have sex, and some will argue that stories for teens should reflect that reality. This one handles it with antiquated euphemisms, tending to elide over aspects of Lowen's past that seem to include sexual abuse from an older noble boy several years ago. 

This is one where I can't tell if the story didn't accomplish what it meant to do, or it did manage it and I just don't like it. Either way, this wasn't for me.
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