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A review by venusfawn
The Hive by Barry Lyga, Morgan Baden
2.0
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
So...I had high hopes for this that were not quite fulfilled. But I did like some things about it so I’ll start with those. Firstly, I really liked that not only was Rachel a big presence in the book, but we got insight on her POV. I feel like parents are often quite absent in YA stories and having an involved mom that we also got perspective from was refreshing to me. Also, Rachel is a badass mama bear and deserves all the props. #MomArmy indeed. I also usually hate when a book is described as “timely,” but I think a story addressing the toxic quagmire that is “cancel culture” is right on cue these days.
Hence why the premise of this book appealed to me as much as it did. However it fell a bit flat for me. For starters, it’s hard to like Cassie. The fact that it took her being Hived to realize that Hive Justice is a crock of bullshit was a bit frustrating to me, since her dad was supposed to be this big “shake up the system” type of guy. Her asking Bryce if he was a free speech “zealot” when he said he didn’t think people should be beaten up for what they say really stuck in my craw. The Hive would not shake up the system. The Hive was made and implemented, BY THE SYSTEM. It was “controlled” bullying, it was a flagrant means of trying to control people. The Hive is clearly something intended to be abused and something that would lead to violent chaos and people getting hurt, over petty shit. Hard to root for someone who ever thought it was some neat-o idea, though I’m glad she started realizing that Rachel was right about the Hive from the get-go.
I was also making the disappointed Kermit face every time she stood by her joke being funny. No one deserves to be murdered for a joke and it was by no means the most offensive of tasteless jokes I’ve run across online, but like...She called a newborn baby ugly. Much edgelord. Much smart. Cassie, girl, you’re no comedian. This is a very random thing to be annoyed about but it annoyed me nevertheless lmao. I also really felt like her reaction to finding out she was the reason the OHM sanctuary was raided was so minimal as to be almost sociopathic.
I’m technically challenged so sometimes all the coding jargon kind of made my eyes start to cross but some of it was interesting too. The whole conspiracy with the president also seemed a bit like overkill to me; it’s disturbing and chilling enough that it was made legal for people to harass and assault other people because they felt something somewhere online offended them. The mass “ending term limits” game plan didn’t feel particularly necessary to me, though I guess it does at least touch on the idea that we shouldn’t hand away our lives to tech and Big Brother willy-nilly. Question everything, babes. Still though; I felt like this could’ve been an exploration of just how dark human behavior and mob mentality can be and instead it threw in this presidential conspiracy and bot accounts and I feel like it ended up actually distracting from the horror of the Hive. It was like “no, actually the Hive *isn’t* bad, the president just used it that way!”
For all the doomsday dystopia elements this book still managed to be YA fluff to me. I felt like it could’ve had more punch and zing, so it didn’t quite do it for me. The ending felt too...tidy. Sugarcoated. It left me feeling dissatisfied. All this drama and rage and people dying trying to help Cassie and then...poof. She apologized. It’s all over. Conspiracy thwarted. No one is mad anymore. Okay.
I think we can take away some good thoughts about online “outrage mobs” and reveling in “cancelling” people, at least. But this book could’ve been better, could’ve been more. With its initial premise it could’ve been a great dystopia but sadly fell flat on its face.
So...I had high hopes for this that were not quite fulfilled. But I did like some things about it so I’ll start with those. Firstly, I really liked that not only was Rachel a big presence in the book, but we got insight on her POV. I feel like parents are often quite absent in YA stories and having an involved mom that we also got perspective from was refreshing to me. Also, Rachel is a badass mama bear and deserves all the props. #MomArmy indeed. I also usually hate when a book is described as “timely,” but I think a story addressing the toxic quagmire that is “cancel culture” is right on cue these days.
Hence why the premise of this book appealed to me as much as it did. However it fell a bit flat for me. For starters, it’s hard to like Cassie. The fact that it took her being Hived to realize that Hive Justice is a crock of bullshit was a bit frustrating to me, since her dad was supposed to be this big “shake up the system” type of guy. Her asking Bryce if he was a free speech “zealot” when he said he didn’t think people should be beaten up for what they say really stuck in my craw. The Hive would not shake up the system. The Hive was made and implemented, BY THE SYSTEM. It was “controlled” bullying, it was a flagrant means of trying to control people. The Hive is clearly something intended to be abused and something that would lead to violent chaos and people getting hurt, over petty shit. Hard to root for someone who ever thought it was some neat-o idea, though I’m glad she started realizing that Rachel was right about the Hive from the get-go.
I was also making the disappointed Kermit face every time she stood by her joke being funny. No one deserves to be murdered for a joke and it was by no means the most offensive of tasteless jokes I’ve run across online, but like...She called a newborn baby ugly. Much edgelord. Much smart. Cassie, girl, you’re no comedian. This is a very random thing to be annoyed about but it annoyed me nevertheless lmao. I also really felt like her reaction to finding out she was the reason the OHM sanctuary was raided was so minimal as to be almost sociopathic.
I’m technically challenged so sometimes all the coding jargon kind of made my eyes start to cross but some of it was interesting too. The whole conspiracy with the president also seemed a bit like overkill to me; it’s disturbing and chilling enough that it was made legal for people to harass and assault other people because they felt something somewhere online offended them. The mass “ending term limits” game plan didn’t feel particularly necessary to me, though I guess it does at least touch on the idea that we shouldn’t hand away our lives to tech and Big Brother willy-nilly. Question everything, babes. Still though; I felt like this could’ve been an exploration of just how dark human behavior and mob mentality can be and instead it threw in this presidential conspiracy and bot accounts and I feel like it ended up actually distracting from the horror of the Hive. It was like “no, actually the Hive *isn’t* bad, the president just used it that way!”
For all the doomsday dystopia elements this book still managed to be YA fluff to me. I felt like it could’ve had more punch and zing, so it didn’t quite do it for me. The ending felt too...tidy. Sugarcoated. It left me feeling dissatisfied. All this drama and rage and people dying trying to help Cassie and then...poof. She apologized. It’s all over. Conspiracy thwarted. No one is mad anymore. Okay.
I think we can take away some good thoughts about online “outrage mobs” and reveling in “cancelling” people, at least. But this book could’ve been better, could’ve been more. With its initial premise it could’ve been a great dystopia but sadly fell flat on its face.