"Accept. Obey. Serve.
Flora 717 is a survivor. Born into the lowest class of the totalitarian hive society she is prepared to sacrifice everything for the Queen, surviving internal massacres, religious purges and terrifying invasions by vicious wasps. With each act of bravery her status grows, revealing both the enemies within and the sinister secrets that rule the hive. But when her instinct to serve is overwhelmed by a fierce and deeply forbidden maternal love, she breaks the most sacred law of all..." - Taken from the blurb.
This book's title kind of speaks for itself; it is about bees. Despite it's ominous sounding name it is not a horror book where innocent humans are being attacked, no no no, but you might find the correlations between these fictional bees' world and our own rather scary.
Unlike The Rats by James Herbert, The Bees certainly opens up questions about how corrupt religion can be. Better does not always mean better for all. I definitely think that this book will have you looking at the world differently, whether that is at wildlife, the environment, or even just how we as a society function. Paull combines science and fiction together to make an intriguing story about survival and loyalty.
[Warning: Spoilers Ahead!]
Like mentioned in the blurb, this story follows a young worker bee called Flora 717. She is larger than the other bees and, by their standards, less appealing. She is a sanitation bee, whose role is to clean, remove the dead and be a sacrifice when needed, so not really the best life to be born into. She is spared death the second she has emerged from her holding cell; her ugliness is labelled a deformity and thus means she is not fit to work. However, a kind bee takes her away and shows her various departments of the hive that she will clean and introduces her to some of the other bees of authority. This kind bee takes an interest in Flora and decides to see what her skills are. She appoints Flora a role as a nurse in the nursery as she can produce Flow - a substance used to feed the larvae and help them grow. Producing Flow is not the only thing about Flora that makes her different to the other sanitation workers; she can also speak.
Flora's devotion and love for her hive allow her to explore all the different parts of the hive. She is encouraged to go foraging with the forager bees, giving her an opportunity to become one of the best foragers the hive has, she meets her beloved Queen and learns more about the hive's history and religion, she meets the Drones of the hive as well, worshipped for their "maleness" and ends up falling for - or at least so it seems towards the end - a Drone named Linden. Of course, no worker bee may mate, only the princesses can do that, so the Drones' flirtiness (that is a word now) simply teases the females bees into grooming the males and feeding them.
Flora is living her best life - as much as she can do - until all of a sudden she grows an egg. Only the Queen may breed is a mantra repeated by the hive and Flora herself as this is one of their biggest laws, punishable by death - as is pretty much anything, really. Since Flora has not mated, she is confused yet all she has is love for this egg, much stronger than the love she has for her hive or even her Queen. She places her egg into the nursery, hoping the nurses will not notice and treat it like the Queens. Unfortunately, the egg is discovered and killed by the fertility police. Heartbroken, Flora decides to put all her effort and thoughts into foraging for the hive, knowing winter will soon be upon them.
As time goes by, tragic events occur in the hive, honey is stolen by a human, their Queen gets sick, the hive go into a long trance for the winter, and a "friendly" spider tells Flora of the hive's future which does not look good. In the end, Flora's final gift to the hive is what sets them free, be rid of the sickness that has taken over and gives her sisters the chance to start again. I won't do spoilers but let's just say everyone gets what the deserve - whether we like it or not.
At first this book really bored me, but once I got the vibe and writing style I started to enjoy it. I found it hard to stay in the story - the world was so alien and difficult for me to imagine - but I eventually started to really like the characters. I found myself rooting for and crying over a fictional bee! The end was beautiful; concluded and final and I felt that Paull summed up the story and tied any loose ends. I was gutted that certain characters' paths did not go the way I had predicted but I was glad my favourites were able to get their happy endings.
I loved the plot for this despite it feeling a little slow, so a star for the plot. A star for the characters, Paull had be welling up for Flora and wishing her the best in her fictional world. Also, I empathised greatly with Flora in her love for the hive and her Queen but I believe that is down to the writing so two stars for both of those elements. It was not an easy book to read at first, but eventually I started speeding through thanks to skimming the pages, so I don't feel like I can give it a star for that but what I can give it a final star for is how the book made me feel. I am now motivated to take better care of our planet and especially our bees. A section of the book talks about the inconvenience to the bees that are the transmitter towers which alter their abilities to maneuver and fly. Certainly a fantastic read and definitely one all plant and animal lovers should have on their shelves. Four stars! (Four for you Glenn Coco)
★★★★☆
#thebees #readingchallenge #animals #dystopia #fantasy #totalitarianstate #feminism #family #suspense
Comments