The Bees

I was cautiously optimistic about this book, because I'd heard good things about it, but really? Bees? An entire book from the viewpoint of a worker bee? Even fictionalized, how much material is there really to work with?

SO MUCH.

My fears were completely ungrounded because this book is AMAZING. Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, tasked with taking dead bodies out of the hive, cleaning up wax cells after new bees have hatched, and other duties to keep the hive clean. Somewhat extraordinarily, it is discovered that she can produce the liquid needed to feed bee larva, and is taken to serve in the nursery for a bit, where she starts to develop a mind of her own.

As Flora develops new abilities and works her way through the ranks of the hive, we start to learn that something in the governing of the hive is not quite what it should be. Something is wrong. But the strictly enforced castes and other outside factors, like weather and predators, delay Flora's quest to ferret it out.

Between lying wasps, conniving spiders, and a conspiracy within the ranks of her own hive, Flora bounces from danger to danger trying to protect what she loves in an engrossing story of bravery and sacrifice.

I absolutely loved this book. I especially liked that anywhere possible, actual bee behavior was described and used to further the plot. This is definitely one of my favorite reads this year!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Really captivating, well-written story that anthropomorphized the bees only so much that I could understand them, but never to the point that I forgot this was a story about bees. It really made me think about the effects of group-think and religious fervor and the power of one willing to forge her own course. Definitely recommended.

“You have wings and courage and a brain. Do not annoy me by asking permission”

I originally bought this book just for the cover. I absolutely love bees and this is about as bee as you can get when it comes to books. This was one of the strangest books I have ever read. Think animal farm but for bees. Set in a bee hive, it is full of drama, high stakes and complex organisation that is incredible to read about. But there is a price to pay, stuck in a cult like environment built upon slavery, brain washing and secrets. Not only this but there are themes of religion as the queen is considered “divine” and the hive is expected to partake in daily rituals, prayers and even sacrifice. The bees also seem to worship death, even going so far as to call it the “Kindness”. Workers are regularly “given the kindness” for sins such as greed, desire, idleness and even deformity. They even wish and beg for it, especially if they think they have harmed the hive in any way.

The more I think about this book the more I am marvelled at the commentary woven throughout this book. This book was so interesting to witness the complexities of the world that Paull has created. There were certain moments where I was just laughing at how ridiculous some of the behaviours were (the drones if you've read it). I don't know how realistic it all is but if even a little bit is true then omg bees are messed up xD.

Not only did Paull touch upon the behaviours inside the hive, but also how the outside world effects it too. Whether its winter, other insects, animals and even technology, the hive was not having a good time at all. Paull tells of lack of freedom of speech, classism, slavery, eugenics and religious issues in such a beautiful way that it really makes you think at the end. It's such a powerful story showcasing the dark truth behind controlling states. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about it.

I really don't know what I think of this book. I liked it, when I was reading it, but as soon as I put it down I had to force myself to pick it up again. If the protagonists had been people instead of bees you would have an average dystopian adventure. Using bees as the characters gave it more of a flavour of a children's book but with decidedly adult content. So here we are with a children's/coming of age/ dystopian/ecological themed book. Three stars for the content and a fourth because I love bees.

I should just say once again that despite what I have written this is NOT a book for children.

Most anthropomorphisms end up being too human or too alien for me. This one hit an excellent balance of bee-like behaviors but still enough ‘human' characteristics like curtsy and religion to make it accessible and understandable. This is a book following a bee through the natural life cycle of a hive and bee's life. Includes overcoming birth castes, foraging adventures, and politics of an aging divine ruler.

I went into this curious, and came out loving it. Essentially we're following the life of a bee that is different from the others, and seeing all the different threats.

The book does an incredible job guiding the reader to recognize that being pushed into unfamiliar territory can be a good growing experience, especially with other more experienced people guiding the way.

Not my cup of tea, I’m way outside my usual genres and I’m surprised I finished it. It was beautifully written I just found myself not interested.

This wasn't what I expected. I was enjoying it at first but then it just faded for me as the middle bits were pretty slow and hard to want to read. The ending was good and that made up for some of it. Definitely makes you see bees in a different way.

There were elements of this that were interesting, but overall I just really didn't like this book. This review's gonna be a little disjointed, but I'm laying it out then I'm ready to be done thinking about this.

I knew going in that this was supposed to be about literal bees, and I think this would have worked for me a lot better if they hadn't been so thoroughly anthropomorphized. Flora 717 made me frequently forget that she was supposed to be a bee (except when she was foraging, and then talked about smells and the most delicious flowers ad nauseum). I literally thought of the Sage caste of bees as human priestesses, because they didn't seem to have any elements that made them literal bees other than having claws? But also, Flora's human emotions bothered me, because if I'm supposed to believe that the good of the hive is the most important thing to every bee, her motivations, feelings, grief , particularly about the eggs she wasn't supposed to be laying, did not make sense.

I think I also would have been less irritated if, right off the bat, Paull hadn't set precedents for how the characterization ought to be, then broken every one of them. The bees are all born of a certain kin. The Flora kin are sanitation bees, of the lowest caste, mute and required to serve the hive through cleanliness for their entire lives. The next thing you learn is that, if a bee is not able to be useful, or has a deformity, the police come and kill her.

So the first thing in the book that happens is that Flora is born, she can talk, she is way bigger than all the rest of the bees, and a Sage priestess decides to prevent the police from killing Flora. (Which, I mean that precedent of All Nonconforming Beings Must Die is terrible, but like, this is one page after that rule was laid out! Just leave that out if it's not important!) Instead, the Sage is like, let's do an experiment - you're gonna work in the nursery, feeding larva babies. Flora has Ambition. She wants to work with the older larvas! She wants to have her own eggs, secretly, even though she knows that only the queen is allowed, and that she will die if she does. The Sage is like, no, go back to sanitation. But somehow, Flora works like every job in the hive, cleaning and serving food, and serving the queen, and doing the priestesses' jobs, and foraging for nectar, and is just AMAZING at all of them. She's just awesome at everything! And can go back and forth to sanitation as it's convenient for her and nobody ever questions anything.

Also, the bees literally just want to bask in the love of their queen mother. They use the Lord's Prayer, and just sub in Mother instead of Father. (“Our Mother, who art in labor, hallowed be thy name...”) and that literally made me roll my eyes. It felt lazy, that there was so much Christian rhetoric used when they could not have had any concept of human religion. They don't even recognize that the beekeeper is a human, just something that tears open the hive and steals from the Treasury. I understand the idea of worshiping the mother, as the queen is literally the center of the hive, but everything bad that happens in the hive is because of sin, wanting things is sin, not following the hive mind is sin, thinking you're better than your caste is a sin.

And oh, the ending was so bad. It was so not good. So not believable.

Glad I'm done with it.

“I am the last princess,” her low voice carried. “And I have already wet my dagger with the blood of all others. But one.”

The Bees

“The Bees” was just okay and falls along a 2.5 star rating, but I'm rounding down this time. Perhaps, the 2014 Best Of lists hyped this one too much, or, perhaps, it's just not all that great. The idea of following a worker bee through daily activities through a fictional lens was alluring, as were the comparisons to “Watership Down.” However, this book comes nowhere near the genius of Richard Adams' wonderful book.

Some portions were interesting, such as the handful of interactions with the Myriad, but I never felt grabbed. Actually, I got through the book quickly because I was hoping to get one more into my woefully low 2014 book count and because the font was relatively large. Ultimately, I never felt terribly invested in Flora 717 or most of the characters, other than Sir Linden and Lily 500, which may have been the core issue.