The Bees - Laline Paull

"The Handmaid's Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut.

Born into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen. Yet Flora has talents that are not typical of her kin. And while mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is reassigned to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. Then she finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous. Enemies roam everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. But Flora cannot help but break the most sacred law of all, and her instinct to serve is overshadowed by a desire, as overwhelming as it is forbidden..."

While The Bees is a beautifully written book, with scenes that are quite lovely in their composition, I felt the author lacked conviction and an overall commitment to just what kind of story she was telling. At times, the bees are very humanized. At other times, they feel alien and unknowable. This back and forth and hesitation ultimately prevented me from ever truly bonding with any of the characters. I was emotionally shut out of the story even when my reader brain was fascinated by some of the details contained therein. For that reason, the story dragged in many places.

If you have a personal curiosity of bees, the detailed portrait the author offers here of hive life may indeed appeal to you. She has done her research, and there is definitely poetry contained in some of the pages of this book and in scenes that deal with the harsh realities of the natural world and the strict laws of bee existence. 

One thing that confused me however is what Flora was? OK, so is Flora a deformed bee... which can perform many tasks? She can produce Flow, which feeds baby bees. Which- if the idea is true, is an interesting fact, but I don't think it's true, she can speak which she shouldn't be able to do as a sanitation worker, and somehow produces a fertilized egg by herself?? 

Another thing that didn't sit right with me was the way that Flora moved through what is supposed to be a rigidly controlled caste system with ease. One moment she is a sanitation worker, then works in the nursery, then she is a forager. For a book that is supposed to reinforce the idea of the brutal caste system of a hive which is controlled by a cultish religion,  Flora has an awful amount of manouverablilty. 

Age Rating 14+. The drones make numerous sex jokes and many scents have sexual undertones.