Review: The Bees

Ok, this was an interesting one. I recently finished The Bees by Laline Paull. If I had the describe it in one sentence, this book is like a mix of The Handmaid's Tale and Watership Down (yes really), but with bees; but there is really no describing this one in one sentence.

The Bees is the story of the life of a hive, through the eyes of one bee - Flora 717, who starts the story as a sanitation worker, cleaning the hive of refuse and dead bees. Through various happenstances, Flora ends up showing us various aspects of life in the hive.

Paull has created a fully-fleshed world, with history, myth and religion to guide the lives of the bees and explain the things that happen to them and to their hive. She also creates a very hierarchical world that seems to draw on the actual biology of bees - I wish she had an afterward discussing her research for this book - but that also seems to be a commentary on inequality in our own society. Not all bees are created equal, with the sanitation workers as the lowest of the low - they can't even speak. The queen, the only one who can breed, sits at the top of the hierarchy and is venerated as a god. There are also overtones of big brother, with a "hive mind" that can guide and control the actions of all of the bees.

Flora begins to deviate from what is expected of a good bee, particularly a good sanitation worker. Will she manage to evade the fertility police, and the priestesses that control hive behavior? It really did sort of remind me of a less well-fledged Watership Down, with a group of sentient animals that have their own society and culture. It was definitely not your run of the mill book, but I enjoyed it. I think it's a great book for the right reader, but is probably not for everyone.