The Bees by Laline Paull

Let’s get this out of the way. The buzz on this book is justified. It hums along at a nice pace and finishes with a sting in its tale. If I a girl told me she didn’t like this book I’d be all like “Honey comb at me”. Okay I’m done; any further bee related puns are unintentional.

Laline Paull is quite possibly a giant bee disguised as a woman, who has been sent here to lull us into a false sense of security while her fellow giant bees come and destroy us for not taking care of their little cousins. If she is human, what an extraordinary imagination she has, and coupled with her ability to go into a alien world with an extraordinary amount of detail and make it relatable? Wow. I was blown away by how complete and compelling life inside a bee hive could be.

We come into the world through a lowly sanitation worked designated as caste Flora 717. Different from her peers, both physically and mentally, she displays a curiosity about the world around her that is uncommon in her type as well as physical abilities like speaking and being large in size and strength. It is soon discovered she has varying talents that enable to feed the youngsters, forage for food and also read the histories of the past, something others bees have been unable to do without losing their link to the queen and going insane. A combination of fortune, luck and circumstance allow her, and therefore us, to see many sides to the world around her and day to day activities of everyone in the hive as she feels the pull between the duties of her kin, her devotion to her queen and her own internal rumblings.

There is a full blown society occurring inside the hive and they are dealing with problems like disease and sickness that is caused by pesticide from the outside world, righteous religious devotees who yearn for power and the misogynistic behaviour of the males who believe they are all born to find a princess. We share in the sadness of a nurse losing it’s new born, the horror as police search the crowd for any who may be unclean and the excitement as Flora faces off against Spiders, Flies, the weather and those who would see her learn her place and shut the hell up. It’s all done beautifully and as Flora travels through different stations she experiences it all in vivid detail, whilst also hiding a secret that would mean her death if discovered.

There are some nice action scenes where the hive faces off against wasps and Flora's foraging sequences are particularly enthralling and fantastical. Paull captures the simple moments of a bee landing on a flower and taking it’s pollen and manages to turn it into something magical and delightful. Every time she finds food or discovers a new dance you feel genuinely caught up enough in the life of this little bee that it gives you a smile.

What I also loved was the tiny bookended story that connected the world of the humans with the world of the bees. It was actually enough in itself to be a nice little short story but with what came between it, it really made it a complete and whole story.

I loved it. If you have any interest in Bees you should read this. If you like fantasy you should read this. If you have a social conscious about how we are screwing up the earth you should read this. If you have been reading a bunch of Grimdark and you are looking for something different, as was the case with me, I definitely think you should get yourself a copy of The Bees.