“The Bees” by Laline Paull
The Bees is a well written and fascinating read, with compelling characters and clearly painstaking research. But while it pulled me in from the first page, I finished the book a little disappointed that it wasn't a little more powerful.
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…
I was introduced to Laline Paull's The Bees on a writing course, where its opening was used as an example of how to bring readers into your world. And I immediately put it on my Wish List. The writing was beautiful and well crafted, but mainly it struck me as an amazing idea for a story. The world of bees retold as a religious and caste-based society seemed like fertile ground for social allegory.
So perhaps I was the one who soured my experience. Maybe I had built it up in my head. I had hoped for a new Animal Farm, and with expectations that high, how could The Bees ever hope to measure up?
It's not that The Bees isn't good. In fact, I found it incredibly engaging. The characters are complex, and despite the fact they are all built around the idea of bees being born into castes, there was never a point where they felt samey or underdeveloped. And the world of the hive felt rich and detailed, filled with little details that made it feel real. Paull creates a world that you can truly believe is an entire universe. The bees live their lives for their hive and their Queen. They work for the good of the hive over themselves yet also living in groups harbouring personal ambitions for their own kind.
But I can't deny that I wanted there to be more social commentary. Just one more layer beneath the ones that were already there. But, in the end, it didn't go deeper than the observation that a society built around a religious hierarchy isn't sustainable in the long term.
I very much enjoyed reading The Bees, but I wish I’d gone into it with fewer expectations. If I hadn’t been hoping for something so much deeper than it was, I think I would have had a much better experience.
