I picked this up on audiobook as an Editor's Pick in an Audible sale, and didn't pay as much attention to the description as I probably should have. I read another reviewer's summary:

"This creative Regency thought- and speech-tinged, sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian novel begins as Flora 717 emerges from her birth chamber. Born of the Flora caste, the sanitation caste, Flora 717 is larger than those typical in her caste and has the capacity for speech, not typical of her caste, her kin. These “deformities” require the police to administer the “kindness” (removal by death) to Flora 717. It is Flora 717’s good fortune that she is save by the curiosity-driven help and encouragement of Sister Sage, of the priestess caste. And, so begins a life in which Flora 717 will demonstrate her courage and resolve to save her hive time and again."

Somehow I got the impression from this description that this book was a sf/fantasy type story just drawing on the metaphor of bees ... nope. This is actually a story about bees, in a bee hive. The author gets quite creative in anthropomorphizing the bees and the everyday life of the hive, as the story follows a sanitation bee through a series of bee-adventures.

It was an interesting picture of a beehive hierarchy, which I'd consider more appropriate for young adult level readers. However, I was never really sucked into the story because the main bee character, Flora 717, never seems to really develop a personality or have any agency in the story. Almost all her actions seem guided simply by instinct or circumstance, and you never feel she is an independent character or that she actually makes any meaningful decisions; everything is presented as if she does it because it seems to be the right thing at the time. So she drifts through a series of incidents and adventures, but I never felt I could really cheer for her; it was just like watching a series of predetermined events fall into place. So ... interesting and unique idea for a story, but ultimately felt a bit flat to me.