scmbradley reviewed The Bees by Laline Paull
Interesting setting, unsatisfying story
3 stars
This is a very ambitious and interesting book. A book told from the perspective of a bee. Lots of thought has gone into the careful worldbuilding here. However, because it's such an alien setting, it is often unclear what the rules are. This takes me out of the story. For example, and I don't think this is too much of a spoiler to tag, the protagonist bee changes jobs from being a drone to being a bee who goes out to gather pollen. Now, this was probably necessary from a plot perspective, but the first part of the book hammers home this idea that the bees' social roles are immutable. So to some extent we've had the rug pulled out from under us. So what are we to take as the rules the story is playing by? Because a lot of the tension comes from the protagonist bee's attempts to …
This is a very ambitious and interesting book. A book told from the perspective of a bee. Lots of thought has gone into the careful worldbuilding here. However, because it's such an alien setting, it is often unclear what the rules are. This takes me out of the story. For example, and I don't think this is too much of a spoiler to tag, the protagonist bee changes jobs from being a drone to being a bee who goes out to gather pollen. Now, this was probably necessary from a plot perspective, but the first part of the book hammers home this idea that the bees' social roles are immutable. So to some extent we've had the rug pulled out from under us. So what are we to take as the rules the story is playing by? Because a lot of the tension comes from the protagonist bee's attempts to subvert other aspects of the hive's rules.
The setting, the concept, the worldbuilding are all a lot of fun. The story however, kind of falls flat. It is undermined by a lack of clarity as to what the rules of the story should be.
