The History of Bees

The History of Bees tells the stories of three different characters, each in a different time period and locale. In England (1851), William is a biologist who is obsessed with building the perfect beehive. In the United States (2007), George devotes his entire life to his bee farm and wants his son to take over the farm. In China (2098), Tao is one of many who must pollinate trees by hand because bees have become extinct.

I really struggled to read this book. The characters' stories are told in alternating chapters, one following the next, so there was no flow to any story. I found it difficult to maintain interest in any of the characters or to feel any sort of connection to them.

The grammar is atrocious. I understand that an author needs to have some latitude to ignore grammatical rules for the sake of expressing their voice. But the lack of adherence to basic grammar was almost unreadable to the point of distraction. Two examples: "We were fortunate, the bees stayed calm, few flew up" and "Emma put on her seat belt, she was always so particular about that, and turned towards me."

The History of Bees is described as being "in the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go" but I found it to be not worthy of comparison to either of those wonderful books.

2 Stars