The Bees

The Bees by Laline Paull

3.5 Stars

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker bee. But, unlike her fellow sanitation worker bees, she can speak and do a lot of other things. She can help take care of babies; she can forage; she can dote on the queen; she can hide her illicit eggs. This book is her story and the story of her hive.

This book was interesting because all the characters were insects. It gives a glimpse into the workings of a hive. Mother Nature can be cruel – there's no place in the hive for the weak and the defective. These bees are anthropomorphized a bit and the reader sometimes forgets that the characters are bees. With this in mind, some of the things that happen may not be too far from things that happen in a dictatorship where the ruler is a bit insane.

In such a rule, there are the followers who don't deviate from the ruler's ideas, who have "drunk the Kool Aid" and will go to any lengths to keep things the same. There are the masses, who follow the rules and think very little about whether what they do makes sense or is right. Then, there are the few who question why and try to do something about things that appear wrong. Flora is one of the few. And, her story is worth the read.