Review: The Bees - Laline Paull

Hello my dearly beloved readers. I am back AGAIN! This is Holiday Book 4: The Bees by Laline Paull, which is my 'P' for my A-to-Z Challenge 2015. I have to be honest here, I didn't have high expectations for this book. I had bought it because I had wanted to buy The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and you needed an order of over £10 for free delivery, and this was apparently being raved about, so I bought this to supplement it. It has been sitting on my book shelf for ages. Thank God for the A-to-Z Challenge, for without it, I wouldn't have been forced to read it and enjoy it as much as I did! It was really fantastic: it was almost like a 1984/Brave New World hybrid... except with bees! What is there not to love, really? Also, I'm in love with the cover: the inside cover is black, and it's just overall pretty and I enjoy it immensely.
It is set in the totalitarian society of a bee hive and begins with the 'birthing' of Flora 717. She is born into the lowest kin in the society who work sanitation, but she is different. She can speak and has other abilities which mean she is spared from eugenic cleansing so she can be of use to the hive. She lives through the trials and tribulations of life in the hive, from wasp invasions to religious slaughters. But when she breaks the golden rule 'ONLY THE QUEEN MAY BREED', the path becomes ever more rocky for her in this epic tale of aroma, control and triumph.
I really enjoyed the way the author displayed Flora's internal struggle between serving her hive and her Queen and nurturing her potent maternal instincts. I also found the parallelism and ultimately criticism to human life and its impact on the environment very interesting and thought-provoking. I never thought I would have such sympathy towards flying insects, but Laline Paull brought that out in me. And considering I was on holiday while reading this, where the flying insects are a-plenty, I had these very perverse feelings of care and concern for them. What was weirdest of all was that I seemed to relate to their plight for food, because that is me all the time too. I get you, flying insects!
Overall, I would recommend this book. I don't think I found it dull at any point, and I gave it 4 stars!

Thank you for reading! Feel free to create a buzz in the comments! (I'm so lame, I apologise for that). Like, comment and follow, and until next time, au revoir!