The Bees: The Women Who Rocked Lithuania

by Akvile Magicdusté

In 1965, inspired by The Beatles, Lithuanian musician Jurate Dineikaite founded a rock band called The Bees. This spirited ensemble of six women toured throughout the Soviet Union during the ’60s and ’70s — turning heads with their blue jeans, mop-tops, and modern rock sound. For these women, taking the stage was at once an electrifying expression of their artistry and an audacious political act.Based on interviews with Jurate herself, this graphic novel vividly captures episodes of the group’s lived experiences — from thrilling performances to chilling encounters with the KGB. An authentic portrayal of a fascinating true history little known outside of Lithuania, The Bees is adapted with vibrant colors and a charmingly handcrafted style by cartoonist Akvile Magicdusté. This edition also features a photo gallery with period snapshots of the band in action, plus a playlist of their original songs!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

168 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2025

Reviews

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting and brightly illustrated but surface deep exploration of The Bees, a woman-only rock band in Soviet Lithuania. There's never truly a sense of fear or suppression, though both were certainly big elements of the women's lives. There are also at least a half-dozen women in the band, and though the book attempts to follow the band leader, everyone gets lost in the mix (the artwork doesn't help in this respect). Honestly, my favorite part of the book were the occasional historical asides that opened up 20th-century Lithuania and its culture.

[Mira Finch · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I like the minimalist approach in this book (unlike others who thought it made the flow of the story rough), my observation is that the book is lacking in some basic graphic novel/comics techniques that would help the reader.

For example, it was hard to know who is who, because the hairs look similar but the clothing change from one frame to another, making it really difficult to connect the frames. Or at times there were other inconsistencies, that were so confusing, for example on pages 82-83, as two people from the band are going into a government official's office, the person in black looks like they have a mustache in the first two panels, but then in the next page they don't have a mustache? Is this person Ricardas? or Jurate? Does Jurate grow a mustache sometimes?

I wish some of these comics basics were there to prevent frustration. Otherwise such lovely art, and was so nice to learn about this piece of women's history.

[Jack Reickel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The combination of translation and approach left this just an okay read for me. I understand creating a comic of past events and not wanting to insert anything that might not have happened/been said exactly, but unfortunately that leads to pacing that isn't determined by the story so much as by the available quotes.

[Lisa]

I feel bad not liking/appreciating this book, but I found the through line hard to follow and thought the illustrations were... fine. I came across this at the D&Q bookstore and thought it looked cool, and I guess I'm glad I know about the existence of this band and a little bit more about the time the events of the book took place, but I'm sorry to say I can't really recommend it.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice introduction to The Bees with a sprinkling of 20th century Lithuanian history, two things I previously knew nothing about. Charming illustration but I wish there was more detail! As far as I know there are no existing recordings of the Bees, which is a shame.