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The Hive
An epic, otherworldly horror novel in the vein of Black River Orchard and American Elsewhere about a wave of collective obsession and paranoia taking over an American suburb. From the Bram Stoker award-nominated and bestselling author of Come with Me.
The residents of Mariner’s Cove are changing…
In the aftermath of a violent storm, a collective obsession is rapidly developing among the people of this quaint suburban neighborhood. Random, everyday items left scattered upon the lawns, the streets, and the shoreline all seem to call out to them. There is an item for almost everyone, and each item has a certain hold over the person who finds it—a hold that soon turns into unwavering infatuation. They hide their items from each other, obsess over them, and they will do anything—anything—to protect them.
The collective hum of bees’ wings...
A young boy finds himself the possessor of a strange and inexplicable power. Is the arrival of this power linked to the increasingly odd and dangerous behavior of the residents of Mariner’s Cove? Has he been granted this power in order to thwart whatever is about to happen in this small, bayside community, or is there a more sinister purpose?
All hail the Dragon...
All eyes are on him now.
The residents of Mariner’s Cove are watching.
They move as one, like a solitary organism, and will do anything to succeed in their single-minded purpose.
They will not be stopped.
The residents of Mariner’s Cove are changing…
In the aftermath of a violent storm, a collective obsession is rapidly developing among the people of this quaint suburban neighborhood. Random, everyday items left scattered upon the lawns, the streets, and the shoreline all seem to call out to them. There is an item for almost everyone, and each item has a certain hold over the person who finds it—a hold that soon turns into unwavering infatuation. They hide their items from each other, obsess over them, and they will do anything—anything—to protect them.
The collective hum of bees’ wings...
A young boy finds himself the possessor of a strange and inexplicable power. Is the arrival of this power linked to the increasingly odd and dangerous behavior of the residents of Mariner’s Cove? Has he been granted this power in order to thwart whatever is about to happen in this small, bayside community, or is there a more sinister purpose?
All hail the Dragon...
All eyes are on him now.
The residents of Mariner’s Cove are watching.
They move as one, like a solitary organism, and will do anything to succeed in their single-minded purpose.
They will not be stopped.
768 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2026
About the author
Ronald Malfi
78 books4,184 followersRonald Malfi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of many novels and novellas in the horror, mystery, and thriller genres. In 2011, his novel, Floating Staircase, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for best novel by the Horror Writers Association, and also won a gold IPPY award. In 2024, he was presented with the prestigious William G. Wilson Award for Adult Fiction by the Maryland Library Association. Perhaps his most well-received novel, Come with Me (2021), about a man who learns a dark secret about his wife after she's killed, has received stellar reviews, including a starred review from BookPage, and Publishers Weekly has said, "Malfi impresses in this taut, supernaturally tinged mystery... and sticks the landing with a powerful denouement. There’s plenty here to enjoy."
His most recent novels include Senseless (2025) and Small Town Horror (2024), both of which received favorable reviews and saw Malfi stretch his authorial voice.
Come with Me (2021) and Black Mouth (2022), tackle themes of grief and loss, and of the effects of childhood trauma and alcoholism, respectively. Both books have been critically praised, with Publishers Weekly calling Black Mouth a "standout" book of the year. These novels were followed by Ghostwritten (2022), a collection of four subtly-linked novellas about haunted books and the power of the written word. Ghostwritten received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called the book a "wonderfully meta collection...vibrantly imagined," and that "Malfi makes reading about the perils of reading a terrifying delight."
Among his most popular works is December Park, a coming-of-age thriller set in the '90s, wherein five teenage boys take up the hunt for a child murderer in their hometown of Harting Farms, Maryland. In interviews, Malfi has expressed that this is his most autobiographical book to date. In 2015, this novel was awarded the Beverly Hills International Book Award for best suspense novel. It has been optioned several times for film.
Bone White (2017), about a man searching for his lost twin brother in a haunted Alaskan mining town, was touted as "an elegant, twisted, gripping slow-burn of a novel that burrows under the skin and nestles deep," by RT Book Reviews, and has also been optioned for television by Fox21/Disney and Amazon Studios.
His novels Little Girls (2015) and The Night Parade (2016) explore broken families forced to endure horrific and extraordinary circumstances, which has become the hallmark for Malfi's brand of intimate, lyrical horror fiction.
His earlier works, such as Via Dolorosa (2007) and Passenger (2008) explored characters with lost or confused identities, wherein Malfi experimented with the ultimate unreliable narrators. He maintained this trend in his award-winning novel, Floating Staircase (2011), which the author has suggested contains "multiple endings for the astute reader."
His more "monstery" novels, such as Snow (2010) and The Narrows (2012) still resonate with his inimitable brand of literary cadence and focus on character and story over plot. Both books were highly regarded by fans and reviewers in the genre.
A bit of a departure, Malfi published the crime drama Shamrock Alley in 2009, based on the true exploits of his own father, a former Secret Service agent. The book was optioned several times for film.
Ronald Malfi was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977, the eldest of four children, and eventually relocated to Maryland, where he currently resides along the Chesapeake Bay.
When he's not writing, he's performing with the rock band VEER, who can be found at veerband.net and wherever you stream your music.
Visit
His most recent novels include Senseless (2025) and Small Town Horror (2024), both of which received favorable reviews and saw Malfi stretch his authorial voice.
Come with Me (2021) and Black Mouth (2022), tackle themes of grief and loss, and of the effects of childhood trauma and alcoholism, respectively. Both books have been critically praised, with Publishers Weekly calling Black Mouth a "standout" book of the year. These novels were followed by Ghostwritten (2022), a collection of four subtly-linked novellas about haunted books and the power of the written word. Ghostwritten received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called the book a "wonderfully meta collection...vibrantly imagined," and that "Malfi makes reading about the perils of reading a terrifying delight."
Among his most popular works is December Park, a coming-of-age thriller set in the '90s, wherein five teenage boys take up the hunt for a child murderer in their hometown of Harting Farms, Maryland. In interviews, Malfi has expressed that this is his most autobiographical book to date. In 2015, this novel was awarded the Beverly Hills International Book Award for best suspense novel. It has been optioned several times for film.
Bone White (2017), about a man searching for his lost twin brother in a haunted Alaskan mining town, was touted as "an elegant, twisted, gripping slow-burn of a novel that burrows under the skin and nestles deep," by RT Book Reviews, and has also been optioned for television by Fox21/Disney and Amazon Studios.
His novels Little Girls (2015) and The Night Parade (2016) explore broken families forced to endure horrific and extraordinary circumstances, which has become the hallmark for Malfi's brand of intimate, lyrical horror fiction.
His earlier works, such as Via Dolorosa (2007) and Passenger (2008) explored characters with lost or confused identities, wherein Malfi experimented with the ultimate unreliable narrators. He maintained this trend in his award-winning novel, Floating Staircase (2011), which the author has suggested contains "multiple endings for the astute reader."
His more "monstery" novels, such as Snow (2010) and The Narrows (2012) still resonate with his inimitable brand of literary cadence and focus on character and story over plot. Both books were highly regarded by fans and reviewers in the genre.
A bit of a departure, Malfi published the crime drama Shamrock Alley in 2009, based on the true exploits of his own father, a former Secret Service agent. The book was optioned several times for film.
Ronald Malfi was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977, the eldest of four children, and eventually relocated to Maryland, where he currently resides along the Chesapeake Bay.
When he's not writing, he's performing with the rock band VEER, who can be found at veerband.net and wherever you stream your music.
Visit
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Hive by Ronald Malfi
4.35 rounded down to 4 🔮 orbs
Est. Pub. Date: Apr, 14, 2026
Titan Books
Orb, awakened…
💡 Orbs Prologue: My fingers bend like twigs, crackling like kindling on fire. I cast down a wrath of lightning so fierce that your world, dear reader, has been altered. A wicked slash has entered your field of view, dividing dimensions in two. Feel the wind whip ferociously, battering items within your room. The screen by which you now consume your reviews cracks and flutters. The humming of wings from a translucent bee diving toward your ears briefly curtails your concentration. Your consciousness flows golden, as if honey drips from the comb, adopting a more communal thought pattern. And while this remains mysterious enough, on the outskirts of your periphery, you make out what seems to be an odd item, an old garbage can lid. The desire to collect this artifact drives you, as if it were a piece to a larger puzzle that you have yet to decipher. Pulled with a silent magnetism, you walk in a zombie-like state out your front door…
🧐 A small glimpse: Mariner’s Cove has become a place scarred by a recent storm. Displaced items litter the location, and with it, the beginning of a plan starts to take hold. Seemingly overnight, the residents here have garnered new ambitions. Odd habits form, and as readers delve into this story of habitual chaos strategically built by Ronald Malfi, remembering one's true identity becomes supremely difficult. Every role here is meticulously plotted. As if bees in a living hive, the community acts as one, searching for the answers from “The Dragon” to guide them. In a complex weaving of tales told from multiple perspectives, Malfi’s tale of unmitigated terror unfolds, leaving the reader pierced as if stung by the queen bee herself.
👍 Orbs Pros: Creative! Can I call this sci-fi horror? Whatever I experienced had elements I had never read before. Oozing with tantalizing bits of perplexity made the novel’s consumption worth it. The many different perspectives became fascinating, as those characters became both my allies and worst enemies simultaneously. Frightening! The psychological terror this novel displays was impressive. People talking in a hive mind, acting as themselves but yet differently, probed the reader to question their motivations up until the very end. Prose! I love Malfi’s writing style, plain and simple. In an intelligible fashion, his manner of creating tension never fails to hit the mark. For everyone? Debatable, yet this isn’t so much horror based on grotesqueness, and it's one I believe most people can digest while eating their lunch safely.
👎 Orbs Cons: 608 pages! It’s not short, and this may be a deterrent for some. It becomes abundantly clear that to wrap up all the storylines, Malfi needed a fair number of pages to do it. Now, could he have axed some of the characters? Good question! There were times I thought some page-shaving might have been beneficial. However, who would I cut out of the mix? That would be the million-dollar question, with nary an answer at this point. Ambitious! Why is "ambitious" being put into the "cons" category, Orb? Quite frankly, those readers who just love a quick get-in-get-out kind of slasher may struggle with this. There are so many moving parts that will make you feel like you have been stung repeatedly on every part of your body. Malfi went full send on this book, and while I appreciate writers who take a risk, it must be said this isn’t your traditional horror novel. Whether it is good or bad depends on the reader’s preferences. The ending! May not satisfy some. Hmmm, I will leave it at that…
Highly recommended! I want to give this Must Read status, and yet I am hesitant. Did I personally enjoy it? Absolutely! However, I think for its length and subject matter, some might opt for one of Malfi’s other novels. That said, if you are willing to sink some time into this, the storylines make it absolutely worth your time.
💡 Orbs Epilogue: You pick up the trash can lid, inspecting it closely, trying to understand this raging urge to collect it. As you walk back to your house, drawings become visible on the sidewalk.Your intuition tells you that these strange markings are the keys to unlocking a door to something enormously important. You squat by each sketch and begin snapping pictures with your phone. Back in the frigid confines of your cold garage, more bees appear, but of odd sorts. 2-headed bees? Swiping through the collection of photos, you come across one that oddly looks like the outlines of the lid you just gathered. How? More discoveries, a bulbous tower with long legs and strange, almost hieroglyphic-like symbols, paint a picture, obscure and otherworldly, and yet not! What is the connection? As you stand there perplexed, I, rather Orb, reach out to you telepathically… "Trust the process, reader. Trust the process.”
Many thanks to Titan Books for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
4.35 rounded down to 4 🔮 orbs
Est. Pub. Date: Apr, 14, 2026
Titan Books
Orb, awakened…
💡 Orbs Prologue: My fingers bend like twigs, crackling like kindling on fire. I cast down a wrath of lightning so fierce that your world, dear reader, has been altered. A wicked slash has entered your field of view, dividing dimensions in two. Feel the wind whip ferociously, battering items within your room. The screen by which you now consume your reviews cracks and flutters. The humming of wings from a translucent bee diving toward your ears briefly curtails your concentration. Your consciousness flows golden, as if honey drips from the comb, adopting a more communal thought pattern. And while this remains mysterious enough, on the outskirts of your periphery, you make out what seems to be an odd item, an old garbage can lid. The desire to collect this artifact drives you, as if it were a piece to a larger puzzle that you have yet to decipher. Pulled with a silent magnetism, you walk in a zombie-like state out your front door…
🧐 A small glimpse: Mariner’s Cove has become a place scarred by a recent storm. Displaced items litter the location, and with it, the beginning of a plan starts to take hold. Seemingly overnight, the residents here have garnered new ambitions. Odd habits form, and as readers delve into this story of habitual chaos strategically built by Ronald Malfi, remembering one's true identity becomes supremely difficult. Every role here is meticulously plotted. As if bees in a living hive, the community acts as one, searching for the answers from “The Dragon” to guide them. In a complex weaving of tales told from multiple perspectives, Malfi’s tale of unmitigated terror unfolds, leaving the reader pierced as if stung by the queen bee herself.
👍 Orbs Pros: Creative! Can I call this sci-fi horror? Whatever I experienced had elements I had never read before. Oozing with tantalizing bits of perplexity made the novel’s consumption worth it. The many different perspectives became fascinating, as those characters became both my allies and worst enemies simultaneously. Frightening! The psychological terror this novel displays was impressive. People talking in a hive mind, acting as themselves but yet differently, probed the reader to question their motivations up until the very end. Prose! I love Malfi’s writing style, plain and simple. In an intelligible fashion, his manner of creating tension never fails to hit the mark. For everyone? Debatable, yet this isn’t so much horror based on grotesqueness, and it's one I believe most people can digest while eating their lunch safely.
👎 Orbs Cons: 608 pages! It’s not short, and this may be a deterrent for some. It becomes abundantly clear that to wrap up all the storylines, Malfi needed a fair number of pages to do it. Now, could he have axed some of the characters? Good question! There were times I thought some page-shaving might have been beneficial. However, who would I cut out of the mix? That would be the million-dollar question, with nary an answer at this point. Ambitious! Why is "ambitious" being put into the "cons" category, Orb? Quite frankly, those readers who just love a quick get-in-get-out kind of slasher may struggle with this. There are so many moving parts that will make you feel like you have been stung repeatedly on every part of your body. Malfi went full send on this book, and while I appreciate writers who take a risk, it must be said this isn’t your traditional horror novel. Whether it is good or bad depends on the reader’s preferences. The ending! May not satisfy some. Hmmm, I will leave it at that…
Highly recommended! I want to give this Must Read status, and yet I am hesitant. Did I personally enjoy it? Absolutely! However, I think for its length and subject matter, some might opt for one of Malfi’s other novels. That said, if you are willing to sink some time into this, the storylines make it absolutely worth your time.
💡 Orbs Epilogue: You pick up the trash can lid, inspecting it closely, trying to understand this raging urge to collect it. As you walk back to your house, drawings become visible on the sidewalk.Your intuition tells you that these strange markings are the keys to unlocking a door to something enormously important. You squat by each sketch and begin snapping pictures with your phone. Back in the frigid confines of your cold garage, more bees appear, but of odd sorts. 2-headed bees? Swiping through the collection of photos, you come across one that oddly looks like the outlines of the lid you just gathered. How? More discoveries, a bulbous tower with long legs and strange, almost hieroglyphic-like symbols, paint a picture, obscure and otherworldly, and yet not! What is the connection? As you stand there perplexed, I, rather Orb, reach out to you telepathically… "Trust the process, reader. Trust the process.”
Many thanks to Titan Books for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
February 4, 2026
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Needful Things meets Dr Sleep meets The Tommyknockers meets King Sorrow, but only if you took the best parts of those books and smushed them together into a pile of cosmic, non-derivative, macabre deliciousness.
Originally written over a decade ago, this one sat in the trunk until the world was ready to receive it, and until Malfi was established enough to put the finishing touches on it. This feels very different than anything he’s written before. It’s ethereal, off-kilter, and inexplicably uncanny. The evil they face is nameless, faceless, and almost entirely unexplained, and yet it somehow feels wholly understandable.
I wouldn’t recommend this for someone just discovering Malfi for the first time. It requires patience, and a willingness to work for a payoff that’s set up one carefully placed word at a time.
I put this among my favorites of his books, which is saying a lot because he’s my favorite author whose name doesn’t rhyme with even ring. It won’t be for everyone, but it feels right for me.
Needful Things meets Dr Sleep meets The Tommyknockers meets King Sorrow, but only if you took the best parts of those books and smushed them together into a pile of cosmic, non-derivative, macabre deliciousness.
Originally written over a decade ago, this one sat in the trunk until the world was ready to receive it, and until Malfi was established enough to put the finishing touches on it. This feels very different than anything he’s written before. It’s ethereal, off-kilter, and inexplicably uncanny. The evil they face is nameless, faceless, and almost entirely unexplained, and yet it somehow feels wholly understandable.
I wouldn’t recommend this for someone just discovering Malfi for the first time. It requires patience, and a willingness to work for a payoff that’s set up one carefully placed word at a time.
I put this among my favorites of his books, which is saying a lot because he’s my favorite author whose name doesn’t rhyme with even ring. It won’t be for everyone, but it feels right for me.
January 27, 2026
Towers, and dragons, and wheels, oh my!
A town collectively losing their mind, mentally telepathy and more. This novel felt like an ode to all things King, but also felt like quintessential Ronald Malfi.
This novel is a monster, coming in at over 600-pages, it fully classifies as a tome. We're following basically the entire town of Mariner's Cove in the aftermath of a terrible storm.
Residents of the town begin acting strangely, becoming obsessed with seemingly random objects. There seems to be a different item for each person, and each person becomes fixated on finding and collecting their particular object.
There's also a young boy in town who has a certain, let's call it, extrasensory power, that helps him to see all these events a little differently than everyone else, but it also draws the others attentions to him.
Yeah, I don't know what else to say about the plot. I feel like that's all you really need to know. The scope is large, the concepts are larger and it takes some wild turns.
To me, this was giving heavy The Tommyknockers meets Needful Things and I was into it. There's so much to keep track of, but even if you miss some finer details, the larger picture is still fairly easy to track, so don't be scared.
The audiobook is great, so I would recommend that format as a way to help you make it through this epic story. I read both my e-copy and the audio over the course of a week, and I actually feel like I felt more connected to it when I was listening to the audio version.
While this isn't my favorite of Malfi's stories, I still really enjoyed it and am so impressed that he pulled this off. There's so much content here and I'd love to hear him speak to what his inspirations were for writing this.
I'm a huge Ronald Malfi fan. IMO, he's one of the best voices writing in Horror Fiction today. I've had so much fun with so many of his books and will continue to pick them up as long as he keeps writing them.
If you've never read from Ronald Malfi before, I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting here, but for regular Malfi Readers, it's a must. With this being said though, this is definitely worth reading, especially if you want something a little out of the box.
Thank you to the publisher, Titan Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I can't wait to see what Malfi comes up with next!
A town collectively losing their mind, mentally telepathy and more. This novel felt like an ode to all things King, but also felt like quintessential Ronald Malfi.
This novel is a monster, coming in at over 600-pages, it fully classifies as a tome. We're following basically the entire town of Mariner's Cove in the aftermath of a terrible storm.
Residents of the town begin acting strangely, becoming obsessed with seemingly random objects. There seems to be a different item for each person, and each person becomes fixated on finding and collecting their particular object.
There's also a young boy in town who has a certain, let's call it, extrasensory power, that helps him to see all these events a little differently than everyone else, but it also draws the others attentions to him.
Yeah, I don't know what else to say about the plot. I feel like that's all you really need to know. The scope is large, the concepts are larger and it takes some wild turns.
To me, this was giving heavy The Tommyknockers meets Needful Things and I was into it. There's so much to keep track of, but even if you miss some finer details, the larger picture is still fairly easy to track, so don't be scared.
The audiobook is great, so I would recommend that format as a way to help you make it through this epic story. I read both my e-copy and the audio over the course of a week, and I actually feel like I felt more connected to it when I was listening to the audio version.
While this isn't my favorite of Malfi's stories, I still really enjoyed it and am so impressed that he pulled this off. There's so much content here and I'd love to hear him speak to what his inspirations were for writing this.
I'm a huge Ronald Malfi fan. IMO, he's one of the best voices writing in Horror Fiction today. I've had so much fun with so many of his books and will continue to pick them up as long as he keeps writing them.
If you've never read from Ronald Malfi before, I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting here, but for regular Malfi Readers, it's a must. With this being said though, this is definitely worth reading, especially if you want something a little out of the box.
Thank you to the publisher, Titan Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I can't wait to see what Malfi comes up with next!
May 14, 2026
The Hive is officially my favorite book of 2026 so far. Can it hold its standing with Stephen King’s Other Worlds Than These coming out later this year? Maybe. It was that good!
Malfi has a talent for creating memorable characters and deliciously dark environments for them to play in. This book seemed to take it to the next level. It felt like reading a fever dream that you want to unravel, but just can’t.
I’m not even going to go into the story. I don’t know if it’s possible to spoil, it’s so wild! Just don’t try to figure it out as you read it. Let the story carry you with it as you read. You’ll enjoy it much more that way.
Five stars and potentially my favorite book of 2026. Highly recommended!
Malfi has a talent for creating memorable characters and deliciously dark environments for them to play in. This book seemed to take it to the next level. It felt like reading a fever dream that you want to unravel, but just can’t.
I’m not even going to go into the story. I don’t know if it’s possible to spoil, it’s so wild! Just don’t try to figure it out as you read it. Let the story carry you with it as you read. You’ll enjoy it much more that way.
Five stars and potentially my favorite book of 2026. Highly recommended!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Mariners Cove, a small town along the Chesapeake Bay, is cleaning up after a rather volatile storm left a ton of debris scattered around. During the cleanup effort, some of the objects appear to have certain effects on those who find them. They begin having nightmares, as well as hearing voices within their minds. The novel follows several of those different neighbors as they try to piece together what is happening to them along with why these objects have such an important significance on them.
There are a ton of different characters introduced, some getting a little bit more page time than others. So much so that not a ton really happens until 3/4 of the way through. What is tricky with the novel of this length is that there needs to be something to keep the reader motivated to move forward. I thought the character aspect was done really well, but the novel needed a few payouts or action dripped in along the way. It just seemed like so much time was dedicated to rehashing so much of what we already knew. But as I said, from a character development standpoint, there were certain characters that I thought were done really well, specifically Brian.
Being as long as it was, I feel it could’ve benefited from doing one of two things. Either trimming down some of the number of characters we met (I’m not a fan of this option as I thought this aspect was done really well) or adding a little bit more development that moved the plot along a bit sooner. Just throw a few bones the readers’ way to make them feel invested to continue on. The ending was tied up rather nicely. It just felt rather rushed when it did get there.
This was definitely a solid 3.5-star novel. I liked the plot in general and felt that there was good characterization amongst some of the characters. The length and pacing were a bit of the issue for me. As in aside… As the title might suggest, bees do play a significant role, so for any of those afraid of bees, keep that in mind. 🐝
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
There are a ton of different characters introduced, some getting a little bit more page time than others. So much so that not a ton really happens until 3/4 of the way through. What is tricky with the novel of this length is that there needs to be something to keep the reader motivated to move forward. I thought the character aspect was done really well, but the novel needed a few payouts or action dripped in along the way. It just seemed like so much time was dedicated to rehashing so much of what we already knew. But as I said, from a character development standpoint, there were certain characters that I thought were done really well, specifically Brian.
Being as long as it was, I feel it could’ve benefited from doing one of two things. Either trimming down some of the number of characters we met (I’m not a fan of this option as I thought this aspect was done really well) or adding a little bit more development that moved the plot along a bit sooner. Just throw a few bones the readers’ way to make them feel invested to continue on. The ending was tied up rather nicely. It just felt rather rushed when it did get there.
This was definitely a solid 3.5-star novel. I liked the plot in general and felt that there was good characterization amongst some of the characters. The length and pacing were a bit of the issue for me. As in aside… As the title might suggest, bees do play a significant role, so for any of those afraid of bees, keep that in mind. 🐝
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 22, 2026
Ronald Malfi is the king of small town horror stories. I don’t care what you say! He’s one of the best at setting the most eerie atmospheres, lingering foreboding, and unsettling characters. The Hive is no different. However, this one is his longest novel to date and it’s an investment. You have to take your time with it and just know the payoff is definitely worth it.
A violent storm crashes through the town of Mariner’s Cove. People start to change and some can feel the humming. There is an underlying obsession among them. Something is taking over their minds. Oh, and get ready for the bees.
I think true Malfi fans will enjoy The Hive as they are already familiar with his slow burning style. This is another character driven horror novel that Malfi expertly weaved. I highly enjoyed it and think you will too. Pre-order your copy!
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub date 4-14
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
As a big fan of Malfi's work.. I am so sad I didn't enjoy this. It started off very promising, the premise was very intriguing and I felt invested in most of the various characters. My main issue with this book was that it felt like it was trying to do too many things at once that it lost my interest trying to piece them all together. By the second half I was just no longer invested and with it being such a long book, that's just a recipe for disaster.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
ARC received, yaay. So excited for this. Thank you Titan Books for the copy :D
_____
Ronald Malfi’s ’The Hive’ is an eerie, mind-bending dive into Lovecraftian cosmic horror that manages to stay under your skin long after the final page. For fans of the genre, especially those who enjoy a side of small-town dread, this story is a masterclass in atmosphere, even if it tests your patience along the way.
A fair warning for the squeamish: if you have a phobia of insects, proceed with extreme caution. The book is crawling with bees, expect a lot of stings, welts, and visceral descriptions that will make your skin crawl.
The novel excels at building a sense of "unsettling small-town vibes" that anchors the more otherworldly elements of the plot. Without spoiling the plot and mystery, let’s just say Malfi weaves together a classic but effective mix of tropes: a struggling but deeply loving parent, a child gifted with psychic powers, and a cast of strange, fully-fledged characters whose lives eventually collide in a satisfying "full circle" conclusion. Sprinkle in there the concept of a Hive mind and you get your creepy, disturbing story.
The Pace is a double-edged sword
This is a slow burn in every sense of the word. While the story is undeniably intriguing and creepy, the length is its primary drawback. There is a significant amount of "filler" and fluff that makes the narrative feel daunting. I’ll be honest: I put the book down several times because the pacing felt discouraged by its own density. It feels as though Malfi tried to give the reader everything, resulting in character depth that, at times, borders on excessive.
The bright side is that it is so rich and expansive that it would make a phenomenal TV series, where the "fluff" would have more room to breathe as episodic world-building.
Despite the need for a tighter edit, ‘The Hive’ is impossible not to enjoy if you have the stamina for it. It’s a haunting, complex journey that rewards the reader for sticking through the slower chapters. If you can handle the sting of the length, the payoff is well worth the wait.
Many, many thanks to Ronald Malfi,Titan Books, and NetGalley for the ARC. This is a voluntary review, reflecting solely my opinion.
_____
Ronald Malfi’s ’The Hive’ is an eerie, mind-bending dive into Lovecraftian cosmic horror that manages to stay under your skin long after the final page. For fans of the genre, especially those who enjoy a side of small-town dread, this story is a masterclass in atmosphere, even if it tests your patience along the way.
A fair warning for the squeamish: if you have a phobia of insects, proceed with extreme caution. The book is crawling with bees, expect a lot of stings, welts, and visceral descriptions that will make your skin crawl.
The novel excels at building a sense of "unsettling small-town vibes" that anchors the more otherworldly elements of the plot. Without spoiling the plot and mystery, let’s just say Malfi weaves together a classic but effective mix of tropes: a struggling but deeply loving parent, a child gifted with psychic powers, and a cast of strange, fully-fledged characters whose lives eventually collide in a satisfying "full circle" conclusion. Sprinkle in there the concept of a Hive mind and you get your creepy, disturbing story.
The Pace is a double-edged sword
This is a slow burn in every sense of the word. While the story is undeniably intriguing and creepy, the length is its primary drawback. There is a significant amount of "filler" and fluff that makes the narrative feel daunting. I’ll be honest: I put the book down several times because the pacing felt discouraged by its own density. It feels as though Malfi tried to give the reader everything, resulting in character depth that, at times, borders on excessive.
The bright side is that it is so rich and expansive that it would make a phenomenal TV series, where the "fluff" would have more room to breathe as episodic world-building.
Despite the need for a tighter edit, ‘The Hive’ is impossible not to enjoy if you have the stamina for it. It’s a haunting, complex journey that rewards the reader for sticking through the slower chapters. If you can handle the sting of the length, the payoff is well worth the wait.
Many, many thanks to Ronald Malfi,Titan Books, and NetGalley for the ARC. This is a voluntary review, reflecting solely my opinion.
June 8, 2026
Collective Madness
This kept reminding me of The Stand, but with bumble bees. An epic horror full of small town atmosphere. There is a building dread amongst a large cast of characters. They are starting to become obsessive over certain random objects like coat hangers. It starts as an unknown obsession. They don't know why they're doing it.
The hive mind becomes a sort of collective consciousness where those affected can hear each other's thoughts as if they are one. They start enacting roles of the hive like queen bee. There is a shuddering perspective of a psychopath, as well as body horror.
There is too much minutiae for my taste, and for being a long (750+ pages) one, it felt like too much unnecessary detail. It's not the writing per se, as the writing is fine, but more what the writing is focusing on did not keep me engaged. There was quite a bit of sleazy male gaze stuff which I am not a fan of either. I would have preferred a deeper dive into the psychological aspects of the collective madness. I thought the body horror aspect was pretty cool, but it seemed like it was only a short scene, and more could have been done with that terrifying imagery.
This wasn't bad, but not something to reach for unless you are prepared for the page count that goes along with its epic label.
I would read a book by this author again only if it was shorter, as I don't think his epic horror is for me.
3.25🌟
This kept reminding me of The Stand, but with bumble bees. An epic horror full of small town atmosphere. There is a building dread amongst a large cast of characters. They are starting to become obsessive over certain random objects like coat hangers. It starts as an unknown obsession. They don't know why they're doing it.
The hive mind becomes a sort of collective consciousness where those affected can hear each other's thoughts as if they are one. They start enacting roles of the hive like queen bee. There is a shuddering perspective of a psychopath, as well as body horror.
There is too much minutiae for my taste, and for being a long (750+ pages) one, it felt like too much unnecessary detail. It's not the writing per se, as the writing is fine, but more what the writing is focusing on did not keep me engaged. There was quite a bit of sleazy male gaze stuff which I am not a fan of either. I would have preferred a deeper dive into the psychological aspects of the collective madness. I thought the body horror aspect was pretty cool, but it seemed like it was only a short scene, and more could have been done with that terrifying imagery.
This wasn't bad, but not something to reach for unless you are prepared for the page count that goes along with its epic label.
I would read a book by this author again only if it was shorter, as I don't think his epic horror is for me.
3.25🌟
May 8, 2026
5 SHINING MALFI ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
It’s going to take both my stomach and my jaw a few days to unclench after finishing Ronald Malfi’s most recent book, The Hive. A horror novel that explores groupthink/cultish/mob mentality and the damage it causes in the suburban town of Mariner’s Cove. As a hive mind takes over the people in this slice of small town America, dread and paranoia build, and build, and build…Malfi puts the pedal to the metal the entire 700+ pages, leaving the reader incapable of setting the book aside for long. Classic small town horror combined with elements of cosmic horror, excellent character development, and as always with Malfi, a plot that continuously surprises the reader as more is slowly and intricately revealed. Highly recommend. I’ve said it before and I say it again, Ronald Malfi is hands down my favorite horror author!!
It’s going to take both my stomach and my jaw a few days to unclench after finishing Ronald Malfi’s most recent book, The Hive. A horror novel that explores groupthink/cultish/mob mentality and the damage it causes in the suburban town of Mariner’s Cove. As a hive mind takes over the people in this slice of small town America, dread and paranoia build, and build, and build…Malfi puts the pedal to the metal the entire 700+ pages, leaving the reader incapable of setting the book aside for long. Classic small town horror combined with elements of cosmic horror, excellent character development, and as always with Malfi, a plot that continuously surprises the reader as more is slowly and intricately revealed. Highly recommend. I’ve said it before and I say it again, Ronald Malfi is hands down my favorite horror author!!
Read
May 16, 20264.0 Stars
It seems like every horror author eventually has the desire to write a long epic piece of horror. While this one does not rise to the level of my personal favourites, I can report that it was a solid read. I typically have a preference for shorter horror but this one felt well paced so I never found myself wishing it was shorter. Instead it was a gripping book with relatable characters and an engaging story. It's clear that the author pulled (loose) inspiration from Stephen King and fans of the iconic author will very likely be pleased by this one.
I would recommend this one quite widely to horror readers, especially those who love the classics and don't mind a chunky novel.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher
It seems like every horror author eventually has the desire to write a long epic piece of horror. While this one does not rise to the level of my personal favourites, I can report that it was a solid read. I typically have a preference for shorter horror but this one felt well paced so I never found myself wishing it was shorter. Instead it was a gripping book with relatable characters and an engaging story. It's clear that the author pulled (loose) inspiration from Stephen King and fans of the iconic author will very likely be pleased by this one.
I would recommend this one quite widely to horror readers, especially those who love the classics and don't mind a chunky novel.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher
May 7, 2026
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
Out of all the Malfi books that I've read, I wouldn't say that this was my favorite 'story' but probably amongst my favorite of his characters and settings.
There's two types of Malfi books, the questionably supernatural and the blatantly supernatural. This book falls neatly into the latter, as it's made obvious from the very first chapter. That chapter was an attention grabber, and set the stage for what to expect going forward. Though this book is close to 800 pages, it's a very quick and compelling read (not to mention the numerous chapter breaks, and near-blank pages). There's a few things that bug me, and I'll list them below. Not enough to remove a whole star from my rating, as I really enjoyed the whole read. This book kept me guessing as things were getting weirder and weirder. I had no idea what direction this story was going to take.
**Semi SPOILERS below**
I still think the book could have been a little bit longer, because there were some incomplete / unexplained elements.
1) The Trenton house! Whatever happened to that house, why was it specifically that house, why was it significant? After the scene with the boy in the basement, there was no further mention of this house.
2) What happened with Sarah's baby? Why was it significant that she was pregnant?
3) What happened with Alex/Georgette's girls, especially the young one? Did she forget about the colander?
Out of all the Malfi books that I've read, I wouldn't say that this was my favorite 'story' but probably amongst my favorite of his characters and settings.
There's two types of Malfi books, the questionably supernatural and the blatantly supernatural. This book falls neatly into the latter, as it's made obvious from the very first chapter. That chapter was an attention grabber, and set the stage for what to expect going forward. Though this book is close to 800 pages, it's a very quick and compelling read (not to mention the numerous chapter breaks, and near-blank pages). There's a few things that bug me, and I'll list them below. Not enough to remove a whole star from my rating, as I really enjoyed the whole read. This book kept me guessing as things were getting weirder and weirder. I had no idea what direction this story was going to take.
**Semi SPOILERS below**
I still think the book could have been a little bit longer, because there were some incomplete / unexplained elements.
1) The Trenton house! Whatever happened to that house, why was it specifically that house, why was it significant? After the scene with the boy in the basement, there was no further mention of this house.
2) What happened with Sarah's baby? Why was it significant that she was pregnant?
3) What happened with Alex/Georgette's girls, especially the young one? Did she forget about the colander?
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
From the mysterious and frightening first pages all the way to the frenetic action packed ending, this epic novel could possibly rival The Stand in tone but the similarities end there.
This is set not just in a small town but a specific neighborhood in that town and within this area, the characters are going to take center stage in the midst of a terrifying supernatural SOMETHING.
After a terrible storm one night the residents of this neighbourhood begin changing. Slowly, in increments, they find various objects blown about by the storm and become obsessed with them. They begin to see strange symbols on sidewalks, houses, and driveways. And they have the same nightmare and can begin communicating with each other through their minds.
But not everyone has been affected by whatever this is and a telepathic ten year old boy knows something really bad is coming. He'll play a major role as this novel unfolds.
I really loved not being able to figure out what the heck was going on until the endgame is revealed. It put me right with the characters who also don't know why they're behaving this way. It had me compulsively turning the pages because I had to know what was happening! That's my kind of book. I highly recommend it.
I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.
This is set not just in a small town but a specific neighborhood in that town and within this area, the characters are going to take center stage in the midst of a terrifying supernatural SOMETHING.
After a terrible storm one night the residents of this neighbourhood begin changing. Slowly, in increments, they find various objects blown about by the storm and become obsessed with them. They begin to see strange symbols on sidewalks, houses, and driveways. And they have the same nightmare and can begin communicating with each other through their minds.
But not everyone has been affected by whatever this is and a telepathic ten year old boy knows something really bad is coming. He'll play a major role as this novel unfolds.
I really loved not being able to figure out what the heck was going on until the endgame is revealed. It put me right with the characters who also don't know why they're behaving this way. It had me compulsively turning the pages because I had to know what was happening! That's my kind of book. I highly recommend it.
I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.
Did Not Finish
March 8, 2026DNF @ 73%
I normally like Malfi's stuff, but good lord is The Hive ever a slog. And not just a slog but a sssssssssssssslllllloooooooooooooogggggggggggg. It feels unending, and the repetition of entire scenes makes it feel like I've been reading the same chunk of chapters over and over and over for damn near ever now. I'm hard-pressed to recall another book I've read that has so little forward momentum coupled so much self-indulgence.
I opened up The Hive again this morning, unable to muster any enthusiasm whatsoever, to Chapter 41: Door-Becomes-Chair, a tagline the characters have been saying ad nauseam. I swear I've read this phrase about 10,000 times already -- I don't need a whole damn chapter about it!
That's it, I'm done. As the kids might say, I just can't even anymore with all this. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of what has felt like pure pointlessness, so much time right down the shitter. I'm out.
I normally like Malfi's stuff, but good lord is The Hive ever a slog. And not just a slog but a sssssssssssssslllllloooooooooooooogggggggggggg. It feels unending, and the repetition of entire scenes makes it feel like I've been reading the same chunk of chapters over and over and over for damn near ever now. I'm hard-pressed to recall another book I've read that has so little forward momentum coupled so much self-indulgence.
I opened up The Hive again this morning, unable to muster any enthusiasm whatsoever, to Chapter 41: Door-Becomes-Chair, a tagline the characters have been saying ad nauseam. I swear I've read this phrase about 10,000 times already -- I don't need a whole damn chapter about it!
That's it, I'm done. As the kids might say, I just can't even anymore with all this. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of what has felt like pure pointlessness, so much time right down the shitter. I'm out.
Read
February 14, 2026review to come !!
April 28, 2026
So I read The Hive and now I don’t trust household objects.
A door? Suspicious.
A chair? Definitely plotting.
A colander? I’m not saying it’s evil… but I’m watching it.
This book is basically: “what if random junk ruined your life?”
And somehow… it works far too well. A storm hits. Objects wash up. People pick them up… and that’s it. Game over. Instant obsession. Like “forget career, family, basic hygiene—I have a door to think about now” levels of commitment. It sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous.
Malfi then calmly turns it into nightmare fuel.
The town slowly unravels. Everyone gets a little… off. Then a lot off. Then you’re sitting there thinking, “yeah I’d probably also ruin my life over a mysterious object,” which is not a comforting realisation.
Characters? Easy 5 stars. Big cast, but no one feels like filler.
Cory and Uncle Brian = emotional damage in human form.
Michael Danver = man vs door (door is winning).
Stinger = absolutely not, lock the doors, burn the house.
Story? 3 stars. It’s slow. Proper slow. But it’s deliberate. It builds. It connects. And when it clicks, it’s one of those “ohhh… that’s actually very clever” moments.
Dread? Constant. No breaks. No tea pauses. Just a steady hum of “something is wrong” from start to finish. It doesn’t jump scare you. It just stands in the corner of the room… watching.
End result: 4 stars. Brilliant characters. Relentless atmosphere. A weird, slow-burning story that sticks with you.
Also… if you see a random object on the beach?...LEAVE IT THERE!
A door? Suspicious.
A chair? Definitely plotting.
A colander? I’m not saying it’s evil… but I’m watching it.
This book is basically: “what if random junk ruined your life?”
And somehow… it works far too well. A storm hits. Objects wash up. People pick them up… and that’s it. Game over. Instant obsession. Like “forget career, family, basic hygiene—I have a door to think about now” levels of commitment. It sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous.
Malfi then calmly turns it into nightmare fuel.
The town slowly unravels. Everyone gets a little… off. Then a lot off. Then you’re sitting there thinking, “yeah I’d probably also ruin my life over a mysterious object,” which is not a comforting realisation.
Characters? Easy 5 stars. Big cast, but no one feels like filler.
Cory and Uncle Brian = emotional damage in human form.
Michael Danver = man vs door (door is winning).
Stinger = absolutely not, lock the doors, burn the house.
Story? 3 stars. It’s slow. Proper slow. But it’s deliberate. It builds. It connects. And when it clicks, it’s one of those “ohhh… that’s actually very clever” moments.
Dread? Constant. No breaks. No tea pauses. Just a steady hum of “something is wrong” from start to finish. It doesn’t jump scare you. It just stands in the corner of the room… watching.
End result: 4 stars. Brilliant characters. Relentless atmosphere. A weird, slow-burning story that sticks with you.
Also… if you see a random object on the beach?...LEAVE IT THERE!
September 7, 2026
🐝⟡˚ ݁⋆˖₊.𓂃💛🌻🐝🌼🍯🧸
Audiobook (26 hours) narrated by Paul Bellantoni
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Paul Bellantoni is an award winning SAG-AFTRA narrator and voice actor:
https://www.paulbellantoni.com/ 🌻
https://youtu.be/lCvKY-DHgqk?si=O16Qt... 𓍢🌷͙֒
While his narration is overall excellent, especially his expressive character voices and narrative tone, his standard talking character voices aren't great. They aren't horrible, as in unlistenable. The young child's voice in this book, who we hear from quite extensively is kind of bad, although not creepy, and is passable as in the age appropriateness of the voice, and is consistent. I am more than OK with it, and as I am listening after my initial consideration of the voice it isn't something that I think about, nor is it something that takes me out of the moment. The adult women in this book are whispery rough voices rather than being more feminine. It isn't even about pitch, as many women have deep sounding voices, but that whispery rough vocals that is a stand in for going up a few notes. In the example YouTube video the narrator has some sample cartoons where he clearly goes very high. Of course those are cheery cartoon voices and this is a 26 hour long narration with a lot of dark and somber content that needs a different type of vocals. However, even though the vocals of the women aren't great, they, like the child's voice, fade into the story as they are consistent enough and done well enough as to not interfere with the story allowing me to enjoy the narration and story for what it is. I would rather the character voices that he chose for this narration than something screechy, inconsistent or otherwise caricature like or cartoonish that would take me out of the enjoyable story moments. 🌻🍯🐝💛
The Hive is a five star Ronald Malfi read for me. ⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°
The characters are excellent. I would say some of the best characters that he has put on a page. 🌸
The world is equally excellent. The build is slow and methodical. While we are getting to know the characters the world is both coming into focus and actually growing and morphing with the story. 🌹
One of the things I especially enjoy about Malfi's writings is the way that he writes in almost a puzzling maze, laying everything out, building it up and then pulling it all together.In this novel the characters are within the puzzle, assembling it, with themselves as the pieces. It's almost like watching ants through glass, you aren't sure exactly where they're going or what they are doing, but it can be mesmerizing watching the designs of their work form before our eyes as in this short of a sand ant farm: 😎
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Xnai2g...
* . 🐝~~ . *˚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌼🧺˚˖𓍢ִ🌿˚.🌻🍯🐝💛
Audiobook (26 hours) narrated by Paul Bellantoni
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Paul Bellantoni is an award winning SAG-AFTRA narrator and voice actor:
https://www.paulbellantoni.com/ 🌻
https://youtu.be/lCvKY-DHgqk?si=O16Qt... 𓍢🌷͙֒
While his narration is overall excellent, especially his expressive character voices and narrative tone, his standard talking character voices aren't great. They aren't horrible, as in unlistenable. The young child's voice in this book, who we hear from quite extensively is kind of bad, although not creepy, and is passable as in the age appropriateness of the voice, and is consistent. I am more than OK with it, and as I am listening after my initial consideration of the voice it isn't something that I think about, nor is it something that takes me out of the moment. The adult women in this book are whispery rough voices rather than being more feminine. It isn't even about pitch, as many women have deep sounding voices, but that whispery rough vocals that is a stand in for going up a few notes. In the example YouTube video the narrator has some sample cartoons where he clearly goes very high. Of course those are cheery cartoon voices and this is a 26 hour long narration with a lot of dark and somber content that needs a different type of vocals. However, even though the vocals of the women aren't great, they, like the child's voice, fade into the story as they are consistent enough and done well enough as to not interfere with the story allowing me to enjoy the narration and story for what it is. I would rather the character voices that he chose for this narration than something screechy, inconsistent or otherwise caricature like or cartoonish that would take me out of the enjoyable story moments. 🌻🍯🐝💛
The Hive is a five star Ronald Malfi read for me. ⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°⋆˚🐝˖°
The characters are excellent. I would say some of the best characters that he has put on a page. 🌸
The world is equally excellent. The build is slow and methodical. While we are getting to know the characters the world is both coming into focus and actually growing and morphing with the story. 🌹
One of the things I especially enjoy about Malfi's writings is the way that he writes in almost a puzzling maze, laying everything out, building it up and then pulling it all together.In this novel the characters are within the puzzle, assembling it, with themselves as the pieces. It's almost like watching ants through glass, you aren't sure exactly where they're going or what they are doing, but it can be mesmerizing watching the designs of their work form before our eyes as in this short of a sand ant farm: 😎
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Xnai2g...
* . 🐝~~ . *˚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌼🧺˚˖𓍢ִ🌿˚.🌻🍯🐝💛
April 2, 2026
DNF and should have bailed way sooner. I have never had a book put me into a reading slump before, until I read The Hive.
Granted, the premise is intriguing. But, god, this book is bloated. Every chapter, every paragraph, almost every sentence could be halved and it would still run long. The cast of characters is too big and sprawling, yet they all seem to just be slightly tweaked copies of each other, and the story moves at the pace of a tortoise having an afternoon stroll.
This was my first time reading Malfi and was not a positive experience. It came across as a tribute act Stephen King. In fact, the only positive I took from this was a true appreciation of how good King is at the longer works. People often criticise his lengthier stuff, but at least he knows how to keep your attention and keep the story moving.
As for The Hive, I’m just glad I can finally make it buzz off.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy.
Granted, the premise is intriguing. But, god, this book is bloated. Every chapter, every paragraph, almost every sentence could be halved and it would still run long. The cast of characters is too big and sprawling, yet they all seem to just be slightly tweaked copies of each other, and the story moves at the pace of a tortoise having an afternoon stroll.
This was my first time reading Malfi and was not a positive experience. It came across as a tribute act Stephen King. In fact, the only positive I took from this was a true appreciation of how good King is at the longer works. People often criticise his lengthier stuff, but at least he knows how to keep your attention and keep the story moving.
As for The Hive, I’m just glad I can finally make it buzz off.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy.
July 9, 2026
Following a major storm, residents of the small community of Mariner's Cove begin thinking and acting strangely. They become obsessed with everyday objects, from wire coat hangers to chain link fences to a door found standing in the surf. One man can think of nothing but writing symbols on the sidewalks, symbols that will help others make connections to their new obsessions. Meanwhile, a small boy discovers a hidden power he had going stronger, a power that will attract the unwanted attention of others and the entity that drives them all.
The Hive was an epic tale in scope concentrated on one small neighborhood with an otherworldly secret beneath it. The book was reminiscent of the tomes of Stephen King but with more relatable and real characters, and none of the caricatures or over-the-top villains found in those volumes. It's a long journey, but perseverance pays off in the end with a unique cosmic horror waiting underneath it all. - 4.5/5*
The Hive was an epic tale in scope concentrated on one small neighborhood with an otherworldly secret beneath it. The book was reminiscent of the tomes of Stephen King but with more relatable and real characters, and none of the caricatures or over-the-top villains found in those volumes. It's a long journey, but perseverance pays off in the end with a unique cosmic horror waiting underneath it all. - 4.5/5*
July 4, 2026
3.5 stars rounded up. This was definitely a slow burn and I’m not even 100% sure I understood everything that was going on.
Want to Read
September 24, 2025I'm in - no matter what! I love this author!! 2026 let's goo!
June 4, 2026
The Hive dripped slowly. Very slowly at times. The plotting is uneven. Around 80%, I started to squirm and thought about skimming but didn't. The story still tasted sweet.
The best part of the book is the characters. In the interest of space and time, I'm not going to list them all here. There are many, but they are well drawn individually, and even the secondary characters are easy to keep track of. It is easy to care about all of them around their glaring flaws. Malfi is excellent at writing relatable, sympathetic characters.
Unfortunately, this book is a giant step back from Senseless in meaning and theme and Come with Me in emotional depth.
It's great for a surface summer thriller.
The best part of the book is the characters. In the interest of space and time, I'm not going to list them all here. There are many, but they are well drawn individually, and even the secondary characters are easy to keep track of. It is easy to care about all of them around their glaring flaws. Malfi is excellent at writing relatable, sympathetic characters.
Unfortunately, this book is a giant step back from Senseless in meaning and theme and Come with Me in emotional depth.
It's great for a surface summer thriller.
April 2, 2026
3.75⭐️ - Malfi is an autobuy author for me, so I was really excited to dive into The Hive. While it wasn’t my favourite of his, I still had a good time with it. This one felt a little different from his usual style, with a much bigger scope and a slower, more layered build.
It’s set in the quiet suburban neighbourhood of Mariner’s Cove after a huge storm rolls through and the story follows multiple residents as strange things start happening. Odd items appear, symbols begin showing up everywhere, neighbours start acting differently and there’s this constant hum of bees.
This is definitely a slow-burn horror and at almost 800 pages, it's a proper CHONKER of a book! Malfi takes his time building the mystery and dread, which I really enjoyed, along with the nostalgic horror feel and the eerie atmosphere around the town itself. I loved the strange powers introduced and the creeping sense that something was very wrong. I did feel the middle dragged a little and my interest dipped at times. There were quite a few POVs and some details felt unnecessary, which made it feel even longer. That said, the tension really picks up again towards the end and pulled me right back in. It was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster, but still a solid read from an author I’ll always keep coming back to.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC.
It’s set in the quiet suburban neighbourhood of Mariner’s Cove after a huge storm rolls through and the story follows multiple residents as strange things start happening. Odd items appear, symbols begin showing up everywhere, neighbours start acting differently and there’s this constant hum of bees.
This is definitely a slow-burn horror and at almost 800 pages, it's a proper CHONKER of a book! Malfi takes his time building the mystery and dread, which I really enjoyed, along with the nostalgic horror feel and the eerie atmosphere around the town itself. I loved the strange powers introduced and the creeping sense that something was very wrong. I did feel the middle dragged a little and my interest dipped at times. There were quite a few POVs and some details felt unnecessary, which made it feel even longer. That said, the tension really picks up again towards the end and pulled me right back in. It was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster, but still a solid read from an author I’ll always keep coming back to.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC.
April 20, 2026
3.75 rounded up
The Hive
General Thoughts:
I picked this book up as an ARC. I had no idea it was almost 800 pages long in e-book form lol I do not think this book necessarily earned all of those pages. However, it was a decent read that I quite enjoyed for the duration of the read. The ending was climatic and emotional, and felt very satisfying. The author did a great job of building the sense of dread and claustrophobia and panic throughout the characters and situation.
I will say, I predicted some things throughout the novel as well as as a main component of the ending, about halfway through the book. But it still unraveled in a very interesting way that made me satisfied, even though it had some predictability associated with it. I really enjoyed some of the horror elements during my read such as descriptions of body gore and ultimately the horrific happenstance of baser human instincts being activated. This book isn't so much jump out at you scary as it is a collective feeling of dread that continues to build to a climax.
I think the page count alone gives you the idea this is gonna be a bit of a slow burn. But I feel like too many of the POV's got too bloated with descriptions and spent too much time talking about things that ultimately didn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of the book. I really feel like this could've been paired down quite a bit and still given what it gave. That being said, I also feel like there were just too many POV's for me. There were several people that seemed like they were going to be heavy hitters and got a lot of POV time in the beginning, then eventually just paired down and became nothing characters. They had no real position in the end and I felt like they honestly could've been skipped completely. It made the POV's that were the main POV's get less page time, and ultimately might've lessened my emotional attachment to those characters.
I will say I am a bit biased in one way and that's that this book definitely made me feel nostalgic for younger Stephen King. This was a weird and mystical blend of Needful Things and the Shining.
I did really enjoy the supernatural aspect of this.
Overall, I do not regret my time with this novel, but I do feel like I've been reading this book for about half of my life at this point so I'm ready to move on lol if you're a big fan of really thick tomes and a slow burn this might be right up your alley.
Things to Love:
* Building of dread
* Interesting characters
* Mystery that begs to be satisfied
* Nostalgic horror feeling
Things to Question:
* Many POV's with unnecessary details
* Doesn't necessarily earn its pages
Book Stats:
📖: 768 pages
Genre: horror
Publisher: Titan
Format: eARC
Series: Standalone
Audiobook Stats:
⏰: 25 hours 38 minutes
🎤: Paul Bellantoni
Publisher: Tantor Media
Format: Single narrator/multiple POV
Was the narration good??
This was my first novel narrated by this narrator and it took me a minute to fully to get into it. The author's voice was not what I was expecting for some of the characters and it's always really hard for a narrator with such a deep voice to accurately and fairly depict female characters for me. However, this narrator ended up being really, really enjoyed by me. I still don't think he did the female voices a lot of justice however he didn't try to overdo it which helped. But his voice for some of the darker aspects of this novel was absolutely amazing and I want to read more horror books narrated by this narrator
Disclaimer: I read this book as a gifted eARC through NetGalley and a self purchased audiobook. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.
The Hive
General Thoughts:
I picked this book up as an ARC. I had no idea it was almost 800 pages long in e-book form lol I do not think this book necessarily earned all of those pages. However, it was a decent read that I quite enjoyed for the duration of the read. The ending was climatic and emotional, and felt very satisfying. The author did a great job of building the sense of dread and claustrophobia and panic throughout the characters and situation.
I will say, I predicted some things throughout the novel as well as as a main component of the ending, about halfway through the book. But it still unraveled in a very interesting way that made me satisfied, even though it had some predictability associated with it. I really enjoyed some of the horror elements during my read such as descriptions of body gore and ultimately the horrific happenstance of baser human instincts being activated. This book isn't so much jump out at you scary as it is a collective feeling of dread that continues to build to a climax.
I think the page count alone gives you the idea this is gonna be a bit of a slow burn. But I feel like too many of the POV's got too bloated with descriptions and spent too much time talking about things that ultimately didn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of the book. I really feel like this could've been paired down quite a bit and still given what it gave. That being said, I also feel like there were just too many POV's for me. There were several people that seemed like they were going to be heavy hitters and got a lot of POV time in the beginning, then eventually just paired down and became nothing characters. They had no real position in the end and I felt like they honestly could've been skipped completely. It made the POV's that were the main POV's get less page time, and ultimately might've lessened my emotional attachment to those characters.
I will say I am a bit biased in one way and that's that this book definitely made me feel nostalgic for younger Stephen King. This was a weird and mystical blend of Needful Things and the Shining.
I did really enjoy the supernatural aspect of this.
Overall, I do not regret my time with this novel, but I do feel like I've been reading this book for about half of my life at this point so I'm ready to move on lol if you're a big fan of really thick tomes and a slow burn this might be right up your alley.
Things to Love:
* Building of dread
* Interesting characters
* Mystery that begs to be satisfied
* Nostalgic horror feeling
Things to Question:
* Many POV's with unnecessary details
* Doesn't necessarily earn its pages
Book Stats:
📖: 768 pages
Genre: horror
Publisher: Titan
Format: eARC
Series: Standalone
Audiobook Stats:
⏰: 25 hours 38 minutes
🎤: Paul Bellantoni
Publisher: Tantor Media
Format: Single narrator/multiple POV
Was the narration good??
This was my first novel narrated by this narrator and it took me a minute to fully to get into it. The author's voice was not what I was expecting for some of the characters and it's always really hard for a narrator with such a deep voice to accurately and fairly depict female characters for me. However, this narrator ended up being really, really enjoyed by me. I still don't think he did the female voices a lot of justice however he didn't try to overdo it which helped. But his voice for some of the darker aspects of this novel was absolutely amazing and I want to read more horror books narrated by this narrator
Disclaimer: I read this book as a gifted eARC through NetGalley and a self purchased audiobook. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.
August 15, 2026
Review to follow
June 16, 2026
god, this book didn't need to be as big as it was. the premise sounded quite interesting, but it ended up being boring and way too repetitive for me.
the characters were fine for the most part. brian, alex, and cory stood out the most for me and were the most interesting to read about. the others were just there lol. the relationship between brian and cory was really adorable, though.
the writing style was engaging enough to be able to finish this 760 page beast, but at the same time, it wasn't that well written. it was more so quick paced.
the story was HIGHLY repetitive. I felt like I was reading about the same stuff over and over again, and I just wanted it to get on with the story. nothing happened whatsoever until the very ending of the book, and by that point, I was just ready to be done with the story. the ending was underwhelming as hell, too. we were building up towards what I thought was this huge thing, and it just fizzled out at the end for me.... I was highly disappointed cos I thought I was gonna love this. 😭
safe to say I can't personally recommend this.
the characters were fine for the most part. brian, alex, and cory stood out the most for me and were the most interesting to read about. the others were just there lol. the relationship between brian and cory was really adorable, though.
the writing style was engaging enough to be able to finish this 760 page beast, but at the same time, it wasn't that well written. it was more so quick paced.
the story was HIGHLY repetitive. I felt like I was reading about the same stuff over and over again, and I just wanted it to get on with the story. nothing happened whatsoever until the very ending of the book, and by that point, I was just ready to be done with the story. the ending was underwhelming as hell, too. we were building up towards what I thought was this huge thing, and it just fizzled out at the end for me.... I was highly disappointed cos I thought I was gonna love this. 😭
safe to say I can't personally recommend this.
April 28, 2026
Malfi has crafted a detailed and dread inducing cosmic horror. The anxiety and tension are slow building at first, but then culminate in a wild and chaotic conclusion.
I did find that my growing interest from the beginning tapered off somewhat in the middle, and at times the story felt VERY long. There were moments that would reel me back in and helped me to keep reading to find out what happens. Then the activity and intrigue amps up towards the end- so definitely a rollercoaster of a read.
The characters were very well crafted and the highlight of the story, and this does make me want to try out more books from this author again.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Titan Books for a copy!
I did find that my growing interest from the beginning tapered off somewhat in the middle, and at times the story felt VERY long. There were moments that would reel me back in and helped me to keep reading to find out what happens. Then the activity and intrigue amps up towards the end- so definitely a rollercoaster of a read.
The characters were very well crafted and the highlight of the story, and this does make me want to try out more books from this author again.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Titan Books for a copy!
October 29, 2026
I was fully immersed in this tale, Malfi sure can write. It's perhaps a tad too long, but as long as I'm engaged along the way it's all gravy. Intriguing story with great characters, not entirely sure about the ending but I really enjoyed the ride, 4.5 stars.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I enjoyed the originality of the collective consciousness of bees presenting itself in people. Some elements of this resonated with me because it mirrors the real world in a spooky way. There were a ton of perspectives in this one, but I found them distinctive enough to not require a list to keep them straight. They all make up a piece of a plot that molds together well. Fans of longer horror stories along the lines of King Sorrow or Sleeping Beauties would enjoy this book.
April 24, 2026
3.75 stars
This one is a little hard to rate. Writing is good, as Malfi generally is, so I enjoyed reading it. The story is interesting but also very slow progressing and quite meticulous in how it is set out.
This is where your mileage may vary. Personally I ended up enjoying it, but at the same time I can see how some people might not want to take so many pages to get to the Endgame (as it is even referred to in the book).
This one is a little hard to rate. Writing is good, as Malfi generally is, so I enjoyed reading it. The story is interesting but also very slow progressing and quite meticulous in how it is set out.
This is where your mileage may vary. Personally I ended up enjoying it, but at the same time I can see how some people might not want to take so many pages to get to the Endgame (as it is even referred to in the book).
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