The Hive

by Wendy Smolen

"If you're looking for a profoundly affecting novel about the inner workings of friendship, The Hive is a worthy choice. Smolen has deftly created multidimensional characters readers will identify with.... Don't miss out on this emotionally driven novel about the power (and peril) of sisterhood." -Reader Views

"Smolen writes with confidence about women who know one another too well.... The women in this novel are funny, sharp, vain, loyal, hurtful, generous, and wounded, often in the same scene. That mix gives the story its bite." -Seattle Book Review

"Readers watch the makings-and eventual destruction-of a decades-long friend group in this polished fiction debut.... Smolen succeeds with the book's self-contained universe, one easily absorbing readers..." -BookLife

When you've always been defined by other people, how do you find yourself?

Littie has spent a lifetime pleasing others, capitulating to their ideas of who she should a perfect daughter; a loving wife; an involved mother; and most importantly, a loyal friend. From college to careers, boyfriends to babies, weddings to funerals, she and her beloved hive of friends-Josie, Gale and Marcy-dance through five tumultuous decades, twisting and tangling with the times, yet always circling back to the safety and comfort of each other.

Now in their 60s, they're seemingly as close as ever when a charming outsider suddenly threatens the sanctity of their devotion. Long buried wounds simmer beneath their picture-perfect friendship. Littie is forced to confront a question she's spent a lifetime Can there be a me within the us?

Told with sharp insight, heart, and unflinching honesty, The Hive is a powerful exploration of how female friendships can enrich a woman's own voice and simultaneously endanger everything she has ever loved.

Genres: Fiction

410 pages, Paperback

Expected publication January 12, 2027

Reviews

[Tove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the DRC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a really interesting read for a lot of reasons, one of them being the way it reads like an elderly person recounting her life in a very "Real Housewives of [city]" kind of way.

Elizabeth ("Littie") tells us about her life and her 50 year long "friendship" with three other women - Josie, Gale and Marcy - also known as "The Hive". They all live very lavish, luxurious and vain lives throughout the decades (riches and status always being the main goal of every decision made) to a point where it almost gets a little ridiculous. I myself has never found any real importance in brand-name fashion items and never thought it important to keep up appearances in this way, so that sense, this book serves as a fantasy check-in to the millionaire lifestyle I'll never have the patience to live.

The inevitable reality with such a status-heavy lifestyle comes crashing down on Littie once she realizes that money isn't everything, and that's when those codependent, fake relationships crumble, and the more relatable elements of this story really work.

We've all lived through friend break-ups, and had relationships where you've always thought you knew people inside and out, only to brutally find out that you've been wearing rose-colored glasses all this time. 'The Hive' establishes at the very start, by the very name, that this friendship group works only because everyone has an established role that everyone else (especially Josie) makes sure the others do NOT step out of, or the whole construct collapses in on itself. Watching these four women go through so many things together make for a case study in female friendships in group-constellations that, at times, are very very relatable. The need to belong and do things right as deemed by the people you are loyal to hit very close to home, but already having come out the other side made me sick to my stomach with the realization that "I would have done the same thing, probably" when I was wearing the same shoes. Having "an outsider" (even though he appears very late into the story) pull away the curtains to reveal the shady machinery behind the spectacle as well as the foreboding "I should have seen these signs sooner" throughout the text was done really nicely and made me unable to put it down the entire last 30%.

The thing that brings down the score for me is the over-the-top, bedazzled, ultra-rich lifestyle these characters live, even though it makes sense for the kind of characters they are, I suppose. The amount of money thrown around made it feel like a "Mean Girls: where are they now?"-special but with the "MOTHERLOAD" cheat codes from Sims. I had a hard time feeling bad for any of them or sympathizing even when disaster struck, and Josie especially being such a narcissist right from the beginning made me cringe every time she was on page. I would not have had the patience to hang out with either of these kinds of people in real life, but I guess that is also the point of the story!

All in all, it was a cool dissection of codependent female friendships, and all the ways you can get caught up in the "hivemind" of a group when you yourself are vulnerable and insecure in yourself. On the other hand, it is an almost disturbing reality-check of what that can result in if you don't find yourself someone who can pull you out of the water before you drown.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every woman will relate, in some way, to the Hive ladies in this book, but especially those in their 50/60's who have experienced growing up in the same time period.

I love the dynamics of the friendship group. The growing, changing, and nurturing of that friendship and their journey from college to adulthood to old age, is written with love and compassion.

Yes, they all experience their ups and downs. They each have something to bring to the group, and they each have individual favourites amongst the Hive.
But that is what makes this story feel natural and atmospheric.

Throughout the story, the author has likened their characteristics and friendships to that of a colony of bees. By placing the women in their roles within the colony, and as each chapter is uncovered, it begins to make more and more sense and is another reason to read on.

I loved how the story progressed and how the women grew throughout their changing lives. Towards the ending, the story is especially touching and it was one of those books that I really didn't want to end.

[Rachel Sinoben · Rating 2.75 out of 5]

This book had a wonderfully voyeuristic quality to it. It felt like being given a window into this insular group of women and getting to watch all the jealousy, resentment, power dynamics, and complicated friendships unfold. These were not necessarily people I liked, but they were people I wanted to keep watching.

Unfortunately, I kept waiting for all that dysfunction to lead somewhere. I don’t need characters to be likable, but I do want their messiness to have a payoff. Instead, I watched these women hurt each other over and over, only for one of them to ultimately end up alone because none of them seemed capable of behaving like grown adults.

For me, this was fascinating people watching with a disappointing destination. I enjoyed looking through the window, but by the end, I wasn’t sure the view had been worth quite so much of my time.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bublish, Inc., and Wendy Smolen for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Robyn Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hive is a realistic rendering of female friendships through many years of happiness and sorrows. The central character, Littie, and the friends she makes while at an Ivy League college, all from high achieving and status conscious families, make up the close knit hive with queen Josie demanding fealty. It’s all fun and healthy competition until marriages, family, aging and real life pull apart the knit of the hive and the unhealthy dependence on Josie and her toxic personality. It’s a heavy lift for Littie but she actually grows emotionally, facing her own traumas and to come away stronger. And accepting she will need to break away from the hive altogether to become her best self.

[Bookworm Chronicles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but unfortunately, I did not. I tried to decipher the relationship between the concepts of a traditional bee hive and the friendship between the 3 girls but failed to do so. I didn't like how the story would talk of the girls in present, describing their friendships, how they let and aspects of their home life but within the same paragraph would flip to their lives in the future. These are just a few of my concerns. Unfortunately, I would ultimately DNF this book.

[Paula Pugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense, character driven look into female relationships. The four women in question are all formed by their relationships growing up, all of them, sans one, having overbearing or absent mothers. Each woman is seeking an intimate relationship with the others. This is not a feel good novel but one of joys tempered and rocked by betrayals, often superficial love for each other.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Susan Witkow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hive is an entertaining, enjoyable read. It's a sneak peak into the lives of priviledged women as they face life's highs and lows over a 40+ year timeframe. It's a story of female friendship with all it's pleasures and complications. As the women evolve and move through their lives the perilous and tenuous circle of trust they have shared begins to crumble. Aptly titled, The Hive, reminds us to beware of the those bees - they make sweet honey, but their stings are painful and long lasting.

[Livtoread12 · Rating 3 out of 5]

 I really liked the comparison of a hive to the friendgroup. 

The main point of the plot is about friendship which sometimes requires making tough decisions which can result in losing even a long term relationship.

In the middle part of the plot I was a little confused, I wasn't sure where the story is going, I felt a little bit bored.