Book-a-book of the Month Club discussion

Discuss the story . . .

I read this recently so won't be reading along, but can't wait to discuss. This was like a mix between Watership Down and The Handmaid's Tale. A terrific read. I hope everyone likes it.

Kandice wrote: "I read this recently so won't be reading along, but can't wait to discuss. This was like a mix between Watership Down and The Handmaid's Tale. A terrific read. I hope ever..."

Hmmmm - I need to work on picking something you haven't read already . . . but you read a lot!

I don't mind! I like not feeling forced to read so when you choose something I've already chosen for myself it's a win-win in my opinion. :D

So far I am finding the story a a bit disjointed - Flora's adventures are spastically jumping all over the place. I think this is so we can get an idea of all the elements of the hive, but it just feels a bit forced to me.

Matthew wrote: "So far I am finding the story a a bit disjointed - Flora's adventures are spastically jumping all over the place. I think this is so we can get an idea of all the elements of the hive, but it just..."

I understand what you are saying but I thought it was intentional to get us in the mind frame of the bees. I figure they be kind of hyper.

I thought the same thing, Kandice, that a hive of bees would be a frantic, ADHD place. It also seems very cultish to me and religious. I feel like i am waiting xor something to happen.

Pardon the language, but I saw this on Facebook and it seemed appropriate here!

Vicki wrote: "I thought the same thing, Kandice, that a hive of bees would be a frantic, ADHD place. It also seems very cultish to me and religious. I feel like i am waiting xor something to happen."

In my review I talk about the spiritual/religious aspect really making the story foe me. It just made sense for some reason.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit. Is everyone else?

Matthew, that is AWESOME!!!!

Lol so funny Matthew!

Man! Just when I think this story is going along at a fairly normal pace - crazy hive mind slaughter happens!

From my review:

"The description says something about comparing this to The Hunger Games. The only similarity I see is that they are both books."

Seems like the thing to do is name drop The Hunger Games whether or not it is relevant!

Matthew wrote: "From my review:

"The description says something about comparing this to The Hunger Games. The only similarity I see is that they are both books."

Seems like the thing to do is name drop The Hunge..."

I have to admit that it got me to look at the book, but I saw it as waaaaaay more similar to a few others. When you get right down to it, you can compare a book to any other book and not technically be wrong, but like you I didn't personally see that comparison. O_o

The book that kept coming to mind for me was Anthem - the theme in that was gaining awareness of self in an environment where you are not encouraged to have your own personality.

Am struggling through this one. I don't know, but it isn't that interesting to me. I feel like there are all these religious undertones that I am not getting. All this Holy Mother stuff. I also don't really get how she keeps laying an egg?? I am st 57% and her second egg was destroyed when the bee keeper took the honeycomb. So now what? She flies around some more foraging and lays another egg? I feel like nothing has happened yet. Am going to try to finish this week though so I can move on to something else.

I know what you mean Vicki, the story doesn't really advance very smoothly, it's all over the place sometimes. I thought I would really get into a story about bees but it left me cold.

Christopher wrote: "the story doesn't really advance very smoothly"

This sums it up in one sentence!

Overall, I enjoyed this one, but can't say I loved it. I wish Goodreads allowed half-star ratings, because I'd give it 3.5 stars. I liked the story line, but thought it went a little off the rails once Flora started foraging. The whole thing with the wasps in the warehouse just seemed like filler to me and didn't advance the story line much. There were a couple times when I felt that way, but then the author would get things back on track.