Book Forty Nine 2014: 

The Bees by Laline Paull

Now here we have it. Something unique. The real deal.

As with so many other things I come across and want to press into your hot, virtual hands immediately, I don’t want to reveal more of The Bees than I have to. Suffice to say that it is set entirely within a beehive and that, with the exception of a short prologue and epilogue, all of the characters are bees. You heard me.

Imagine a book about a place that is part repressive North Korean regime, part filled with religious nuts, part Shakespearian foolery, part wildlife text but that reads like a thriller in places and you’re halfway there. I read it in a single day.

I will never think about a bee the same way again as I try to shoo it out of the house and honey will forever on seem a bit like stolen property. I can’t recall a book I’ve read this year that I’ve enjoyed more.

It is an absolute must if you seek new territory outside the dull, repetitious mainstream.