The Bee King by Mathilda Zeller
My ranking: 4 of 5 stars
The Bee King is a younger grownup story with components of horror, so would maybe swimsuit mature teenagers and above.
Alice lives on an island the place poverty and crop failures typically lead islanders to promote their daughters. Alice will do something to guard her sister and cousin; she works exhausting and defends them from her abusive, drunken father.
In the future the mysterious, fabled Bee Males arrive within the city, providing households a lot wanted cash in return for sending their daughters to a particular ball the place one will likely be chosen as the brand new spouse of the Bee King, and Alice does all she will be able to to guard her sister and cousin.
With many analogies to bees and their life-cycle, that is a fascinating story. It’s a little bit ugly in locations and does contact on delicate topic issues which some readers could discover troublesome to examine. There are whiffs of fairy tales and fables woven in to the narrative with a sprinkle of magic and revenge. In the event you like bees and a contact of horror, then that is price a learn.
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When the crops fail, the monsters come.
When the monsters come, they purchase the daughters.
Alice would do something to maintain her sister and cousin out of the palms of the monsters. She would even settle for a wedding proposal from the Bee King, the mysterious honey magnate allegedly driving the prosperity of the empire.
However when she arrives on the Apiary, the secluded property of her betrothed, nothing is because it appears. The empire’s rich and well-known are converging upon the property and she or he quickly learns that the Bee King will not be marrying her for love or lust, however third cause–a darkish, unusual, and lethal cause.
