Laline Paull
The Bees
I had no preconceptions when starting to read this. I have next to no knowledge about bees, and their structure within a hive, apart from the fact that there’s a Queen and drones. I don’t know anything about Paull, either her personal background or what writing experience she had before this was published.
The lack of knowledge wasn’t a stumbling block to enjoying the story however, despite the fact that there are no human characters at all within the narrative. Paull invests the bees, and more particularly the primary character of Flora 717 with such passion, devotion, and courage, that I found myself empathising with her just as much as I would if she had been a human character.
Flora’s strength is both emotional, and physical, as she endeavours to protect what is most important to her. Her priorities shift steadily throughout the course of the novel, another very human trait, that it was easy to relate to. Seeing as each change, whether positive or negative, in your life will usually make you reevaluate what you truly value, and how much you are willing to risk to have it.
The power behind Paull’s writing, in what I later discovered was her debut, makes me anxious and excited about what she will do next.
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hgolightly1982
I'm a thirty something woman who lives in the north of England. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, creating stories both written and verbal since childhood. While studying at Edge Hill College, I got several poems published by a small publisher in the USA, and in Europe. I have been part of several writing groups, and done quite a few courses in a attempt to hone my writing skills further. I love reading different genres of fiction, knowing that the best way to develop my own writing, and my vocabulary is by exposing myself to the different ways that other people choose to describe things.
The most recent writing course that I've been part of, run by a published author, included a exercise in which we were challenged to read things that we would never usually even look at.
It inspired me to take up a challenge. Namely to attempt to read at least one book by every author which is stocked in my local library. I soon realised that I was being far too ambitious, especially given the fact that every library rotates their stock too often for me to keep track.
I've decided to instead attempt to read a book every day, starting with a author whose surname begins with A, and ending with a author whose surname begins with Z. It doesn't matter what the topic of the book is, or if it's fiction or non fiction, everything is useful for me at the minute.
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Musings of a thirtysomething woman 