Review Detail

THE HIVE by Barry Lyga and Morgan Baden is a YA sci-fi novel set in the near future. In this world, social media has evolved into a way of administering justice. People that are online can upvote or downvote another’s activity. The more downvotes someone has on BLINQ, a data aggregator of all social media sites, the higher the penalty that person could face for his or her behavior. In theory, the system seems to be working great, until Cassie McKinney, a high school senior, makes a crass joke online about the president’s baby and is sentenced to be killed on sight. Cassie, on the run for her life, must decide whether she’ll save herself or bring the government down with her.

The idea behind this book is chilling, especially since it feels like we could be headed in this direction as a society. The novel’s concept, by Jennifer Beals and Tom Jacobson, clearly taps into Twitter’s outrage and apology culture of present day, while also offering a solution for handling bullies who currently hide behind their keyboards without any real ramifications. Unfortunately for Cassie, the punishment doesn’t quite fit the crime, which begs the question, when do we know we’ve gone too far?

Based on the idea alone, THE HIVE has a lot of potential, but never fully meets it. The book starts off slow with the first hundred pages primarily existing to set up backstory and character. A lot of the beginning is unnecessary as the inciting incident doesn’t happen until page ninety-six and instead, could have been filtered in throughout instead of used as a massive info-dump. It’s not until Cassie finds herself in a life or death situation that the pace begins to pick up. Part of this has to do with the fact that the authors make Hive Justice an activity in which only part of the population participates. As a result, the stakes feel low and casual, until all of a sudden, they almost inexplicably don’t.

Once Cassie has been sentenced, there are a series of events that are hard to believe. The most garish one is that Cassie, a highly intelligent and distrustful girl, would choose to text someone she didn’t know that well and tell her where she’s been hiding. This felt like a plot device to get Cassie discovered and it immediately took me out of the story as it was more convenient than realistic. It also felt like the authors discovered the message they were trying to communicate only at the end of the book, which made it less effective and impactful.

Overall, THE HIVE is a very interesting idea that as a book gets better as you go along. The ending is strong, leaving a possibility for a sequel, and perhaps, a second chance to do right by this world. I enjoyed the note Lyga and Baden went out on and appreciate the conversation this could potentially launch.