Download The Bees: A Novel Audiobook

“The Bees is an extraordinary feat of imagination, conjuring the life of a beehive in gripping, passionate, and brilliant detail. With every page I turned, I found myself drawn deeper into Flora's plight and her immersive, mesmerizing world.”

“The Bees is one wild ride. A sensual, visceral mini-epic about timeless rituals and modern environmental disaster. Paull’s heart pounding novel wrenches us into a new world.”

“[A] gripping Cinderella/Arthurian tale with lush Keatsian adjectives.”

“Paull’s ambitious and bold first novel…is told with rapturously attentive imagination…[and] propulsive and addictive prose…Few novels create such a singular reading experience. The buzz you will hear surrounding this book and its astonishing author is utterly deserved.”

“Richly imagined.”

“Riveting… evocative and beautiful.”

“It quickly became clear that in its basic facts, the novel sticks closely to real-world apian biology and behavior. That is fascinating enough, but Paull deftly wields this information to create an even more elaborately layered culture of beeness…Beautiful.”

“Fascinating…engrossing…Paull’s clear fascination with her source material brings humanity and warmth to a depiction of the remarkable social world of bees, which is no small achievement.”

“Brilliantly imagined…Paull’s use of human language to describe this tiny, intricate world is classic storytelling at its finest…The Bees boasts a refreshingly feminist spin on fairy tale-style plots….A wildly creative book that resonates deeply for quite a long time.”

“A marvelous work of fiction…The parallels to 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are numerous, but this story is also its own.”

“Paull’s debut presents the intricate world of the honeybee hive, where devotion and service are sacred and caste, politics, and power are as present as in any human royal court. A powerful story reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, in which one original and independent thinker can change the course of a whole society.”

“Imagine a story similar to Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale but told from the perspective of an insect. That’s exactly the premise of Paull’s debut novel…Paull’s plot brings to mind films like the 1998 hit Antz, but her deft storytelling and her nod to scientific literature allow the story to avoid the cutesy trappings that sometimes characterize novels featuring nonhuman characters. A surprisingly compelling tale.”

“Dystopia meets the Discovery Channel in this audacious debut novel…Like Animal Farm for the Hunger Games generation, Paull’s book features characters who are both anthropomorphized and not—insects scientifically programmed to ‘accept, obey, and serve’ but who also find themselves capable of questioning that programming…And while Flora 717 may not be the next Katniss Everdeen, she symbolizes the power that knowledge has to engender change, even in nature.”

“Paull deserves kudos for a daring idea.”

“Narrator Orlagh Cassidy’s enchanting performance enriches this debut novel…Cassidy’s vivid, engaging characterizations quickly transport listeners into the busy world of the bees…As Flora transcends her destiny, moving up through the ranks to forager, Cassidy expertly conveys the bee’s astonishment at each new discovery, curiosity about the outside world, and bravery when defending her sisters against attack. The success of this audiobook lies in Cassidy’s respectful yet lively narration, which enables listeners to connect with the story on a number of levels. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”