“So that’s what it was like in the beginning: slowly, people online became the judge and jury for all ‘uncivilized’ online behaviours. This condemnatory mass of social media majority became known as the Hive, responsible for identifying and punishing whatever actions were deemed socially unacceptable.”
The Hive by Barry Lyga and Morgan Baden delivers a compelling look into the potential future of social media. This world harnesses the masses obsession with their online identities to track and enact the justice they feel fits the crime but appearing fair was only a radical illusion that people bought into and its Cassie’s unfortunate timing that forces her to expose it or die trying.
There were a lot of relatable situations in here that I find this book a great one to add to any readers TBR. There are a lot of tech terms throughout but it doesn’t obscure the plot and leave you stranded dumb and confused. Anything you need to know is thoroughly explained in layman’s terms, I promise. I’m not a tech genius by any means and I finished this story feeling too degrees smarter haha! This book is like a hybrid of the 2004 movie hit, Mean Girls and Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman’s, Illuminae. If you’re a fan of either I strongly suggest trying this book!
I want to thank Netgalley and the publishers at Kids Can Press for giving me the opportunity to review an early copy!
“Hey, do you know a guy with the most intense eyes you’ve ever seen who swoops down on you like a mysterious, sexy vulture?’ See? It was ridiculous. Who thinks vultures are sexy?”
There wasn’t a lot of romance in here, sadly. Cassie is a very awkward and flustered girl when she sees Carson, the ‘sexy vulture’ in school. They bond over font choices and leave each other in awe of their respective tech skills and I found their relationship adorable and nerdy, which was the perfect choice for this story. Romance isn’t at the forefront of every plot and I’m glad that it took a backseat in this because that wasn’t what the story was about. The romance was added to showcase Carson’s character rather than Cassie’s and I liked that change. Especially considering the fact that her first priority was survival so it made sense for her not to be thinking about boys and relationships.
“Jesus. Did you consult anyone who’d ever work in fucking retail?’ Bryce fumed. ‘Humanity is filled with people dying to complain. To avenge. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, man.”
This comment just resonated with me and my cashier mindset. I totally get where Bryce is coming from and I appreciated this comment so much. Maybe too much haha. I wanted to shout stick it to the man after reading this. It gets the rebellious juices flowing that’s for sure.
“Get the fuck away from my daughter!’ Rachel bellowed at the woman, who looked up, startled as though she had been innocently reading poetry when Rachel raged at her like a maniac.”
This book is full of movie references and here I felt it channelling Molly Weasley’s (from Harry Potter) fierce need to protect her daughter. It had the rage that sent me right into visualizing this movie moment. Rachel and Cassie have a very strained relationship at the start and this just showcased her mama bear instincts and I loved it. The events of the plot forced their relationship to hash out their muddled emotions and finally deal with their loss. They were separated for most of the plot but they soon realize what is and isn’t important and come to value family. It was a heartwarming rendition of a true mother/daughter relationship. They are never perfect and a death in the family never brings people closer together. Loved the realism once again! You will cry and your heart will definitely break while reading this!
“Too bad the abortion didn’t take. #betterlucknextbaby.”
If this doesn’t give you flashbacks of that time when Cady Heron made her debut in the burn book with calling Ms. Norbury a pusher, a drug pusher, well I don’t know what will. And if you haven’t seen this iconic teen comedy stop reading and go watch it! Cassie faced so many similar situations that Cady did and I really liked the comparison. It wasn’t 100 percent the same but Lyga and Baden took that core idea of trying to impress the ‘it’ clique in school to make friends and that made this once again a book most can relate to. They just added some corruption, code and mobs (as one does of course!). This tweet jumpstarted the entire plot and the concept of Hive mobs was clever and scary in the sense of how close it could become reality for us today.
“An ohm was a unit of resistance.”
I’m a nerd. A bookish one but still. I’m not science smart but I was left in awe with this brilliant use of science in here. I don’t care one bit if people find this too cheesy or too obvious because I think that’s exactly what made it the best choice. No one would think to use this obvious symbol and that’s a shame because I loved
the cleverness of it. It suits the whole tone of the book and the authors were not ashamed to embrace their inner geek and go all in. I appreciated all these little dashes of education strewn about.
If you appreciate pop culture references, especially those of the nerdy kind you will come to appreciate this book. There’s a character named after a certain red and gold marvel hero as well as a brilliant albeit slightly cheesy reference from Lord of the Rings about a certain ring. I feel like it just added to the homage of today’s society and how more and more people are being drawn into the world of tech, something that used to be portrayed as negative is being showcased as a positive and I love it. The authors choice to make their female MC (main character) a coding fiend just showed how our society is evolving. I loved how they didn’t stick to the status quo and stay with the more realistic choice.
The only issue I found was the strange use of Cassie calling her mom by her first name rather than just mom. It was really hard to get what was going on when the perspectives would change and Cassie would still call her Rachel. It was weird. I get it now that their relationship wasn’t at its best and I guess this works in that sense but it was really confusing to read. I had to decipher a lot before I started getting into the story and I think this choice was a bad one. you can still be mad at your mother and call her as such. Resorting to her first name is odd and it reads odd. It will be jarring and confusing but if you bear with it and read it all you’ll come to see that it was a minor thing that faded to the background as the plot deepened. You just have to get yourself there!
I still loved this book and I think it deserves an 8/10. I enjoyed how relatable the whole thing was and the cute and quirky romance (albeit small and near the end) made it adorable!
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