| Title | : | The Hive |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1525300601 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781525300608 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | First published September 3, 2019 |
Cassie McKinney has always believed in the Hive.
Social media used to be out of control, after all. People were torn apart by trolls and doxxers. Even hackers - like Cassie's dad - were powerless against it.
But then the Hive came. A better way to sanction people for what they do online. Cause trouble, get too many "condemns," and a crowd can come after you, teach you a lesson in real life. It's safer, fairer and perfectly legal.
Entering her senior year of high school, filled with grief over an unexpected loss, Cassie is primed to lash out. Egged on by new friends, she makes an edgy joke online. Cassie doubts anyone will notice.
But the Hive notices everything. And as her viral comment whips an entire country into a frenzy, the Hive demands retribution.
One moment Cassie is anonymous; the next, she's infamous. And running for her life.
With nowhere to turn, she must learn to rely on herself - and a group of Hive outcasts who may not be reliable - as she slowly uncovers the truth about the machine behind the Hive.
New York Times bestselling authors Barry Lyga and Morgan Baden have teamed up for the first time to create a novel that's gripping, terrifying and more relevant every day, based on a story proposal by Jennifer Beals and Tom Jacobson.
The Hive Reviews
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I really liked Barry Lyga's "I Hunt Killers" series - it was dark and edgy in a way that few young adult books these days dare to be - so when I saw that he was writing a dystopian thriller with his wife, I was all over that like white on rice, even though I tend to side-eye a lot of dystopian novels with their outlandish concepts and lack of world-building. Color me shocked, then, when THE HIVE ended up being one of my new favorite young adult novels in recent history, roping me in from start to finish.
Take caution when looking at the reviews for this book, as there are a lot of people crying about the political content. Honestly, considering how obsessed conservative people are about "snowflakes," they can be remarkably sensitive. Politics and books shouldn't be separate. Books are the ideal platform to write about real-world issues in allegorical format, in the same way that George Orwell wrote his books to protest against and warn people about totalitarianism and communism. #my2cents
THE HIVE is a book set in the near future, under a Trump-like president. Everyone's connected to a government-owned social media platform called BLINQ that connects to all of their other social media outlets. Users are encouraged to "trend positive" and going viral is still the ideal - but there's a cost. In addition to likes and reblogging, users can also "condemn." And if you get "condemned" by enough users, it triggers something called a "Hive Alert," subjecting the user to the vigilante justice of Internet mobs.
Cassie is the daughter of a notorious hacker who is dead. She talks to an AI version of him in her phone that they programmed together, preferring this virtual version of her father to her real-life mother. After her father's death, they became very poor, which means a new home and also a new school. Her salty personality bring her to the attention of the popular kids, who are bemused by her bad attitude, and want to indoctrinate her into their ranks. One day, while talking about ways to trend positive and go viral, they think about ways to make fun of the new-born baby of the President's favorite daughter (*cough* Ivanka *cough*) and Cassie makes one that's super edgy -
And then, everything goes to heck.
This book was amazing. At first, I found Cassie hard to like, but she grew on me and her pain and angst was understandable. I loved the portrayal of the Hive and the cautionary message of not just living your life through a screen, but also allowing it to depersonalize other human beings and jumping on the bandwagon without knowing all the facts. I think THE HIVE is especially relevant in today's age, where Tweeting the wrong thing can cause you to lose your job, and algorithms on YouTube propel you to ever-more-radical content, the more videos you watch. This is so much more than your typical "technology = bad" formula; the author actually seems familiar with hacking, technology, and coding, and uses this knowledge to write a surprisingly deep and meaningful book about the looming horizons of technology's potential and what it could mean for us.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
5 stars -
3.5 to 4 Stars
It's no secret that I fell in love with Lyga's writing after reading his I Hunt Killers series. It was imaginative, dark and completely addicting. I vowed after finishing it that I would absolutely try anything else the man wanted to write. Which of course was why when I saw The Hive, I was so freaking excited to try it. After reading the synopsis and checking out the cover, I knew it was going to be hands down a completely unique take on something that could in our society, just very well happen.
I knew this would be enthralling and more than likely, terrifying.
And it is terrifying, simply because...what if.
What if something like this, in the not so distant future happened? Can you see it? I can and that, is terrifying.
With so many of us dependent upon our phones, our life lines to the world and those pesky devices that keeps us informed of just about everything, what if something like this could happen? Shudders.
Truly a story that will keep you engaged, interested, and hoping like heck, it never comes true.
*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.* -
The Hive, a young adult book, was a solid 3.5 stars.
I found The Hive to be an interesting read, especially in today’s society and the growing popularity of social media.
The book centers around main character Cassie, a teenager whose life was turned upside down with the death of her father. Cassie is a firm believer in The Hive (a sort of mob group that legally doles out justice for online abusers)-that is until she finds herself being the next target. Desperate to fit in with the popular crowd at her new school, Cassie writes a heinous comment on social media as a joke. As Cassie’s comment goes viral, people are outraged and Cassie is forced to run for her life.
The Hive is overall an interesting book and very well-written. I’d recommend this to fans of fiction and young adult books. Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange of an honest review. -
3.5 stars really from me. I enjoyed this much more than I usually enjoy my 3 star reads and I read the bulk of it in just two days. I never really considered quitting, and I do sometimes have that thought for my 3 star reads.
The Hive is a book about the dangers of social media taken to the extreme. Sometime in the not so distant future it is decided that people should be held accountable for absolutely everything they do online. When a person turns 13, they are given a social media identity that belongs only to them. Everything they say can be liked or condemned. If you receive enough condemn votes, you become subject to Hive justice.
Once that happens, people are alerted to the perpetrator’s presence via phone notifications, along with a picture of the perpetrator and the level of justice the Hive is allowed to inflict (1-5). The people who endorse the Hive form a mob and hunt down the condemned. At level 1 the punishment is small, but surely humiliating, at level 5 punishment is more severe and the humiliation less likely to fade away quietly.
It’s an interesting concept, and the mobs we see in this book are pretty terrifying. Mobs quickly escalate out of control and even people who normally make sound choices can get sucked in.
There were some technical issues with The Hive that I was able to look past, but I can see being an issue for other readers. For starters – the protagonist, despite how smart she is (or how smart we are told she is), she makes a lot of dumb choices. The antagonists are all painfully obvious to the reader while Cassie remains totally oblivious. Some of the situations and their subsequent resolutions are just a little too convenient to be believable in terms of the plot, and a lot Cassie’s abilities as a hacker seem really far fetched.
But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it, and in fact, once Cassie finds herself in hot water, I was up late reading this book until I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer. I just had to see where the book was going next, and it kept me pretty sucked in until the end.
The characters are all pretty fun, if a little flat. Although Cassie, the MC, is fairly unlikeable (and the thing she says that gets her in trouble is horrible– cringe inducing really). She spends a lot of the early pages disliking everyone and everything, generally being as tiresome as moody teenagers can be. I don’t know that she becomes any more likable as the book goes on, but she does at least become tolerable.
The book includes, at the end of some chapters, different posts (what I want to say here is Tweets, but technically in the book they’re from a platform called BLINQ) from some of the characters in the book as well as posts from non-characters. I really enjoyed the addition of them and thought they added a lot to feeling what was going on in the wider world, as well as upping the ante for Cassie, who we know will be subject to their justice.
Aside from the earlier issues I mentioned, the ending seems a little anticlimactic. Throughout the book the action and the intrigue are building and building, and then the resolution is so mind boggling simple that it ended up feeling unbelievable.
Regardless, I did enjoy it and read through it all pretty quickly. If you like the concept at all I think this book is well worth picking up. Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC for review. -
This book wasn't the best book I've ever read, nor the worst book I ever read. Very middle-of-the-road.
Here's a quick summation of what exactly The Hive is: it's a program that is essentially SJW justice on steroids. As in, "I don't like your opinion so that gives me the right to assault/murder you."
And that's exactly what this book is all about. Set in a near future where you a persecuted for having a difference in opinion, for complaining that your life sucks, or just for having a different sense of humor from the general population. All us dark-humored folks would probably be dead in this world. Just saying.
The "joke" that got Cassie into trouble in the first place? Here it is (she's talking about a the newborn grandson of the President that's all wrinkly and blotchy and people think the baby is ugly because it's not as if all newborns look like that right?): Too bad the abortion didn't take #betterlucknextbaby
Now,I'm not offended by this joke. I'm pro-choice. My issue, though, was throughout the entire book the main characters acted as if this were the funniest "joke" to ever grace the planet. It just isn't funny from a humor standpoint. Hell...it's not even a joke. It's just a post that makes fun of a newborn for looking like a newborn. Also she's kinda saying that the world would be better off from an aesthetic standpoint if the kid had been aborted which is just in poor taste because common, are you really that superficial?
Fair warning: if you don't like to read from an unlikable character's point of view, avoid this book like the plague. I have nothing against reading an unlikable character, but Cassie... oh boy she's just a raging bitch. I had a really hard time forcing myself through this book because all she did was act like an entitled brat that could do no harm. She admits she likes to tear down other people because, I quote, "It feels damn good.". She hates her mother for no apparent reason (and her mom is wonderful btw, like she's supportive and wants the best for her daughter but isn't too pushy about it). She's a straight up bitch to all the women in her life but as soon a a boy comes along she acts all meek and sweet. When she's on the run from Hive Justice, she blames everyone BUT herself for the shit she got herself into; she blames the girls she was hanging out with for "goading her into making the post" although she was the one to come up with, type, and post the, um, "joke" (she actually wanted to post the "joke" before all the other girls so they wouldn't go viral instead of her), and she blames her mother for... well I don't know but she somehow blames her mother for the situation she's in as well.
Now onto the little things that bothered me:
1. Mom Rachel is a classics professor at, wait for it, Microsoft/Buzzfeed University. That's right. That just made me laugh because honestly WTF.
2. Cassie considers compliments to be "microaggressions". Bitch, give me a break.
3. The authors seemed to consider study groups to be cheating??
4. Cassie is so dumb sometimes like holy shit she straight up texts her locations to girl when she's on the run, which both get raided, and then she blames the guy who's been helping her out all along.
5. About a quarter of this book is dedicated to this one plot to take down the government and The Hive, but they never use it. Seriously, this book could have been 100 pages shorter.
And now for the part you all knew was coming: the neuroscience rant. First off, can I just ask why authors don't take five minutes to go to google and do some quick research into the neuroscience they want to use/mention in their books? And why do they always inevitably write "Oh well no one really knows how this part/mechanism of the brain works."? There are three major branches of science dedicated solely to the brain: neuroscience (my personal favourite, if you couldn't tell), cognitive science, and psychology. "Brain science" is way more evolved than you may think.We know A LOT about what's going on up there. It only takes a few clicks, and so will you. Effort, people. Effort.
Anyway, in the book, a detective tells mom Rachel that "no one really knows how human memory works or why memories degrade" (while psychologically torturing her by the way, so be prepared for some of that in the book). False. We know exactly how memories form and degrade. Memories form through a (complicated) process called Long-Term Potentiation (LTP). Ever heard "Neurons that fire together wire together"? That's what memory my dudes. And how do they degrade, well, when you don't use the neural pathway dedicated to a certain memory, it essentially dies (not the whole neuron btw, just the synapses or receptors et autres). There. Simple. Google is a great tool, you guys.
Anyway, that's that. I really have nothing else to say about this book. Again, it wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. -
*DNF 21%
"'That is the sexiest thing I've ever seen,' Carson said, his voice pitched low. She wondered for a moment if she should hashtag him for a microaggression, but..... It actually didn't bother her."
listen. The plot of this book actually intrigued me. It seemed like it would be similar to a Black Mirror episode, and maybe it would've been! Maybe it would've been. If it weren't for the cheesiest instalove het romance I've ever read.
Seriously, this romance was one of the cringiest ones I've ever read in my entire life. I literally have no words.
"And in walked Mr. CODE IS POETRY. (This time, though, his shirt said LIFE IS A HACK in the same white font. Menlo Regular, she thought.)"
It's all painfully real!
I have stuff to say about the plot too, but for a second I just have to talk about these two bc oh my GOD. So here's how they meet: she's walking down an empty hallway alone and sees something perched on top of the lockers, she doesn't know what it is, and then he, in an empty hallway, jumps down right in front of her. Off of a row of lockers. Is it explained why he was on top of the lockers? Nope. Why didn't he just wait two seconds for her to walk by? No idea! Literally no one else is in the hallway it's not like he didn't have room or anything. And then Cassie, the main character, falls instantly in love and all her anger fades away yadda yadda yadda
And just. The way Cassie talks about this dude gives me so much secondhand embarrassment. He asks her if she wants to help him with some code and she says "I do," and then is like oh shit what did I just say it sounds like we're at the ALTER exchanging VOWS. Right after he ASKED ME IF I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING.
Honestly I probably would've finished this book if it hadn't been for the romance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I definitely had issues with the plot but it certainly wasn't unreadable.
For example, it's established pretty early on that Cassie's mom, Rachel, doesn't really pay attention to BLINQ or the internet or anything, which is confusing for me, because right in the first chapter the narrative states that everyone is required to have a BLINQ. Cassie even says that "her mom knew next to nothing about the current world."It was especially confusing because there's a lot of implications that it's required to be connected to the social media. While this can be explained away by saying that even if you have to have a BLINQ you don't have to be on it all the time, the novel never did so.
Additionally, there was a lot of unecessary gore, and some of it didn't even make sense? Rachel hits someone in the mob with her purse and when the bag opens, her nail file flies out and spears the guy in the cheek. First off, ew. Second off, I'm pretty sure you need a lot more force than hitting someone with your broken bag to actually puncture someone with a NAIL FILE. there were a few other scenes with just gross gore that didn't fit the plot or the general feeling of the rest of the novel.
Also, every character seemed to know more than they were letting on, but not in an interesting or way that would imply foreshadowing. Rather, it felt like the kind of book where at the end it would be like "and then Cassie woke up in bed. Everything was okay and it was just a dream." The characterization was just generally weak and didn't live up to the plot.
So all in all, a cheesy-ass romance, weak characterization, and unecessary gore does not a good book make. Great concept, bad execution.
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Pre-Review
Was sitting here making myself read this and then I was like what the hell am I doing. It's pride month why am I forcing myself to read this
Full rtc -
I'd watch that movie
The Hive makes an okay book, but it'll be a better movie.
It certainly is timely. Instead of having figurative mob rule on social media, this book makes it literal. Once the story gets going, it's action-packed. Cassie and companions have to run for their lives while seeking a way to stop the Hive from destroying them. Their exploits seem destined to be turned into a screenplay.
However, the setup to all of this action irked me a bit. Until Cassie was on the run, the writing seemed a bit heavy-handed. (It was a little bit reminiscent of an after school special on the dangers of social media.)
I also had trouble with the beginning because Cassie started off annoying and unlikable. I enjoyed the plot-focused middle section much more. The after-school special feeling returned a bit at the end, but not as strongly.
3.5 stars, but I'll round up because this could make a blockbuster movie someday.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me with a DRC of this novel, which will be available for purchase on September 3rd. -
Many thanks to Kids Can Press for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review
Super twisty, fascinating book! Give this one a try!
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3.5 Stars
What a scarily believable future these authors have created for us. A world where any comments on social media platforms can be deemed offensive and it's writer subject to Hive justice. The common people can deliver the punishments to the offender when The Hive programme has determined that it is warranted. There are a number of criminal levels and the Hive punishment can vary from being beaten up through to being killed on sight. The concept was born from the explosion of offensive material and comments being published online and the increasing level of hate crimes that followed.
To be honest I found Cassie to be a bit of an egocentric brat and therefore very unlikeable. Thankfully the story became more about the political conspiracies underpinning this form of social justice. That, and I decidedly tuned her out to focus on the other parts of the story. I thought the romance aspect was completely unnecessary. I mean the girl is literally running for her life. I hardly think someone's dreamy eyes are a factor for consideration under these trying circumstances. I liked the snippets from her mother's point of view and the exploration of allowing people to learn from their mistakes.
A really intriguing concept that was part of quite a fascinating world. It would have been great to have the dystopic elements slightly more developed and be the focus of the story as I think this was definitely the more engaging aspect of the novel. -
I finished it. I finished it. But I skimmed all of the second half, so I just finished it, but barely.
I'm so sorry to say I didn't like this. I wanted an interesting (even if a bit outlandish) examination on social media and tribe mentality in a modern setting. But this plot was just way too over-the-top that my eyes rolled to the back of my head. Plot points were brought up that proved to be unimportant after all. Cheesy insta-love romance, and not just that... the guy is Capital-W Weird too. (Their first meeting was her seeing this guy sitting on top of the lockers, then him jumping down & landing in front of her. Before running away. W t f ...okay?)
I think the book wanted to be many things too. Our MC is struggling with her grief from losing her dad recently, she's trying to find where she belongs, struggling with her relationship with her mom, and she's into coding. All of that on top of the plot. But I don't think the parts fit together at all, it just seemed a convoluted mess on top of the already unbelievable characterizations + plot.
Bleh. The Hive is just too-many-moving-parts messy for me. But I am still excited to try more Barry Lyga, especially his Jasper Dent series which I've heard amazing things about!
I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Wow! What an incredible read. I pray that The Hive is not prophetic. what an intense read. A page turner that kept me up way too late when I had to work in the morning. Full review below.
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This novel is the first collaboration between husband and wife team Barry Lyga and Morgen Baden. And as much as I am huge fan of Lyga’s works, I hope this is the first of many novels they work on together. My initial response was: “Wow! What an incredible read. I pray that The Hive is not prophetic. what an intense read. A page turner that kept me up way too late when I had to work in the morning.” Now I getup for work at 5am, and I stayed up reading until after 2am. I just could not put the book down. I think the power of this novel is the story can serve as a warning, but also as a prophecy of what might yet come. There are many cases where life ends up imitating art. We can only hope this does not become one of them.
This is the story of Cassie McKinney, she is the daughter of a world famous programmer. And he has believed in the hive and hive justice. Public shamming and doxing has become the norm. And Hive justice is the mob. The hive came into existence when the government took over social media and tried to put an end of trolling and doxing. People can upvote or down vote a punishment. And if you hide from the punishment it ups the ante.
Cassie is at a new school and gets in with the in crowd. But with one comment that someone else shares under her name turns her life upside down. She goes for anonymous to infamous. And the hive keeps cranking up the pressure. And now her life if threatened. Her mother at risk to her own life tries to hide Cassie, and soon a surprising ally comes to her aid. She has no where to turn, and only a small group of Hive outcasts to help her. But not everyone is as they appear. And with her life on the line can she figure out who to trust and who not to.
The story starts slow but once the Hive has focused on Cassie it turns to a breakneck pace. The story races from hiding, to secret meetings. To just trying to survive. You will find yourself cheering for Cassie, even though she had a momentary lack of judgement and came up with an incredibly mean jab. In some ways the story is like the case of Canadian Journalist, Ashley Csanady, who made a comment about Trump’s son and had giant sections of the web turn against her and focus on her. But for Cassie the consequences could be her life.
Lyga has written some incredible reads. And this is one of the best. Lyga and Baden have written a masterful story. It is an important story for our time. Not just for the young adult audience but for those of us who are older as well. It is an excellent story, and I hope as a culture we heed the warnings contained within.
Another excellent story by Lyga, and as mentioned I hope not the last from this team!
Read the review on my blog
Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Barry Lyga. -
Well…
Looking at the current reviews on Amazon, people got some…stuff…out of this.
I honestly didn’t see that this was about Trump or Ivanka at all and was kind of gob smacked that this is where people went with this. However, I did see this as a reaction to all the public shaming and doxxing that happens on various social networks today.
While I’ve not doxxed anyone, I’ll admit that I’ve taken a kind of shameful pleasure when an internet-famous racist loses his/her job because of a Twitter Mob. By the same token, I’ve looked on with dismay when the *wrong* person takes the brunt of misidentification by that very same mob. It’s not pretty.
In The Hive, the authors take what’s currently happening in various social media settings and simply ramp it up. What happens when that internet mob can not only assign guilt without a trial, but sentence that internet offender? Is it a stretch? Sure, but it’s not that much of one. With our near-future tale, the authors force us to look at our own interactions on social media – all under the backdrop of an action-packed YA thriller.
Our main character is likable (though I admit I didn’t think the joke was funny) and she’s got all of the internet against her. It’s a thrill-a- minute chase as she tries to escape mob justice.
I liked it. It’s a bit over-the-top, but YA readers should enjoy the ride. -
HIVE ist ein super gutes Buch, das mir fast alle Wünsche an einen dystopischen Cyber-Thriller erfüllt. Der Stil ist super flüssig, die Handlung und Erzählung läuft schnell und mitreißend ab, auch die Charaktere sind an sich echt klasse, wenn auch der Fokus sehr stark auf wenige Charaktere gerichtet ist, wodurch einige häufig auftretende Personen bis zuletzt eher flach und eindimensional bleiben.
Ein weiterer Kritikpunkt ist, wie schnell wirklich erzählt wird. Gerade das schnelle Tempo hat mitgerissen, weil es alle Handvoll Seiten wieder eine große Actionszene und neue Probleme gab, doch das hat für mich auch eine Kehrseite. An mancher Stelle hätte ich mir etwas weniger Tempo gewünscht, um ein paar mehr Details und etwas Atmosphäre abzubekommen, das fehlte da dann aber leider.
An ein, zwei Stellen gibt es auch ein wenig mitzuraten, was ich sehr cool fand, auch wenn ich mir beim Aufkommen des Rätsels schon sicher war, wie die richtige Antwort lautete. Zwischenzeitlich wurde ich dann doch etwas verunsichert.
Insgesamt also ein gutes Buch, das Potential zum Jahreshighlight gehabt hätte, es aber leider nicht ganz ausreizen konnte. -
I will say that reading this book has made me think twice about my own social media usage.
This book is about a group of people called the Hive who dole out social media justice when needed. Lord. Imagine if an organization like this really existed? A lot of people would be in BIG trouble. In my opinion, social media has given certain people this false sense of bravado to post whatever they want no matter how mean and nasty. With the Hive it would force people to think twice before they post and blast others via social media. I can honestly see this happening down the road but hopefully when I'm long gone.
In this story we are introduced to Cassie who is dealing with a traumatic event and like a regular teenager she is angry and lashes out a lot at her mother. In the beginning my feelings towards Cassie were lukewarm. As the book progressed my feelings towards her pretty much stayed the same. I did kind of find her to be unlikable at times. Rachel (her mother) was a saint and I loved the love she had for her daughter, even through the trying and difficult times.
This was my first time reading these authors and I loved this book SO much! The story line was fast paced, refreshing, thrilling and kept me on the edge of my seat. At no time while I was reading was I bored and I loved how certain things came together. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next with the characters and I’m sad this book is over. This book will definitely be going on my top reads list of 2019.
4.5 stars
*ARC Review* -
4.5 stars ; review to come!
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I wish I could say that Barry Lyga swept me off my feet with his recently released new novel «The Hive». I wish I could say that it was the most amazing sci-fi I’ve read in a very long time. At least, these were my expectations going into this book. But it didn’t deliver.
What is the Hive?
We all know how out of control online interactions can get. How people seem to lose all their filters (and ability to think straight) when they are talking to someone through the internet just staring at the screen and writing obscenities after obscenities.
What if an online justice system would condemn those who misbehaved, allowing the population to execute the sentence. Is it the best or the worst idea ever to hand the execution to the masses?
The Hive controls online community, submitting the misbehaved to their punishment in accordance with likes / dislikes the post gets, and then schedules the time and date for the mob to bring the justice.
WHAT I LIKED:
1 - The premise sounded like one of the episodes of Black Mirror, and also terrifyingly close to our reality. Everyday the online world consumes a little bit more of our existence. I mean… I’m running a blog here! We all exist online in some way or another. We all watched tweets getting out of hand, we’ve all seen the cyber bullying expanding itself. I wish there would be some punishment for those people, but I’m terrified by the idea of the Hive. By how easily things could escalate from a simple warning to a death sentence and a hunt.
Barry Lyga did an amazing job showing how scary this world could be.
2 - While I thought that the characterization in this books was very poor, there were some aspects about Cassie that I did like. Cassie McKinney, daughter of the famous (or should I say infamous?) hacker, who knows her way around the codes, who is brave and headstrong, but also genuinely afraid for her life.
Of course, Cassie had to be a hacker-genius, but I liked that she wasn’t good at everything. She had her strong points, maybe she was better than 90% of other professionals in this field, but there were others who surpasses her in other sub-fields.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
Oh my, this is going to be a long list.
1 - I desperately wanted to see more of the dystopian settings of this worlds, instead of reading a take on the Mean Girls. Cassie begins her senior year in a new school, where she immediately does three things:
- joins the popular girls’ table;
- feels too superior to talk to other kids;
- falls in love with a mysterious guy.
Were there no other way to drive the plot forward except the retelling of the Mean Girls with the most cringey scenes of insta-love?
2 - Cassie could be described with one word - anger. She recently lost her father, so it was “normal” for her to feel angry, to be angry at the world. I’m not a psychologist and I never experienced the loss of the closests family members, but I don’t understand why all movies and books make focus so much on the anger. Almost passing the idea that if you’ve lost someone you HAVE to be angry. Yes, people deal with the loss differently, for some that might translate in anger, but I’d like to see some healthy representation of that in YA books.
3 - The whole plot revolved about the joke Cassie made online. Honestly, I didn’t find it funny. However, I didn’t think she deserved to be punished because of it either. What startled me the most was the lack of empathy and regret from Cassie. She made the joke, which was a very bad taste, but she constantly said how she didn’t feel bad about it. THAT was the most scandalous thing, in my opinion.
4 - Overall, the book had many unnecessary gore elements that didn’t contribute to the story. I didn’t flinch while reading the fight scenes or descriptions of injuries, but it felt like a filler to add more pages to the book. -
2.5 STARS
I saw this in the bookstore and I was like, "Why not? I haven't read a tech thriller since...I don't even know when." But then I started to read and I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to love it. It was a nice read, but it definitely wasn't a favorite or even a three-star book.
BLINQ is a new social media platform that became popular for the chance at mob justice it offered. Yep. You heard me. If someone were to post something someone found offensive or rude, they could Condemn them. Basically like a Like/Dislike/Condemn thing. As you get Condemns, you rise through levels which determine what your punishment is and how long it lasts. Level One starts small, with embarrassment and the like which only lasts for a day. At Level Five, your punishment period is a year and people can outright torture you. Keep in mind that these are normal people who just happen to be crazy bloodthirsty (Okay...weird).
When Cassie lost her dad, her life was turned upside down. She had to move to a smaller apartment and go to a new school which she wanted nothing to do with. Somehow, she ended up at the cool kids' table. When everyone is assigned to try to find a joke to make them go viral, Cassie has what she thought to be the perfect joke. Instead, she gets Condemned for it. All the way to Level Five in the span of a day. But it doesn't stop there. She rose all the way to Level Six, which had never happened before. Her punishment could last forever and mobs could kill her on sight.
This book had an original concept, but the execution faltered. The characters weren't the problem. They were actually extremely lovable. In this modern world, everyday people become so ruthless that they want to track down and murder a high school kid for a joke gone wrong. In a book made to be realistic and ominous for what may come, that part is extremely nonsensical.
Also, there was a long harrowing build-up to the finale, but the finale itself was completely unsatisfying. It covered about a span of five pages with zero action. Just a simple broadcast and all of the RUTHLESS, BLOODTHIRSTY mobs just...stop? I think not.
Would I recommend this book?
I would not recommend this book. Sure, it's different from everything I've ever read, but it just wasn't that good. -
I'm not sure how to rate this book fairly. I considered giving it two stars because it was really an entertaining read--but I don't think that was necessarily the intention. Dystopian satire in the Trump era sometimes straddles a fine line between caricature and allegory, and this book is...not on that line. I understand the need to address cancel culture and the tendency towards mob mentality on social media. This book was just like...wild lol. No other way to describe it.
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What a wild ride!! The scary thing is how close we could be to a future/society like this. Wild.
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All my reviews can be found at:
http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on publication day: September 3, 2019.
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Social media is everywhere and just about everyone is a part of it. Imagine we are in a United States where you are required to be on social media once you reach 13 years old and anything you say can have consequences (Likes, Dislikes, Condemns). The more Condemns you receive the greater your chances are to have Hive Justice carried out against you by anyone and everyone in a serious way. And the police cannot stop the mob mentality because it is all legal.
Although The Hive started a bit slow for me (the introduction to Hive, BLINQ, and Cassie being in high school) it was all necessary to the buildup of the joke that Cassie made that cause her to go viral. BLINQ is a government owned social media that connects all forms of social media together. My opinion is that BLINQ is a bit like ‘Twitter on crack’. Cassie is an angry girl experiencing some grief and she transfers to a new school her senior year. The beginning is a bit like Mean Girls and some typical high school drama of Cassie trying to figure out where to fit in.
Once Cassie’s joke goes viral the novel really starts moving and doesn’t stop until the end. I could not put the novel down and read it in just a few days. It’s hard to fathom that people want to go out and find Cassie and hurt her (or worse) because of a tasteless joke. It is definitely a mob mentality/vigilante justice. Forget the fact that she is just a kid, people just want to do what they can do without legal repercussions, not even knowing the whole situation. They just want to kill because they can.
There are some political overtones to the novel. Normally, I cannot stand that in novels, but with this particular subject matter, the politics are necessary. The Hive is also be a coming of age type novel as Cassie grew on me showing her growth and maturity she reaches as the novel progresses. The Hive is definitely relevant to our society today. So much is done online now that it seems more important than ‘real life’. Maybe real life is actually our online life…. The Hive definitely shows how anything we say or do has consequences (both positive and negative). We really should think about what we are about to say or do.
I was personally hoping for a different ending, something that shows how truly evil and damaging the Hive and BLINQ are to this society. Being this is a young adult novel, maybe that was the case for the ending we received.
The Hive is a novel everyone 14+ should read ( I say 14+ as there is foul language used throughout the novel, mainly the ‘f-word’) The Hive will leave you thinking about social media and where we are heading with it. How much do YOU share online, and could something you say or do cause you to receive a ‘Hive Alert’?
Many thanks to the publisher KCP Loft for sending me an arc copy. It was a pleasure to read and review. -
Crowd sourced social justice, I can see why the idea could occur but as this book shows vividly some things are just built with way too much scope for manipulation.
This is a brilliant contemporary story, already we have a world where you can be taken to task on social media for saying the wrong thing, for backing the wrong idea but The Hive, a government initiative of social justice takes it to a whole new level. The concept is great, lets let the people decide what is right and wrong, lets unleash their opinion and use social media to praise or punish them.
Cassie's dad was a brilliant IT guy, he was cutting edge brilliant and the government used his knowledge to make the beginnings of The Hive. But the very thing he helped to build is now turning on his beloved daughter after his death. Cassie knows her way around a computer, she knows how to hack but even this cannot protect her from the rage of people voting against her in The Hive. Her ratings skyrocket and she is being hunted to the death. Cassie can't believe that this is what her Dad would have wanted, he was a good man, it must be something else and she is determined to find out the truth behind The Hive and the people who run it. She is in this danger because she tweeted a comment about The President's daughter which has raised the ire of him as well as, it seems, everyone in America. She is going to be held to account for her comment and that might even mean that she is killed.
Cassie is rescued by an unlikely source, but can she trust him? Can she trust anyone? She is on the run and if it weren't for extreme resourcefulness and clear thinking she'd be already dead. Something is going on, something very sinister and Cassie is going to have to sort it out but also keep herself safe.
This is a great book. The action is relentless and the pace doesn't let up throughout. Cassie is a great character, resourceful as anything but even with that you find yourself yelling at her to take more care. She is reckless and sometimes that gets her deeper in trouble than ever. This is a great addition to any school library, your geeky kids are going to totally relate to a heroine who has the power to change the world.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me access to this fantastic read. -
The Hive is so plausible it's scary. Imagine a person makes a bad decision, says or does something offensive, mean, etc., and it's all over social media with the faceless masses slinging insults and demanding justice. It's not difficult to imagine because it happens every day. Take it one step further. Imagine these faceless masses having the authority and ability to hunt down the offender and punish him/her in any way they deem suitable. It's the Hive mentality. Follow the leader, don't think individual thoughts, and don't act like an individual. Society is just a bit short of this becoming reality. It won't be long until the blind lead the blind to exact justice. I like everything about this story because it's so relatable and relevant. I love the underlying premise because it's truth, unfortunate, but true just the same. I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it. Social media is dangerous, especially for a generation of non-thinkers who simply do not exist as individuals. Life is not lived unless it's seen and liked. Follow, follow, follow.....like a hive joining together. But, some poor soul accidentally says something regrettable but inconsequential to a waiter, bank teller, janitor, bus driver, etc., and woe to them. Hive activated. Let the hell fire rain down, and cast this person out like a leper. Here's the HUGE problem: if this hive are saying/doing terrible things to this offender, whom they don't actually know personally, then they are performing the SAME action that offended them in the first place! It's being mean to a stranger, and it's all the same. Can you say hypocrisy? Social media can be an excellent addition to life when used properly. Don't join the hive(lol), but do read The Hive. It's great if, like me, you are appalled by the atrocities of social media every day. Definitely gives you something to think about! Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
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Meine Meinung:
Mit Hive habe ich meinen ersten dystopischen Cyber Thriller gelesen und wurde nicht enttäuscht. Der Einstieg war für etwas schwierig, da das Genre noch fremd und neu für mich war. 🙈 Doch mit jeder Seite wurde die Geschichte immer besser und spannender. Die Handlung und der Schreibstil sind sehr flüssig geschrieben und nehmen den Leser auf eine rasante Reise mit. Manche Handlung und Geschehnisse liefen etwas zu schnell ab, wo ich mir ein wenig mehr Details gewünscht hätte. Manche Charaktere gehen leider ein wenig in der Geschichte unter von denen ich mir auch ein wenig mehr Input erhofft habe.
Erschreckend finde ich jedoch die aktuelle Thematik in diesem Buch. Der Hive zeigt, wie manipulativ wir Menschen sind und wie sehr wir uns doch von den sozialen Medien lenken und beeinflussen lassen. Definitiv ein aktuelles Thema, welches man beherzigen soll.
Fazit:
Ein gelungenes Buch, jedoch sind ein paar Schwachpunkte vorgekommen, an denen ich mir mehr Input erhofft hätte. Das aktuelle Thema und die Grundidee an sich finde ich klasse. -
The Hive was an interesting take on a Dystopian future that honestly kinda scares me in how much of a possibility it could be if we as a society let ourselves get there. I've been reading thought provoking books lately and it was a great read!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. -
"Her dad used to tell her about the days when someone's name trending on Twitter meant they had died, or, best case, had dropped an unannounced album. But slowly, the online behaviors that were and were not acceptable began to change."
This book is essentially The Purge x Cancel Culture and it is terrifying in how plausible the plotline is. It's a smart speculative look at what could happen if the government created a system to rein in the worst parts of social media only to make things arguably worse."Now, people were fully accountable for their online behavior... and faced real-world consequences. [...] Things were better now. People were more careful online, more responsible. How could that be wrong?"
Cassie McKinney is our sixteen-year-old main character, daughter of a famous hacker with her own coding skills up her sleeve. But since her father died six months earlier, she hasn't really worked with code. She's angry and she wants to participate in some Hive justice... until she is on the wrong end of the Hive herself and running for her life.
The government created a system - the Hive - which allows people to assign likes and dislikes based on the online activity of... everyone. You know that social networking score episode of Black Mirror? Kind of like that only on steroids. Basically, if enough people don't like what you said or did and you get enough condemns, that means that you can be punished. Depending on the severity, the mob has a set amount of time to find and punish the target to exact justice.
I think my favorite parts were the presidential press conferences; it is no secret who the authors were emulating when coming up with President Dean Hythe."I ran for this office and won - twice - with some of the biggest margins in history. Some say the biggest margins. I don't say that. I just say some of the biggest because maybe there are some bigger. I don't know of any, but maybe there are."
While hilarious, this also points a strong message about how dangerous strongman politics are and how the current administration is weaponizing the anger and fear of the people to push an agenda and deflect. This is shown in the #trending Blinqs that appear throughout, and how there is always a small group talking about new bills signed into law that no one is talking about.
"It isn't about me. Don't write that in your papers and on your blogs or whatever. This is the will of the people. I ran and won twice to I've power back to the people, and now they have that power now. It's up to them to use it."
As the story progresses and the Hive Mob gets more rabid in their pursuit of justice, their Blinqs become increasingly hard to read. Which is the point: the anonymity of online leads people to say some truly horrific stuff when they have no consequences... suffice to say that it doesn't get better when it's condoned. I liked the mixed media component with press conferences and trending online messages to show how the world itself views our main character.
I'll admit that I found the narrative a little heavy on technical and hacking jargon at times but for the most part, I just let my eyes glaze over and I didn't seem to miss anything important. And I think the tech / hacking speak will be appreciated by readers versed in that. The pacing was a little rough with a lot of exposition a little over halfway, but otherwise, I was fully engaged (and horrified) by this speculative future. The ending is a little more open-ended than I would like because I like finite endings, but it made sense and didn't feel rushed.
I do want to say the narrative felt a little heavy-handed in its message on social media usage and I wish some nuance had been introduced to not paint this as "internet bad, cancel culture bad." Because there is some value to calling out toxic and problematic behavior, but doxxing and bullying is never okay. Riductio ad absurdum arguments like this can be dangerous and send the wrong message.
Overall, I enjoyed The Hive! I was sucked into the story and read it in two sittings because I was so invested in Cassie and her plight. This is a great piece of speculative fiction that's important for our times today. I wish the exposition were spread a bit more so it didn't affect the pacing in the middle part of the book, but this would make a terrific movie or episode of Black Mirror.
3.5 stars
Representation: biracial rep, women in STEM
Content warnings: bullying, death, doxxing, grief, loss of a loved one, online threats (rape, violence, murder), violence
eARC provided by the publisher, Kids Can Press, in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect the content of my review. Quotations are from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon fina publication.
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Rating: 5 Stars
This was my first young adult (YA) read in a little while, and it was so refreshing – especially after my most recent book, an emotional WWII story (review of that one later this week!). I really do love YA books: the coming of age stories; the mess of emotions teens experience; the quicker, sometimes lighter (not in this case), plots…give me all of it! YAs serve as a great palate cleanser for me when I’m needing a break from thrillers, or, like in this case, a read that helps me move on from an emotional story.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review! The Hive comes out TODAY, September 3rd!
Imagine a world where there is justice for online and cyber bullying. Where people are actually held accountable for their indiscretions online. Where the law of the land has control over the actions taken by people on social media. This is where the US stands in The Hive.
Say something racist online? The Hive will come for you.
Share everything negative about your ex-girlfriend online? The Hive will come for you.
But what happens when a post is just a joke…from a teenager…what happens then?
The Hive will still come for you.
This is what happens to Cassie, a student at a new high school, trying to fit in. Cassie is a hacker, like her late father, and she believes in the idea behind The Hive. Justice in a world that didn’t always grant justice for online attacks. But then Cassie makes a joke online to impress her new friends…and that joke goes viral for all the wrong reasons. Before she knows it, Cassie is on the run for her life and enlists the help of Hive outcasts: other hackers whose goal is to figure out the truth behind the machine that is The Hive. But will Cassie be able to save herself in time? Or will The Hive eventually catch up to her? (dun dun dun)
RATING BREAKDOWN
Plot – 2/2: I am really drawn to doomsday-ish plots that involve our addiction to social media. They’re fascinating to me because they hit close enough to home that they don’t seem to far-fetched, but they still are also a bit sci-fi. The plot of The Hive was a unique twist on this idea: what happens when our addiction to social media is used as the solution?
Writing – 2/2: The Hive ticked all the boxes for me in the writing department. It moved along at a great speed, but it wasn’t “easy” reading by any means. The authors’ made me feel like I was right there, on the run with Cassie. I couldn’t put it down because the writing just grabbed me and didn’t let go.
Characters – 2/2: Um, a leading female who is a badass hacker??? YES, PLEASE. Cassie was the best. The BEST. She was a tech wizz, so she was actually able to fight back against her attackers. I loved, loved, loved that instead of her needing to rely totally on others for help, she could actually help herself. We need more Cassies in the world!
Thrills/Twists – 2/2: This book is all about the thrills and action. In perfect, to me, YA fashion, there was just enough serious action to balance the plot. I’m not kidding when I say Cassie is running for her life – this book shows how something like The Hive could have real life or death consequences. The entire last 80% of the book is Cassie on the run and trying to save herself, so the thrills are not lacking.
YA Relatability – 2/2: Whenever I read YA novels, I try to imagine if it’s one I would have enjoyed as a teen. I read a TON as a kid (surprise), loving books across all the genres and topics. It’s not easy to know as an adult if a book is one I would have loved as a teen, but I think I’m still a pretty good judge. Anyway, this is one I would have devoured. Leading female character, mother/daughter relationships, action and thrills, a teeny-tiny smidge of high school romance….it’s all there in this one.
I wasn’t totally sure what my rating would be for this one, but as I think through all these elements, it’s an easy 5 stars. This is why I’m really loving using this rating system!
Anyway, The Hive is out today and is a great read for teens/young adults and adults! Go check out this new 5 star read!
Happy reading, friends! -
This was an interesting book, one with a lot going on in it. What I find interesting it initially I thought one way, but as things started to spin out of control I found my mind being changed.
Cassie came off like any other petulant teen, nothing new there, but it was the Hive that ramped things up. At first I liked the idea of the Hive, how it could help people from being dumb on-line where it's easy to because it seems so anonymous. But when Cassie was at the first Hive Justice I started to have misgivings. This guy was just venting, venting in a situation that was bad, was it stupid, yes. Later when Cassie posted her comment I thought much the same, so stupid and crossed the line from stupid to really bad. But and it's a big one, that one comment didn't make her deserve what came for her, a mob of people that seemed to feed on itself getting more and more worked up.
I thought Cassie did a good job of reacting to the Hive coming after her. Along the way she found people to help her and hindered herself in others. By the end of the book Cassie was in a better place, more at home in her own skin (I think) and more aware of the world (big and small). I do wish we had the answer to her last question. For me, I wish she would expose everything. -
*thank you to Netgalley, Barry Lyga, Morgan Baden and Kids Can Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
2 stars.
I do usually really enjoy YA Sci-fi, but for some reason, this just wasn't for me and for one of the rare times, I gotta say that this would be better as a movie than a book.
The story is based largely around technology and given how much more we rely on Social media etc these days, this story was like an extreme version of how things could end up in real life. Well, probably not but it is scary becauses quite realistic to a degree. I'm not a huge social media fan and stay away from almost all the main social media sites, so this, is kinda like my nightmare world. Social media being the life, of life.
I did like Cassie though and her Mum, Rachel. Both characters were great but the rest I didn't really get a connection with.
If this ever comes out as a movie, I will definitely be watching it.
I would recommend giving this a go if it sounds like something you would be interested in. I would also give these authors another go as they write well together. -
One of the worst books I've ever read. The mother/daughter dynamic doesn't ring true, and there's also contradictory info along the lines of "As much as she hated to admit it, sometimes her mom was right," which a little later turns into, "The world might be a messed-up place but not so messed up that her mom could ever actually be right." Those are not exact quotes, because I can't be arsed to go back through that pile of shit and unearth the actual quotes.
The protagonist is something that rhymes with Bundt and has zero redeeming qualities.
Jokes about abortion are never funny, but in the modern USA they are doubly worse.
I hate everything about this book and won't read anything from the authors again.
DNFed at 29%. -
I would have given this three stars because I really didn't like any of the characters. It was also full, and I mean full, of coding jargon. However, I have always loved the alien invasion movies of the 1950s and their connection to our fear of secret Russian agents undermining our government. This book seemed to make a similar connection to our political atmosphere today. That's why it got four stars even if some reviews have disavowed any such connection.
