I picked up this book because a coworker wrote a review that intrigued me. Otherwise, this would not have been an author or title I would have gravitated towards.

I'm so grateful I read it. This is one of the toughest books to write a review for, because to explore what it meant to me without describing it is unfathomable.

I latched onto the story and characters like a drone bee latches onto the queen during reproduction in a self-destructive act. This book did not lift my spirits. There was no sigh of relief and contentment at the end.

I cried throughout the story. I cried for Celina and her colony of bees. I cried for Olivia and for Asher, as a duo and as separate human beings. I cried for Lily. I cried some more for Lily. I cried for all the people like Lily who I know and those I don't, and I cried about whether I truly understood their pain, their fear, their inability to live within their own selves, their need to become who they actually are. I found myself taken aback at the stoicism they silently but unyieldingly portray, more certain of who they are than I have felt most of my own life.

This book is not for everyone. Not everyone will understand why the message can be so resounding for others, and some will just not agree with the message and stories at all. I don't think this book is meant to convince or change minds, but it is meant to make us take stock of our own identities, our own privileges, our own shortcomings.

To be human is to be flawed. But to find beauty in ourselves and each other in spite of or even because of those flaws is what keeps us human.