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3.5/5 Stars!
Though slow-moving, The Hive is a suspenseful tale with a unique plot that centers around twenty-seven-year-old Charlotte Forrester.
Disfigured in a tragic accident at a young age, Charlotte has been the object of bullying and humiliation for most of her life. People openly stare at her with a mixture of pity and contempt and even her glamorous movie star mother hides her away in boarding schools and universities and refers to her as my ugly duckling. She masters the art of being invisible in public during her work commutes and only finds peace in her parents’ basement restoring furniture and household items.
She can hide no longer though when she returns from holiday with her new boyfriend, Alex, to find her mother dead from an apparent suicide and her father even more disoriented.
An arduous police investigation, work troubles, caring for her father, a mysterious article being researched and written by Alex that could be life-threatening, and a display box of dead bees bombard Charlotte, causing her—and everyone else–to question her sanity.
As the story unfolds, it’s obvious someone is gas-lighting Charlotte.
Okay, it was obvious to me but not Charlotte… because nothing is obvious to Charlotte.
In her head… and her vat of self-pity… far too much, Charlotte is The Hive’s weakest link.
If this were a historical read of even fifty years ago, I could have dealt with Charlotte’s personality. Had she been locked away in the family attic or sat in the garden for twenty years strumming a harp, I could have dealt with her. But as a present-day college-educated woman with TWO degrees and a job as a data analyst, she has to have some amount of intestinal fortitude to draw from, yet I never saw it. She annoyed me to no end and dragged the story down for me. She made things more difficult for herself. Her disfigurement shaped her life but Charlotte also used it as a shield… and an excuse.
However, even her worst moments couldn’t cloud the multiple plot twists and reveals. A couple of tells helped me figure out the villain(s) midway through the read, but no way was I prepared for the full story!
Charlotte Forrester and I could never be friends. I do not like her and her I Will Survive-vibe near the end was too little, too late for me, but The Hive is a good read… a closet with so many skeletons, I’m amazed it stayed shut as long as it did.
Enjoy!
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The Hive: a brand-new thriller for 2019 from Kindle #1 bestseller Jane Holland
“Addictive, horrifying and brilliant!” – 5 stars, Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Reads
Scarred by fire from infancy, with a persistent stammer, Charlotte has always been in the shadow of her glamorous theatrical parents. So it’s a shock when her mother commits suicide.
Left to care for her sick father in the dark maze of her childhood home, Charlotte begins to unravel. First, there’s the mysterious arrival of a box of dead bees. Then buzzing noises in the attic. People are watching her. Listening to her.
Everyone thinks she’s losing her mind. But an old photo suggests another, more sinister possibility …
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Giveaway
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