The Hive

Cassie is just going into her final year of high school, and she is an angry and upset young woman. Her computer genius father unexpectedly passed away, and she and her mom have had to downsize considerably to an apartment in another part of town. Mom Rachel begins a new job as a professor, and Cassie must face a new school. When Cassie makes a rather questionable joke online in order to impress some potential friends, people in The Hive take offence and pursue her. The Hive began as a way of ensuring that those on social media used it appropriately and not as a way of anonymously mistreating and abusing others. However, it has morphed into a group of social media vigilantes keen to take their online “justice” into the real world in the form of mobs who track down and administer punishment to those whom they deem ‘criminals’, a sort of sanctioned terrorism. Cassie finds she has become a target of just such a group, putting her in a dire life and death situation.

The Hive (Heuristic Internet Vetting Engine) becomes one of the main ‘characters’ in the novel and the reason for the entire plot. It is judge and jury regarding online behaviour which is deemed to be unacceptable and takes the idea of majority rule to the extreme. It is a well-organized institution which assigns a level to a supposed crime and then finds an appropriate punishment. It appears to have the backing of some of the highest government officials.

The authors ask readers to grapple with a number of philosophical questions such as evaluating what technology can do for users as well as what it can do to users. Readers will question the internet and social media being used as a way to shame, bully and condemn those who use it. What is justice? What is vigilante justice? Can violence ever be accepted as a realistic solution to a social problem? These sorts of questions open the door to many discussions which may take readers from the fictional setting of the novel to various real world events.

The plot is fast-paced, typical of a thriller/science-fiction novel. The first pages are gripping: a mob scene where members of The Hive are administering their verdict on a man who had blogged about his relationship with his wife and children. Cassie is proud to be there and excited by the palpable blood lust and need for vengeance all around her. The next several chapters are much slower as Cassie starts at her new school. This section is a typical young adult scenario where a teen meets new friends, tries hard to be accepted by the popular clique of girls and has an encounter which might (and eventually does) turn into a romance. Only several chapters later does the pace pick up and carry readers into the more thrilling aspects of the story.

The main character, Cassie, is not likeable. She is angry and moody, quick to judge and equally quick to speak her mind in often mean and nasty words of criticism. Her relationship with her mother is unhappy although it is hard for readers to determine why this is. Seemingly, only Cassie’s stubbornness is to blame. This completely reverses in the rather abrupt denouement of the story. There is also a romantic overtone in the story, and this also seems forced. After only a couple of encounters, Cassie finds herself head over heels, and later Carson plays a critically important role. Both the romance and the heroics are hard to believe.

Computer nerds who read the novel may have opinions about whether or not some of the technology described is realistic. It works well to move the story along and, not knowing anything about computer coding and what is involved, I was more than happy to accept the scientific aspects of the novel at face value.

Despite a slow start and a main character who does not endear herself to readers, The Hive is well-worth reading. The philosophical questions outlined at the beginning of this review are ones confronted by teens and adults alike, and society faces real dilemmas about how and why social media is used and what can be done to ensure it never slides to the depths of depravity so clearly illustrated in this novel. Lyga and Baden have written a cautionary tale, indeed!