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Title details for The Hive by Melissa Scholes Young - Available

The Hive

by Melissa Scholes Young
Hallie Ricardo
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The Fehler sisters wanted to be more than bug girls but growing up in a fourth-generation family pest-control business in rural Missouri, their path was fixed. The family talked about Fehler Family Exterminating at every meal, even when their mom said to separate the business from the family, an impossible task. They tried to escape work with trips to their trailer camp on the Mississippi River, but the sisters did more fighting than fishing. If only there was a son to lead rural Missouri insect control and guide the way through a crumbling patriarchy. After Robbie Fehler's sudden death, the surprising details of succession in his will are revealed. He's left the company to a distant cousin, assuming the women of the family aren't capable. As the mother's long-term affair surfaces and her apocalypse prepper training intensifies, she wants to trade responsibility for romance. Facing an economic recession amidst the backdrop of growing Midwestern fear and resentment, the Fehler sisters unite in their struggle to save the company's finances and the family's future. To survive, they must overcome a political chasm that threatens a new civil war as the values that once united them now divide the very foundation they've built. Through alternating point-of-views, grief and regret gracefully give way to the enduring strength of the hive.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 8, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666537901
      • File size: 276382 KB
      • Duration: 09:35:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 19, 2021
      Young’s entertaining if undercooked latest (after The Flood) follows four sisters and the mother of the Fehler family of Cape Girardeau, Mo. When patriarch Robbie dies of a heart attack, the Fehler women are left with a mountain of debt, uncertainty, and heartbreak. Grace, Robbie’s widow, is wracked with guilt over an affair with Robbie’s coworker and throws herself into doomsday prepping. Twenty-year-old Maggie fights to save the family exterminating business despite discovering Robbie has left shares to a distant male relative to safeguard against the company becoming one led by women. Jules, a freshman at the University of Missouri, has a Black boyfriend and plans to vote for Obama in the 2008 election—things that would’ve driven Robbie crazy. Not to be outdone, 16-year-old Tammy is secretly pregnant, and 12-year-old Kate harbors a clandestine crush on her classmate Lila. As the Fehlers deal with their respective personal crises, they confront the staggering medical costs of Robbie’s death and the bleakness of a future without him. While the family dynamics are engaging, the drama can get overheated, and Young’s exploration of racism and sexism feels simplistic. It’s a decent enough family drama, but it’s not going to set the world on fire.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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