HIVE

Adam is in a slump: Once a successful bad-boy author (think Bret Easton Ellis), he floundered when the tides turned against his brand of misogynistic fiction. Adam now teaches at a Los Angeles college, but he may not get tenure due to a scandal; after accusing him of sexual misconduct, his student, Mandy, commits suicide. Adding to his stress, Adam’s wife, Neve, wants a baby, but he doesn’t. When a black envelope arrives in his faculty mailbox containing an invitation to a Greek island to work on his next novel, he accepts. On a yacht, Adam meets five other men bound for the same destination. Will is a lifestyle influencer, helping men “get made, get paid, and get laid.” There’s a wealth manager, Camillio, and a formerly popular guru, Hari Rajneesh. Maxim is a conspiracy theorist, and River is an itinerant musician. The men discover their destination has caves in the hills resembling a honeycomb and is ruled by a queen. The area’s largely populated by attractive women (“belles and barbies and big bad bitches”); Adam is apprehensive, recalling the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None. Hovannisian has composed an intriguing work of meta-fiction about an author writing about writing a novel—a form of literature described by her own character Adam as “contemptible.” The author’s characters reveal other surprising dimensions: gentle River, who rescues a bee that’s stuck in honey, reveals a dark secret; Neve alternates between being manipulative, sweet, and self-pitying; Adam, an unreliable narrator, keeps readers in doubt about what truth is. (He claims to have cared about and been kind to Mandy, but he also believes he’s embattled by a hostile environment, a “culture of castration.”) Like Adam, LA is ambiguously portrayed; it’s both radiant yet seedy, with a beautiful sky “like a robe of purple and gold,” yet it’s a place where “there is nothing to distract you from the smog of your own soul.” The protagonist’s worldview may be toxic to many, but satisfying twists await readers able to make it through.

Jun 12, 2025 - 05:52

Adam is in a slump: Once a successful bad-boy author (think Bret Easton Ellis), he floundered when the tides turned against his brand of misogynistic fiction. Adam now teaches at a Los Angeles college, but he may not get tenure due to a scandal; after accusing him of sexual misconduct, his student, Mandy, commits suicide. Adding to his stress, Adam’s wife, Neve, wants a baby, but he doesn’t. When a black envelope arrives in his faculty mailbox containing an invitation to a Greek island to work on his next novel, he accepts. On a yacht, Adam meets five other men bound for the same destination. Will is a lifestyle influencer, helping men “get made, get paid, and get laid.” There’s a wealth manager, Camillio, and a formerly popular guru, Hari Rajneesh. Maxim is a conspiracy theorist, and River is an itinerant musician. The men discover their destination has caves in the hills resembling a honeycomb and is ruled by a queen. The area’s largely populated by attractive women (“belles and barbies and big bad bitches”); Adam is apprehensive, recalling the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None. Hovannisian has composed an intriguing work of meta-fiction about an author writing about writing a novel—a form of literature described by her own character Adam as “contemptible.” The author’s characters reveal other surprising dimensions: gentle River, who rescues a bee that’s stuck in honey, reveals a dark secret; Neve alternates between being manipulative, sweet, and self-pitying; Adam, an unreliable narrator, keeps readers in doubt about what truth is. (He claims to have cared about and been kind to Mandy, but he also believes he’s embattled by a hostile environment, a “culture of castration.”) Like Adam, LA is ambiguously portrayed; it’s both radiant yet seedy, with a beautiful sky “like a robe of purple and gold,” yet it’s a place where “there is nothing to distract you from the smog of your own soul.” The protagonist’s worldview may be toxic to many, but satisfying twists await readers able to make it through.