A story through the ages about people who make life miserable for everyone around them: special focus on their partners who try to keep them afloat, and  their children who have the audacity to not be exactly like they are. Come for the inability to express emotions in a healthy way, and stay for the self pity!

The saddest part about the book is not about the bees, it is that those kinds of people feel very real. I didn't particularly feel like I gained anything from reading about how life is from their perspective. They didn't redeem themselves in a single way. This is more of a how-to guide for sucking joy out of life for the people around you and making yourself the center of attention. 

Aside from that, a speculative fiction about what would happen if the bees disappeared from the world is interesting, and very impactful. As an idea. Not so much in this book. Not every future speculation needs to end up in a nuance-free dystopian future with ALL democracies collapsing. The disappearance of bees just became another zombie patient zero, which eats into the environmental message I think the book was trying to make.
 
Also, it is not the disappearance of honey bees that will have the biggest impact in the world. It is the wild bees. That is a misconception, and as such even the good premise here is somewhat factually incorrect.

The choppy language with short sentences was hard to read. And how many times can you write that someone is "trying to sound/look smug". In what world is that a good thing? Why would anyone try to do that?