How to Bee, and In the Dark Spaces - A Bren MacDibble Double.
For this review, I’ll be reviewing two books by the same author - the wonderful Australian author, Bren MacDibble. ‘But Kate’, you’ll say, ‘Bren MacDibble didn’t write In the Dark Spaces!’. Ah sweet friend, on the contrary, Cally Black is Bren MacDibble’s pseudonym for her YA titles, which allows her to easily divide her audience, and tell a completely different type of story. Having read them both within a few weeks of each other, here is a double review.
How to Bee is a beautiful middle grade fiction, set in a potentially near future, where bees have become extinct and children have replaced them with manual labour and hand pollination. We open on one such farm, with Peony and her family, including her sister, Magnolia, and her grandfather, hoping to impress the Foreman enough to become such a Bee. Although they don’t have much, with a tin shed to live in, a small amount to eat, and a meagre amount of money. Although she messes up her first test, with her hard work, determination and passion for becoming a Bee, Peony does get the honour, and treats her job with her respect and reverence.
It doesn’t last long however, with Peony’s mother returning to the farm from the city and disrupting the natural harmony of the family and farm. This book deals so well with the complexities of family, and really captures the frustration of loving someone who may not have the best intentions. Peony’s mother having moved to the city to try and get a well-paying job to move their family to a more respectable, more luxurious part of the world swoops into the story and steals Peony away from her farm and family so that they can live a ‘normal’ life. Feisty Peony tries to steal away on multiple occasions but is captured by her mother’s boyfriend ‘The Ape’, and forced to work as a servant for a well-to-do family. The contrast between Peony’s farm and the house in the city she now lives in is super important, and Peony just can’t get over how only three people live in such a huge home! Peony makes friends with the family’s child, Ez, who does eventually help her escape back to the farm, in triumphant return. Although she loves her mother, she knows that her place is on the farm. I loved Peony’s certainty and ferocity in returning to her people - for someone so young, it is an admirable trait.
In the Dark Spaces is an entirely different story. This YA novel takes place in a distance future, with our main character, Tamara, living as a stowaway on a huge spaceship with her aunt, Lazella and her cousin, Tamiki, affectionately know as Gub. We very quickly reliase that Tamara and Lazella are fighting for their survival, with Tamara not old enough to be on the ship, meaning that she has to stay hidden and quiet on the ship. Interestingly, an idea that I’ve never come across before, the ship is organised by rings, with the gravity getting less and less as you venture inwards. This then dictates who lives in what ring, with the landing bay and food stores occupying the inner most rings with least gravity (presumably to make it easier to move large items like crates) and hence then the working class, and then the richer ‘Sixers’ living out in the Earth-like gravity. The creepy consequences of this is that then the less fortunate people do look more emancipated, because their muscle and bone begins to deterierate.
Things take a sharp turn to the left when Tamara’s ship is invaded by an alien race, called Garuwa, that look kind of like a cross between a bat and a bird. In the process of the invasion, everyone on the ship is murdered, including Tamara’s aunt. Tamara and Gub are two of the last survivors, as the Garuwa happen upon them, and she sacrafices herself and leads them away from baby Gub and getting captured in the process. Through her quick thinking and resourcefulness, Tamara manages not only to save her cousin but also avoid being killed at the same time, immitating the bird-people’s whistles to try and keep her alive. I love the way which Tamara immediately adapts to her situation, but keeps focusing on her mission to save Gub. However, I would have liked for to have more time to reflect on her situation and grieve, but maybe this shows more of how it is present in reality, rather than a fantasical, romanticised version, having no time to process her prediciment. This, I think, then affected how I felt about the pacing of the novel, with it really rolling from one event to the next without slowing down for breathing space.
One of the other main things that I liked about this story was the fact that Tamara could see passed the differences between humans and Garuwa, always trying to find the peace after having been apart of Tootoopne’s squad. Tamara’s tenacity is nicely balanced with her kindness and want for peace, evident in the way she teaches and then becomes very close with Antonee. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Tweetoo and Wooloo - it was lovely to watch all three characters grow as a result of their relationships together.
These books have such important messages, not only for younger kids but for adults too, teaching us that sharing and kindness to each other, and the community that these ideas foster are the most important thing to have, rather than be a ‘proper’ family with lots of wealth. There are so many different types of characters - strong-willed girls, a grandfather as the sole carers, a girl with a physical disability, a mother with an abusive boyfriend, a shy boy who is orphaned - these all make up such an inclusive and interesting story with a powerful message.
