The Hive by Scarlett Brade
/
Hell has no fury like a woman dumped on Twitter. The pain suffered by Charlotte Goodwin after her celebrity boyfriend leaves her is intense. Not only does she have to cope with being abandoned by her lover, but she is jeered at by a Twitter group called the Hive. Meanwhile her rival is praised and envied. In her debut novel Scarlett Brade takes the reader inside the head of a woman at the centre of a perfect storm of resentment and humiliation. The resulting despair and anguish finds its outlet in premeditated murder.
Charlotte Goodwin looks directly at the camera and reveals a chilling truth to the thousands watching her Instagram live broadcast. She has killed her ex-boyfriend’s new partner in cold blood. But she is not finished yet.
Charlotte is supported by three girlfriends who have stuck together through thick and thin since school. Their strong bond was forged by tragedy. In spite of their difficulties, these young women have a taste for luxury. One of them is wealthy, but she is the most sorrowful of all, because she faces having her children taken away from her. The fury Charlotte and her friends feel against the world is palpable from the first page of The Hive to the last.
Lincoln Jackson will now make his confession, then the viewers must vote to decide whether he should live or die.
After she suffers a miscarriage in violent circumstances, Charlotte sinks to the depths of despair. She holds Lincoln and his new fiancée responsible for her bereavement. As a result she tries to take her own life. Then she has a revelation. Instead of destroying herself, she resolves to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new lover. The nest step is to slaughter Lincoln himself. In the depth of her madness, it seems only natural to Charlotte to share the whole bloody business live on Instagram.
Bonded by mutual tragedy, Charlotte’s three best friends have supported each other through the soaring highs and devastating lows of their lives. Now, in Charlotte’s hour of need, her friends also face a choice – whether to help her get away with murder.
The loyalty of Charlotte’s close friends is tested beyond the limit. They have supported her without question all their lives, and she has done the same for them. Now the close bond they share threatens to take them to a dark place – perhaps a prison cell.
The Hive explores our darkest fears of the relationship between social media and mental health, and the strength of sisterhood against all the odds.
I like the way voices from Twitter chime into the story. They give a commentary on what is going on in Charlotte’s life. Some are kind and some are cruel, but they are all detached from the reality of her situation. The Hive shows how social media can damage mental health, and how destructive a peer group can be when loyalty becomes an obsession. It is a compulsive read.