The Hive

“If you’re looking for a profoundly affecting novel about the inner workings of friendship, The Hive is a worthy choice. Smolen has deftly created multidimensional characters readers will identify with…. Don’t miss out on this emotionally driven novel about the power (and peril) of sisterhood.” —Reader Views


“Smolen writes with confidence about women who know one another too well…. The women in this novel are funny, sharp, vain, loyal, hurtful, generous, and wounded, often in the same scene. That mix gives the story its bite.” —Seattle Book Review


“Readers watch the makings—and eventual destruction—of a decades-long friend group in this polished fiction debut.... Smolen succeeds with the book’s self-contained universe, one easily absorbing readers…” —BookLife


When you’ve always been defined by other people, how do you find yourself?


Littie has spent a lifetime pleasing others, capitulating to their ideas of who she should be: a perfect daughter; a loving wife; an involved mother; and most importantly, a loyal friend. From college to careers, boyfriends to babies, weddings to funerals, she and her beloved hive of friends—Josie, Gale and Marcy—dance through five tumultuous decades, twisting and tangling with the times, yet always circling back to the safety and comfort of each other.


Now in their 60s, they’re seemingly as close as ever when a charming outsider suddenly threatens the sanctity of their devotion. Long buried wounds simmer beneath their picture-perfect friendship. Littie is forced to confront a question she’s spent a lifetime avoiding: Can there be a me within the us?


Told with sharp insight, heart, and unflinching honesty, The Hive is a powerful exploration of how female friendships can enrich a woman’s own voice and simultaneously endanger everything she has ever loved.