The Bees (by Laline Paull)

Found this via the Read Harder Challenge group on Goodreads, which recommended this for the category of "book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character." In fact, the main character is Flora 717, a honeybee.

Paull draws from the science of bees, as I found out when I went looking up how bees reproduce and found that hive life is just as insane as it is portrayed here. But it's easy to sympathize with Flora, a sanitation bee who ends up with special talents that allow her to experience different aspects of life in the beehive.

I mentioned to my friend Miriam that the gender politics are interesting here, and indeed they are. Spoiler alert: I especially enjoyed the scene where all the lady bees decided the man bees were lazy and worthless and then bloodily massacred them all. #mood.

I'm gathering from friends' Goodreads reviews that this is a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it read, so your mileage may vary, but I loved it.