NetGalley: The Danger of Small Things by Caryl Lewis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Published: March 24, 2026

Pages: 272

Genre: YA/Dystopian

Review: NetGalley and Publisher ARC

Amazon

Imagine a world where honeybees have died out. It’s a patriarchal world where famines are rife. It’s a world without art, without books, without plays. Girls are sent away from home, forced to pollinate crops by hand with brushes and to marry as soon as they can. Inhabiting this world is Jess and her friends Cass, Deva, and Ruth. But even if one fourteen‑year‑old knows that brushes weren’t invented for pollinating, can she really stoke a revolution?

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

They have always said that once the bees go, it will devastate our world. We find out in The Danger of Small Things what happens, and it isn't pretty. Books are burned because of what they are considered. Bees have died out, and somehow the girls are sent to camps to spread the pollen for the future crops. Yet, there is more going on than just this "job". Once girls start menstruating, they are sent off to get married, and we all know how early sometimes that happens. 

The boys, well, they are put into fighting each other to help keep the numbers down. It is like a post-apocalyptic world. This gave the vibe in a way of not too graphic The Handmaid's Tale, and we all know how that story is. 

Jess, our main character, is one who is not going to just lay down and do nothing. Jess is one of the few who can read and draw, and you should already know where this is going, right? 

Jess is going to use her talents to bring a revolution that needs to happen, though it won't be easy. The story is mostly told through Jess, and it was easy to follow along. 

There are plenty of side characters that were well written.

I would say this is more for the 16-and-up crowd rather than the middle schoolers, just because of the mention of sexual abuse by an adult and teen pregnancy. Though it was not graphic, just the fact it was mentioned within the story is why I would move it to the older teengers. 

  

Caryl Lewis is an award winning Welsh language novelist. She was raised in Aberaeron before moving at the age of twelve to her family's farm in the parish of Dihewyd. She is an alumnus of Durham University and University of Wales Aberystwyth. Her first novel, Dal hi!, was published in 2003.