This novel takes normal aspects of consciousness and shows what they could become if circumstances became desperate or drastic. For example, consider the way that Jack's identity is formed. As a female, Jack has always known a masculine side to her personality, but bee apocalypse takes that masculinity and forces her to own it, to use it, and to compete for survival with absolute seriousness. This can be seen as apocalyptic literature because the human character is revealed in tandem to absolute hazard.
Within that apocalyptic costume, what is the story doing? The story is portraying the development of community, which is hard-won in the post-apocalypse. Without bees, the earth is falling into a season of death and extinction. The earth is not sustaining life as efficiently, and food and air become serious concerns. This leads to competition, as scarcity always does, which makes deception and manipulation way more likely.
But that doesn't change the fact that alone, Jack is just waiting to die. The quest for her character is who to trust and how to navigate the onboarding of their relationships to her. Should she trust? Be hesitant? Generous or conservative? How will she expose her gender to the men without risking her safety? This is the story that is told. Among these relationships, we see the human need for romantic intimacy, perhaps most poignantly captured in a post-apocalyptic smooch between Kevin and Jack.
