Horror Book Spotlight: THE HIVE by Ronald Malfi

 

The bestselling author is back with yet another horror novel THE HIVE. But will this be one of Ronald Malfi’s books you need to Read or Skip? 

Let’s find out. 

THE HIVE was published in April 2026 by Titan Books. As it slowly climbs on the bestseller lists, the novel has already garnered positive reviews from critics and other best-selling authors. 

Readers have added that the author has embedded elements from H.P. Lovecraft’s work and are quick to point out that the novel is rather long and more thriller than horror. 

THE HIVE Plot 

In the aftermath of a storm, the people in a suburban neighborhood, Mariner’s Cove, experience a strange obsession. Random items strewn across their neighborhood seem to be calling out to them. Once they find it, each of them becomes infatuated with it, protecting it and letting absolutely no one know they possess it. They will literally do anything to protect these everyday objects. 

A young boy realizes he possesses a strange behavior. Is this linked to the other residents of the town? Has he been granted this power to stop whatever danger is looming over the town?

 Or does the power have a sinister purpose?

THE HIVE First Impressions

The novel is really long, so the sample pages are five chapters with subsections. The book has almost 65 chapters. 768 pages in length. 

But if it is an interesting story, then the page length does not matter, does it?

The first chapter is titled DRAGON, and we meet one of the probable main characters, Ellen McBride. This chapter reads completely differently from the others, mostly because it's overly descriptive. Every single detail is mentioned that is supposed to set up the thrilling scene of a storm passing through. Instead, you may just get lost in the details as the author overuses metaphors and sensory imagery. 

Considering how the rest of the chapters play out, the first chapter seems to be written by someone else. 

But back to the story. 

Ellen wakes up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a storm, checks up on her son Cory, who is sitting up in bed, frightened. He keeps uttering that he has been found and “it” will get him. 

Ellen decides to take her son and hide out in the basement until the storm passes over. There are weird white lights. And then hypnotizing darkness. Ten-year-old Cory is staring at something at the window when it explodes in shards. Yet, it doesn’t harm them. Ellen is struck by the leaves and glass gathering on her kitchen floor and has to be dragged by her son to the basement. 

The next morning, Ellen wakes up to find Cory no longer in the basement with her. She goes upstairs and sees the mess cleared in her kitchen, and the window boarded up with Cory’s corkboard. 

Ellen has long suspected that Cory has strange powers based on the way the TV channels would change on their own, or the glasses moving and breaking whenever he was angry. 

Does he possess Carrie’s powers or Matilda’s?

Based on the plot of the book about people becoming obsessed with their possessions, there’s clearly a hint of Needful Things by Stephen King, so why not add a bit of Carrie?

In Chapter Two, we meet sixty-nine-year-old retired heart surgeon Michael Danver.

With nothing to do every day, he keeps finding his wife, Miranda, annoying now that he spends so much time at home. Since the power is out, and Michael cannot make his morning coffee, he goes out and notices a door in the water, standing completely upright. 

He briefly wonders what it is doing out here before deciding he wants it. He waits until Miranda is out of the house before he gathers his supplies to pull out the door.

Michael runs into his neighbor Donnie, who ends up helping him with the door, but keeps asking how a storm could have even caused someone’s door to rip out of the hinges and then stand upright in water. Michael is clearly irritated with him, but accepts his help in dragging the door to his house. 

He experiences some buzzing in his teeth as he is closer to the door, and once he gets rid of Donnie, Michael puts his ear to the door as if expecting it to give him answers. 

In the next chapter, we see the introduction of Raj Subador, who is out on a run. He experiences weird symptoms before seeing a white light in his mind, before he blacks out. When he regains consciousness, he is haunted by visions of strange symbols. His watch has red lights he cannot comprehend, and his blood pressure monitor also doesn’t give him any numerical readings. 

All he can see are weird symbols that he must absolutely draw. When he returns home, he finds a marker and begins drawing the symbols on the walls of his house, unaffected by any bruises and cuts he experiences while doing so. 

In chapter four, Ellen has a talk with Cory, who confesses he is aware of his strange powers of being able to move objects. Ellen believes it was in her family, but is concerned that Cory feels like his power is dangerous and keeps asking her if she is afraid.

Ellen later unblocks and calls her brother, but finds that the number no longer works. 

In chapter five, we meet Brian Russo, a recovering addict. He wakes up from a strange dream that may have something to do with the storm. He works at a Chinese restaurant and rents an apartment above it before he heads to New York, where he becomes a co-host on a radio show. 

One night, he is coaxed into doing one of his tricks to impress the women at a bar. He used to have telepathic powers, but seems unable to do anything right now except bleed from his nose. 

By the end of the chapter, Brian is approached by the head of programming, who offers him his own solo show. 

READ OR SKIP?

Can Ronald Malfi actually pull off a NEEDFUL THINGS?

There are too many characters, each with their own stories and sub-chapters. The story is clearly building, and there are elements of mythology thrown in there with dragons and ancient deities. 

The story also reminds you a bit of THE TOMMYKNOCKERS, yet another Stephen King novel, which means that there may be some otherworldly beings behind all of these incidents. 

So, should you read this or re-read the Stephen King novels?

The Hive, for me, is a SKIP. 

The writing is inconsistent, the characters don’t necessarily stick in your mind, and by chapter five of the novel, I was beginning to lose interest in yet another character with a troubled past. 

However, if you’re a fan of the author, you may not want to miss this one. 

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