Bee

Scatmania
What�s so inspirational about this story is the compelling realism from the characters. Initially, I found it somewhat difficult to relate to them: I know next to nothing about the US education system, don�t �get� spelling bees (apparently they�re a big thing over there), and certainly can�t put myself in the position of a home-schooled American girl with a super-religious family background! But before long, I was starting to really feel for the character and beginning to see how her life fit together.
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Games That Exist
Parsing Interaction in Emily Short's Bee
Bee is engrossing because it never resorts to explicit, over-the-top, �beady-eyed religious fundamentalist� characterizations. The weirdness of the narrator�s environment reveals itself with subtlety. The characters� religious fundamentalism is a matter-of-fact, even endearing, part of their complex personalities, preventing them from being reduced to one-note caricatures. The parents are devout, controlling and paranoid, but never cruel. The annoying but beloved younger sister is allowed, if not always encouraged, to be strange and to draw strange things.
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PC Gamer
A great example of how interactive fiction can work without a big dramatic concept ...
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XYZZY Awards blog
Reviews of Best Writing Nominees
Upon reflection, the writing in Bee is quite adroit, and my initial dislike for it is probably a matter of idiosyncratic player reaction. I imagine that it worked just fine for many players. But that first reaction to the early prose was so difficult to overcome that, by the game�s end, I was more relieved than sad to see it go.
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