A kind warning to preserve your joy: Please do not read this book if you are politically weak of heart, weak of stomach, or weak of ability to withstand metaphors involving hornets. In this gloriously unhinged political satire, The Hornet Trilogy lands in one volume—One Stirred Up a Hornets Nest, Wild Swan Angry Hornet, and Red Hornet Dead Sparrow—three stories that poke, jab, swat, and occasionally drop-kick the modern ideological beehive. At the centre of it all is Carlin O'Doyle: student, filmmaker, and professional trouble magnet. His documentaries expose everything the adults prefer to bury under policies, committees, and politely worded emails. Schools tremble, principals sigh, and bureaucrats develop spontaneous migraines as Carlin insists on filming the things everyone else politely ignores—identity politics gone feral, religious ideologies, grieving parents, viral panics, and all the beautifully inconvenient truths that make institutions swallow their clipboards. Part social commentary, part comedy of bureaucratic errors, and part hornet-swarm-meets-Leny-Bruce-at-his-boldest, this collection is for readers who like their satire sharp, their politics skewered, and their narrators allergic to censorship. Another even kinder warning to preserve even more joy: Do not read if you experience allergic reactions to satire, laughter, or ideas that have not been pre-approved by an Oversight Committee of The Nine Terribly Nervous People. But what's for sure, absolutely do not read this book if you prefer your politics soft-boiled, gently massaged, and served with a Government of Canada-issued emotional safety pamphlet.
