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read_withtay's review
I’m choosing not to rate this as it is being edited to be more sensitive and appropriate to the LGBT community.
lispylibrarian's review
5.0
Holy shit, Mackenzi Lee, how do you make historical fiction so freaking wonderful!?
alexperc_92's review
4.0
I loved it but since I heard that the author plans to rewrite so there'll be no mistakes about the protagonists' pronouns I'll leave my rating as it is.
slanik's review
4.0
Mackenzie Lee’s latest novel The Madness Blooms is set in 1630s Holland at the height of the tulip fever. Orphaned siblings Lena and Bas have to face the crippling debt left to them by their master in their seed shop. They come up with a con job to alleviate the debt, but at what cost? Lena falls in love, finally finds out what skin she’s most comfortable in – all to the chagrin of the small community that surrounds her. The crux of the story is whether Lena will stick to her morals (although they certainly confuse her at points) and not con Reitveld out of his money for a fake prized tulip, or will she follow through regardless of the cost.
I enjoyed reading this book, as evidenced by the fact that it only took me a day and a half to finish. I love Mackenzi Lee’s other books The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. She does not disappoint with this novel either. What I think I love most about her books is that her main characters serve a population of my students who need to see protagonists like them. To help them navigate the difficulties of being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Both the main characters in the Montague series are gay. This book tackles a whole other aspect head on and I think many students would appreciate it.
The writing was poetic at times with lots of similes and metaphors – many flower related. There was also some sage advice sprinkled throughout about being yourself and having courage.
There are better things to be than pretty.
With a main character struggling with identity, this quote hammers home that what’s important is on the inside and that you feel comfortable in who you are.
Overall, this is a good read. I’ll put it in my library when it’s released because I have one student in particular who would benefit from seeing the main character’s story arc.
As a disclaimer, I received this advanced reader copy through the publisher In Edelweiss+ for free. But my opinions are my own!
I enjoyed reading this book, as evidenced by the fact that it only took me a day and a half to finish. I love Mackenzi Lee’s other books The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. She does not disappoint with this novel either. What I think I love most about her books is that her main characters serve a population of my students who need to see protagonists like them. To help them navigate the difficulties of being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Both the main characters in the Montague series are gay. This book tackles a whole other aspect head on and I think many students would appreciate it.
The writing was poetic at times with lots of similes and metaphors – many flower related. There was also some sage advice sprinkled throughout about being yourself and having courage.
There are better things to be than pretty.
With a main character struggling with identity, this quote hammers home that what’s important is on the inside and that you feel comfortable in who you are.
Overall, this is a good read. I’ll put it in my library when it’s released because I have one student in particular who would benefit from seeing the main character’s story arc.
As a disclaimer, I received this advanced reader copy through the publisher In Edelweiss+ for free. But my opinions are my own!
bizzybee429's review
cupcates's review
1.0
trans men are men. period.
stop using the wrong pronouns and repeatedly deadnaming your own character and marketing as a f/f book goddamnit
stop using the wrong pronouns and repeatedly deadnaming your own character and marketing as a f/f book goddamnit
azagee's review
1.0
so like... i know they're reworking the next edition to fix the misgendering and that's cool so I was willing to try it but like. to market the book @ gay people and then have the only gay people be dead or sexual predators..... I'm Audi 5000. ✌
readershark's review
1.0
I'm usually not one to do this. Actually am never one to do this, but I have strong strong opinions about this book. As a reviewer, as a transman, as a bisexual person, this book rubs me the wrong damn way. When I first heard about this book, it was literally marketed, by the marketing team, as a F/F romance. Which is great! I love that so much! Little do I know, I've come to find out this book is using being trans as a shock value, and from the reviews, it's demeaning, using outdated and traumatic trans tropes, has the bury your gay trope, and also gay men are predator tropes, and most unshockingly of all, it is not own voices. Stop. If you are not trans, there's zero reason to be writing a trans coming out story when actual trans people are being pushed out of the publishing industry. This review isn't about that, but maybe stop killing us long enough so we can write our stories and get them out there in more formats than just a tragedy.
ANYWAY, more importantly, I had email correspondence with Lee after the instagram drop of this book. We had two back and forth, which unfortunately, have been deleted from my email archives. I don't have receipts but I remember what was said. She invited anyone who was upset to email her, so I did, saying I was upset about the misgendering, deadnaming, and mismarketing. Lee replied less than twenty minutes later apologizing and then refusing to take any of the blame. It was her marketing team, her publisher, it was out of her hands. Which I call fucking bullshit on, but either way, it wasn't her fault.
It was frustrating and incredibly disheartening. Just write a F/F romance. If you're gonna market this, misgender and traumatize your own trans character just for the sake of "historical accuracy," then it could easily be a lesbian or wlw story, something that Lee actually fucking is. So. There's that, too.
I won't be reading this book and I hope all of this commentary makes both the publishing team and Mackenzi Lee take a good hard look at how transgender characters should be handled, and why transgender people should have the chance to write them first.
ANYWAY, more importantly, I had email correspondence with Lee after the instagram drop of this book. We had two back and forth, which unfortunately, have been deleted from my email archives. I don't have receipts but I remember what was said. She invited anyone who was upset to email her, so I did, saying I was upset about the misgendering, deadnaming, and mismarketing. Lee replied less than twenty minutes later apologizing and then refusing to take any of the blame. It was her marketing team, her publisher, it was out of her hands. Which I call fucking bullshit on, but either way, it wasn't her fault.
It was frustrating and incredibly disheartening. Just write a F/F romance. If you're gonna market this, misgender and traumatize your own trans character just for the sake of "historical accuracy," then it could easily be a lesbian or wlw story, something that Lee actually fucking is. So. There's that, too.
I won't be reading this book and I hope all of this commentary makes both the publishing team and Mackenzi Lee take a good hard look at how transgender characters should be handled, and why transgender people should have the chance to write them first.
alexandra_92's review
4.0
I loved it but since I heard that the author plans to rewrite so there'll be no mistakes about the protagonists' pronouns I'll leave my rating as it is.
samanthafondriest's review
5.0
The Madness Blooms follows Lena, an orphaned seed shop assistant, who doesn't quite feel comfortable in a feminine body or society's expectations for women. When the shop owner dies unexpectedly and leaves Lena and her brother, Bas, in huge amounts of debt, Lena develops a scheme to become Pim, a real person who has been detained in another country, and sell a non-existent tulip bulb to a wealthy local man and his daughter, Elsje. Complicating matters is the fact that Pim has fallen in love with Elsje - which is punishable by death. While inhabiting the persona of Pim, he realizes he has finally found his identity as a man. Threading through the novel is the absolute absurdity of the tulip madness - perhaps the oddest economic bubble to ever happen. The Madness Blooms elegantly addresses gender and sexual identity in the context of Holland in 1637 - it has both authentic representation and historical accuracy. As a warning - there are traumatic things that happen to LGBTQ+ people in this novel because those things are historically accurate and reflect how people would have been punished in that time and place. Obviously this book isn’t condoning these things; it is shining a light on all the people who suffered in silence when openly living as gay or trans wasn’t legal. However, if you would find this upsetting, then this may not be the book for you. The MC starts out referring to himself as Lena and uses feminine pronouns because the concept of living as a man isn’t even a feasible option to him in this time and place - he doesn’t even fully realize his own gender identity until he lives as Pim for a while. He does have an ally who accepts him as he is and that dynamic is wonderful to watch develop. I finished this book in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. This is an original, fast read, and won't disappoint fans of Lee's Montague Siblings series who have been clamoring for more LGBTQ+ historical fiction.