Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by slowreaderpeter
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.5
This was a moderately frustrating read, and I’ll do my best to explain why. All of the ideas, the themes, the notions and points of the story were there and laid out. But the execution of them all was rather messy and muddied the overall reading experience.
It was like I was reading a book with missing information, but not always necessary information. Think of a phrase like “the cat went to the store,” but take out “to.” Simply “the cat went the store.” We have all the information we need to make sense of the idea and point, but something still feels off. Something is missing. That’s sort of what reading this entire story felt like. We have all the information, ideas, and themes, but something in the execution just went missing like the word “to.”
Also, the author had a tendency to get a little lost in metaphor. Or, just too much metaphor and poetic language. At times it was a little difficult to push though.
The Barnes & Noble edition I read came with an epilogue, and in some aspects I like the epilogue better than most of the story. It was just written clearer.
On the whole, I think this is a decent story, with iffy execution. I think to a teenager questioning their gender identity, they would feel very seen and validated, and it could prove very important to them. It has strong themes of found family and whether or not you have to forgive abusive family, which I think it handled quite well.
Overall, a fine but largely underwhelming read.
It was like I was reading a book with missing information, but not always necessary information. Think of a phrase like “the cat went to the store,” but take out “to.” Simply “the cat went the store.” We have all the information we need to make sense of the idea and point, but something still feels off. Something is missing. That’s sort of what reading this entire story felt like. We have all the information, ideas, and themes, but something in the execution just went missing like the word “to.”
Also, the author had a tendency to get a little lost in metaphor. Or, just too much metaphor and poetic language. At times it was a little difficult to push though.
The Barnes & Noble edition I read came with an epilogue, and in some aspects I like the epilogue better than most of the story. It was just written clearer.
On the whole, I think this is a decent story, with iffy execution. I think to a teenager questioning their gender identity, they would feel very seen and validated, and it could prove very important to them. It has strong themes of found family and whether or not you have to forgive abusive family, which I think it handled quite well.
Overall, a fine but largely underwhelming read.