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acherontian 's review for:
Bloom
by Delilah S. Dawson
dark
tense
fast-paced
romance, if you're into that kind of thing. horror if not.
I liked this up until the twist.along with other books/film/tv, it is very clearly inspired by hannibal to the point where at least three scenes resemble ones from the show almost exactly. I see some bits of fresh in here as well, but it's mostly hannibal. and I don't think I'm reaching either, given how popular that show is within this realm of horror; bloom doesn't read as serendipitous and it instead just seems to be a subgenre facsimile. a poor one at that.
I think the odd codependency and borderline obsession were written well, as well ro's inability to see any red flags in ash's behavior because she was romanticizing her first lesbian (I'm going to say lesbian, it seems like she was going through a nasty case of comphet) relationship. not noticing abuse in sapphic relationships is a very real problem and I think its incorporation works well with the reveal at the end. the romance was okay, but it was far more enjoyable than the two minutes of "oh shit, my weird girlfriend is a cannibal and I ignored all the obvious signs!" at the end. perhaps extending this into a full-length novel would've solved that issue, as well as the issue regarding loose threads: ro's cat's weird behavior that signaled towards ro being watched/stalked amounted to nothing, and so did the missing persons subplot. it's obvious that the missing girls were due to ash kidnapping and subsequently eating them/feeding them to others, but there's no acknowledgement of that in the book.
I love romantic horror and was excited to read a sapphic romantic horror book, as most of what I've read and watched is centered around heterosexual or achillean couples, but this was disappointing. it's not very unique or subversive (aside from the cottagecore aspect, which is what drew me in initially) and just rides the coattails of previous stories with some added genderbending. amidst the corny metaphors and the randomly-added and poorly-executed genius thing, the familiarity is the book's biggest detriment. dawson made this story her own in the first 80% of the book, but it seemed like she ran out of ideas once ro walked into that basement.
overall, it's decent. it was an enjoyable one-time read during my shifts, but I won't pick it up again.
I liked this up until the twist.
I think the odd codependency and borderline obsession were written well, as well ro's inability to see any red flags in ash's behavior because she was romanticizing her first lesbian (I'm going to say lesbian, it seems like she was going through a nasty case of comphet) relationship. not noticing abuse in sapphic relationships is a very real problem and I think its incorporation works well with the reveal at the end. the romance was okay, but it was far more enjoyable than the two minutes of "oh shit, my weird girlfriend is a cannibal and I ignored all the obvious signs!" at the end. perhaps extending this into a full-length novel would've solved that issue, as well as the issue regarding loose threads: ro's cat's weird behavior that signaled towards ro being watched/stalked amounted to nothing, and so did the missing persons subplot. it's obvious that the missing girls were due to ash kidnapping and subsequently eating them/feeding them to others, but there's no acknowledgement of that in the book.
I love romantic horror and was excited to read a sapphic romantic horror book, as most of what I've read and watched is centered around heterosexual or achillean couples, but this was disappointing. it's not very unique or subversive (aside from the cottagecore aspect, which is what drew me in initially) and just rides the coattails of previous stories with some added genderbending. amidst the corny metaphors and the randomly-added and poorly-executed genius thing, the familiarity is the book's biggest detriment. dawson made this story her own in the first 80% of the book, but it seemed like she ran out of ideas once ro walked into that basement.
overall, it's decent. it was an enjoyable one-time read during my shifts, but I won't pick it up again.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Cannibalism, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content