A review by moonyreadsbystarlight
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

dark mysterious tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I don't think this was really for me. I did like some of the descriptive writing with the food and the idea of the story. Some of the character backstory was also interesting. 

But I didn’t really see the suspence or foreboding in a lot of it. It seemed more like some of the creepy/foreboding details were too on the nose and then other parts almost read too awkward (like having second hand embarassment almost
like the scene with the racoon. It was just weird, not really creepy. A red flag for sure but something about how the aftermath was written was more awkward and embarrassing than scary. But then when she was told it was a test, it was too obvious in a way... like if it had been left to speak for itself, the scene would have been more scary, we could have assumed that, but when it was said explicitly, it felt silly, like an overdone villian monolog
). I think part of what made this feel stilted or awkward for me was the amount of telling. I think showing and telling both have its place in writing, but there were so many times where these feelings or situations were built pretty well, and then you were told in the middle something obvious about how the character feels multiple times (or about the situation at hand -- like my example under the spoiler cut). In that way, there was a lot more potential in the writing, but it would get in its own way.

 On a smaller/lighter note, it took me out a bit to hear that an assistent/adjunct with no second job had the funds to buy stuff at the farmers market *every* Saturday and rent a *house*. Also, not a even second's thought about how she would be perceived dating a woman in a college in Georgia... as someone who was a queer adjunct at a southern college, all that kind of broke the immersion for me a bit (this was a miniscule part of my issue with the book, but it's funny to think about so I had to include it). 

So, as much as I really liked the descriptions and some of the writing, it ultimately fell flat for me. I would be willing to give her work another shot
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