Bloom: Or, The Unwritten Memoir of Tennyson Middlebrook

Martin Kee

Published July 2013 by Createspace

Book source: Received for free through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: Five stars

Bloom is a lovely telling of two seemingly different stories. There’s Tennyson and Lil’it—one a boy/young man whose story takes place in our world; the other a faerie, whose story is set in a different world altogether. It was fun and interesting reading about these two very different characters and worlds, wondering all the while how they were related.

That, I think, is the strongest quality of Bloom—the stories within the story, separate yet part of the whole. Wondering how the two worlds could be related to one another created a deeply engaging narrative, as did the characters that I found to be interesting and genuine. The story is, at times, endearing, which was a pleasant contrast to the sometimes more gruesome parts.

I’ve had a really hard time trying to figure out what to rate this book. It’s worthy of five stars for its uniqueness as well as wonderfully touching moments that I found wholly unexpected for this kind of book. But there are issues. There were a fair amount of typos that kind of let the story down in their own incessant way. The pacing also kind of flagged in the middle and then the end came too soon, in my opinion. But maybe I only think that because it’s a really great story, and I just didn’t want it to end. I suppose 4.5 stars would be the rating I’d give it, and for the sites that don’t do half-stars, that means rounding up to five.

Bloom is a story that is one part sci-fi, one part fantasy, and seasoned with a good dash of horror. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys these genres, or to anyone who is looking for an interesting and unique read. It’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a while and I’m glad to have found it.