Synopsis
There’s something in the water in this hallucinatory short story by Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are.
Journalist Heidi Cohen is in Cape Cod investigating the sources of recurring toxic algae blooms along the coast. A local named Jimmy has his own theory for her. Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows. Decades ago, something happened to Jimmy that he’s never forgotten. Is Heidi ready for the real story?
Paul Tremblay’s In Bloom is part of Creature Feature, a collection of devilishly creepy stories that tingle the spine and twist the mind. They can be read or listened to in one petrifying sitting.
Review
Paul Tremblay’s “In Bloom” reads very similarly to an episode of The X Files. Heidi Cohen is a journalist living in the Cape Cod area and conducting research regarding the horrendous algae blooms that are plaguing the coast. After learning enough about her “will they/won’t they” living situation with her roommate Ty, she meets with Jimmy, an older man who claims to have firsthand experiences with the mystifying effects of this harmful biogenesis. And let’s just say, Jimmy’s tour through the past sounds an awful lot like a science fiction film.
Paul Tremblay does this thing where he makes you very optimistic concerning a particular outcome of a story and then just totally crushes you (but in the best way possible). “In Bloom” is no different. His descriptions of Jimmy are so endearing and wonderful that you immediately want nothing wrong to happen to this sweet older man who may or may not be a little off his rocker. The same can be said for the characters of Ty and Heidi who seem to be on the border of taking their relationship from “roommates” to “something more.” And of course, these characters exist in the same world as these particularly dangerous algae blooms. Sigh.
Nevertheless, this story speaks on the levels of environmental horror; Tremblay explores with great detail the cruelties of this kind of natural (or manmade) disaster. How frightening is it to know that our world is turning against us? That our actions and neglect have led our own planet to seek to eradicate our existence so that it may preserve itself? Our world doesn’t sound so different from Tremblay’s fiction with record temperatures soaring with every summer.
“In Bloom” reads similarly to a tragic sci-fi thriller and is such a fun feature in this collection. Paul Tremblay manages to have us rooting for his characters in under six-ish pages, making the horror aspect of this story even more devastating. This tragic tale of environmental horror will have you looking twice at anything green on the water.
Leave a Reply