“It's a relief to not be the adult here."

Wow - this is a wonderful queer YA gothic horror that immediately captivated me with its prose and storytelling. From the very first page, it draws you deep into a submerged small town grappling with the ravages of climate change. And even better, it is richly infused with Vietnamese cultural elements and numerous LGBTQIA+ representations.

At its core, this explores an impressive tapestry of complex themes—ranging from the scars of intergenerational trauma, sexual assault, and grief, to the struggles with gender identity and the challenging dynamics of family relationships. The way Tran weaves these elements together is nothing short of astonishing; it’s hard to believe how much depth and emotional weight can be packed into a single SHORT book. Noon’s journey back to her traumatic past, along with her inner battle to reconcile the changes in her body and identity, is deeply moving. I think there will be different elements that will resonate with different people.

What makes They Bloom at Night so uniquely resonant is its blend of horror and hope. The eerie, atmospheric quality of the story is unmistakably gothic—a dark, mesmerizing world where the supernatural and the very real dangers of our changing environment collide. Despite its bleak subject matter, the story is also a testament to resilience, offering a raw and powerful exploration of how one navigates and ultimately strives to heal from past wounds.

Overall, this novel is pure, refreshing, and intelligent—a rare gem that challenges its readers while offering a horror-filled escape into a world as haunting as it is beautiful. If you’re looking for a story that combines rich cultural nuance, complex familial bonds, and a deeply emotional narrative, They Bloom at Night is a winner.

Thanks so much to Colored Pages Book Tours, Bloomsbury Publishing, and the author for the complimentary copy! Thanks to Libro.fm for the complimentary audiobook copy! This review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

This seemed somewhat inspired by Speak, which the author acknowledges. In truth, I had a hard time following the rules of the algae, and how it affected one person and another. (I also found it amusing that Noon shares such a connection with the ocean, and has come from a long line of people who are connected to the ocean, and she can't swim.) I liked the team that Noon ended up with, including Sandbag, the cat. I liked the descriptions of the bayous of Louisiana. However, the rest of the story seemed a little confusing, and tiresome. After the librarian went missing I pretty much lost interest, and forced my way to the end.

They Bloom At Night is a gothic horror story following a Vietnamese American teen, Noon, in the Louisiana bayou. As she begins to uncover chilling family secrets and supernatural forces tied to her heritage, the lines between reality and nightmare start to blur.

The concept was super cool, and the setting was unlike anything I’ve read before, rich, atmospheric, and hauntingly unique. The plot itself was clever and full of twists. Unfortunately, I found the main character really frustrating and hard to connect with, which made it tough to stay fully engaged. It just wasn’t the book for me, though I can absolutely see others loving it.

I’d still be excited to read more from Trang Thanh Tran in the future, and I’m grateful to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

While I rarely read or seek out horror novels, this one was right up my alley and I loved it a lot.

It’s a relatively short read and it doesn’t take long for you to get sucked into it.

The setting of Louisiana and the water in general was just fascinating and engaging. It was a vital part of the story and I really enjoyed getting to learn more about little details and facts from the characters and their own little niches.

My favorite character was of course, Noon. I think they were really strong and her feelings on gender are so relatable to me. I liked that this was a very lgbtqia+ friendly read. It was also diverse with a Vietnamese MC and included that in here as well, which was nice!

Some topics discussed in here, such as SA/r***e were heavy but I think they were written with care and I enjoyed the ending because yes!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Some characters in this were so awful and I wanted to punch them while others were better and I wanted to give them a hug and take away all their trauma. It was enjoyable to see a bit of found family while they were preparing for a hurricane to hit.

Creepy things were in this that made my skin crawl just thinking of what that would look like/feel like/sound like and I adore that. Good horror novels have the ability to freak you out and I think this one did.

I will definitely be picking up more of works of this author!

Thank you to Bloomsbury for the digital ARC and Libro.fm for the ALC!

Strange things are happening in Mercy, Louisiana. Nhung (aka Noon) travels with her mother on her father’s old shrimp trawler, searching for answers about dead loved ones and the mysterious red algae that took over the region’s waters after a devastating hurricane. But the water appears to hold more than just algae, and something about Noon doesn’t feel … right.

Trang Thahn Tran really knows how to build a horrific atmosphere. Between the Gulf, the Mississippi River and the swamplands of Louisiana, this novel is chock-full of eerie settings holding spooky things beneath their depths. The descriptions of the books’ horror elements were done extremely well—creepy crawlies, sloughing skin, tangled algae blooms and not-quite-right sea creatures made me want to stay far away from bodies of water.

The horror setting was just a base for the meat of the story, though, which tackles big themes. Unfortunately, I think there were just too many crammed into this short book to truly pack a punch. Noon’s story brings up ecological changes, the U.S.’s poor response to environmental disasters, sexual assault, gender identity, queer relationships—on top of Noon’s overarching coming-of-age. I struggled to keep up with the horror story’s ties to these larger concepts. At times, it felt like I understood the metaphor the author was trying to link together, but by the end, I mostly felt lost.

In a similar vein, I felt like a lot of the story was interrupted by “punchy” statements that felt like they were trying to hammer home a point, but ended up feeling preachy and out of place. I don’t mind a good “statement” line or two, but paired with the lack of togetherness I felt by the end, I really didn’t understand what exactly this novel was trying to say.

I do think this had a lot of great things that will appeal to younger readers. I particularly liked the queer rep, Noon’s perseverance and self-discovery, and found family elements. The inclusion of Vietnamese mythology, as well as the culture/history/struggles of Vietnamese Americans living in the South, were also really well done and added a layer of depth to the story.

I heard so many incredible things about Tran’s debut that I’ve been eagerly anticipating reading their books. I still need to read She is a Haunting, but after reading They Bloom at Night, I seriously cannot wait. Just wow.

The balance between the elements of this book– its characters, the setting, and the tension in the horrific elements is absolutely perfect. The mostly abandoned town of Mercy feels incredibly real. It was so easy to picture where things happened and feel completely immersed in the landscape of this story. Noon is also a fabulous main character. Her relationships with others are so layered. She loves her mom but feels trapped by their life and grief over her brother and dad’s deaths. She reconnects with an estranged friend and has mixed feelings about that, too. When circumstances force her into a reluctant alliance with a girl, Noon is surprised by the relationship the two forge.

I loved the themes in this book about identity, specifically about being more than one thing that happened to you. I loved the message about having a found family or community to protect you and help you face uncomfortable truths. One line in particular says it well: “Sometimes we need people to hunt the things inside of us that need to die but that we aren’t ready to kill.”

They Bloom at Night is a tightly plotted story that doesn’t waste a single word. This would be a perfect (or terrifying) book to read during a hurricane or big storm. Fans of The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade or Don’t Let the Forest In by C. G. Drews will not want to miss this one.

This book was creepy, beautiful, and moving. If you like books that deal with heavy handed topics such as SA, gender identity, failure of parental figures, and the fact our world is being ruined. Everything was handled with beautiful prose and complex plot. Honestly, this is one of the best YA horror books I have ever read.

Thanks Bloomsbury USA Childrens Books, Trang Thanh Tran, and Netgalley for the ARC!

This book is an extremely slow burn. It wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. There wasn't enough of the monster aspect of it as I had hoped. Still well written.

They Bloom at Night is a queer, coming of age, environmental horror story. A classic tale of “Man vs Nature,” we quickly learn that the “monster” and environment are not the main antagonists, so much as the greedy human, and to an extent the environmental destruction caused by humans.

Since Hurricane Arlene destroyed the town of Mercy Louisiana two years ago a red algae bloom on the Mississippi River has become the longest-lasting known to humans. The algae have made fishing difficult for the teenaged Noon (real name Nhung, but most white people can’t pronounce that) and her mother, Tien. The two women have taken over fishing after the disappearance of Noon’s brother and father, who Tien believes are either still alive or have been reincarnated as sea animals and are waiting for rescue out there somewhere. Their family has a guardian water spirit, named Sông, who Noon sees as little more than superstition. Sông is said to have kept her father’s family safe as they made their perilous journey from Vietnam to the United States by sea, and Sông is the reason Tien is convinced that her husband and son are still out there. Even though in all likelihood both have drowned Noon’s mother insists they must stay in Mercy to find them, despite her daughter’s desperation to leave the small town. Mercy holds nothing but bad memories for Noon. After her brother, Jaylen, was born her parents began to ignore her and favor their son. Their home was all but destroyed by Hurricane Arlene. Noon has never felt welcomed among the racist, sexist town folks who hurl jeers at her and her mother when they dock their boat. Loan Shark and businessman Jimmy, the man who controls most of the town through money and fear, still owns their boat and demands Noon and Tien bring him strange, mutated sea life to sell. And Noon was sexually assaulted at Mercy’s Cove by an older boy who had groomed her. When her mother had found her Noon’s hair had turned white and her skin was flaking off. Her body continues to change, her fingernails all fall out and she can only digest raw meat.

When Noon and Tien get to the dock a girl named Covey who seems to be overseeing things says they must go see her father, who is revealed to be Jimmy. Jimmy explains he wants them to look for a sea monster. People around Mercy have been disappearing, most recently a government scientist studying the algae bloom named Dr. Lucía Delgado. Now the government wants to close the fishing season early and possibly designate the whole area a disaster zone, and Jimmy can’t have that. He orders Noon and Tien to find whatever creature is causing the disappearances and bring it back to him in three weeks’ time. He informs them that Covey will be accompanying them on their mission. After Tien becomes ill from a rusty nail injury she receives from Jimmy the two teens are forced to work together to find Jimmy’s monster. A tense relationship between Covey and Noon slowly blossoms into friendship and then into something more as they race to solve the mysterious disappearances and face their own trauma. On their journey Noon reconnects with her old friend, Wilder, who has run away from home, and meet Saffy, who was kicked out of her home after her parents discovered she was transgender.

The hurricane that nearly destroys Mercy has clear parallels to Hurricane Katrina,
the 2005 hurricane that decimated New Orleans and caused nearly 1,000 fatalities. Noon refers to her life after Hurricane Arlene as post-Apocalyptic, even though even though everything is business as usual outside Louisiana. Mercy has some electricity and running water, but it’s unreliable at best. A Rolling Stone article about Hurricane Katrina entitled it Apocalypse in New Orleans. Vanity Fair has one called Hell and High Water: American Apocalypse. Noon explains that politicians think the people who chose to stay in Mercy deserve what they got. A research paper entitled System Justification in Responding to the Poor and Displaced in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina states “One sentiment that took hold following Katrina was that those who lived in New Orleans were at fault for having chosen to live there in the first place, and for not having evacuated when the officials issued a mandate. Some went so far as to ask why people would choose to live in a city that lies beneath sea level. Talk show hosts and local newspapers blamed victims and asked why the government was obligated to help those who did not evacuate.”

Besides environmental disaster, one of the major themes of the books is the fraught relationship between parents and their children. Noon states “…the people who hurt us most, who forced us here, have been those responsible for our care.” Saffy’s parents forced her to choose between being her authentic self or living with them and pretending to be a boy. Similarly, Wilder runs away from home because his parents want him to be something he’s not. Because boys are more highly valued then girls, an effeminate boy is a disappointment, and Wilder simply couldn’t continue to fit his parent’s idea of what a man should be. Noon is also a victim of the toxic masculinity, and is treated as having less value than her brother Jaylen. Even after her brother and father go missing, presumed dead, her mother continues to place a higher importance on them than her living daughter.

I appreciate that, while all the parents had problems, the Asian parents at least seemed to love their children, and were doing their best while burdened with generational trauma and a traditionally sexist culture. Tran is able to challenge the sexism in Vietnamese culture while also making clear that sexism and bad parenting isn’t exclusive to Asians. Wilder has a tense relationship with his parents who are uncomfortable with his bisexuality, and even pressure him to be more manly. But at least they don’t disown him like Saffy’s parents do. There’s at least some hope Wilder will one day be able to reconcile with his mom and dad. Jimmy, on the other hand, is completely irredeemable, not just as person but as a parent. Noon says “Like so many parents Jimmy thinks his daughter is only fit for his hopes. But when we inherit those, we also inherit the mistakes. We are the ones to live with the consequences. Every generation before had a semblance of a chance, but we have the end of the world.” He sees Covey only as an extension of himself, just another tool on his belt. Tien at least tries to be a good mother to Noon, trying to protect her, singing her to sleep at night, and performing Cao gio (coining) to relieve her headaches.

I also liked all the random facts about ocean animals strewn throughout the book. Noon is a huge nerd and I’m here for it. Through her we learn that the red algae bloom is not toxic to marine life like the red tide (which can be worsened by hurricanes), but it does seem to cause mutations. We also learn how algae have mutualistic symbiotic relationships with several species, like Coralline algae, a red alga which plays an important role in the ecosystems or coral reefs. A similar type of algae lives in Cassiopea jellyfish, which gives the jellies their color and helps them get food.
Queer and trans readers will especially appreciate They Bloom at Night. I suspect Noon may be non-binary, but hasn’t cracked her egg yet as many of the things she says and feels about being in a “girl’s body,” like “Monsterhood is a girl’s body you don’t belong in” and not knowing what it means to be a girl felt familiar to me as a non-binary AFAB person. She feels more comfortable in a “monstrous” body than one that belongs to a girl. The “body horror” is less horror than it is freedom. Tran is also non-binary and uses they/she pronouns so I wonder if they had similar feelings as a young person. There’s a decent amount of trans and queer representation in the book, with Saffy being transgender, Wilder bisexual, Covey a lesbian, and the lead scientist researching the algae bloom, Dr. Delgado, is non-binary. There may also be some neurodiversity among the group as one of the teens quips that they’re “Team Neurotic Kids with Very Specific Interests.”

The creep factor is everything from the cover to the descriptions. It's not for the faint of heart between the vivid horror both in the sea and of humanity, the dark language, and the entrenched mythology, it's an older teen reader and/or a horror lover who will dive in. Plus the environmental commentary rides just under the surface.

Noon is discovering things about herself including her queerness and more in a waterworld that Noon's mother believes her son and husband (Noon's brother and dad) have been reincarnated as creatures of the deep so when they set out on a mission from a not-nice man there are multiple reasons to accept.

The setting is what makes the book. It's not quite the like her debut but the uniqueness of the story gives it some extra swagger with the blooms and monsters.

This is an amazing eco-horror YA novel, and any fan of the Annihilation/Southern Reach trilogy should love this. It was Southern/swamp Gothic mixed with a stunning Vietnamese immigrant story and immigration cosmologies/mythologies, and every page was a stunner. And that ending was so good!! Can't wait to get my own copy.

They Bloom at Night
Trang Thanh Tran
Genre: YA Horror
Length: 260 pages
Release Date: March 4, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:
The author of the New York Times bestselling horror phenomenon She Is a Haunting is back with a novel about the monsters that swim beneath us . . . and live within us.

Since the hurricane, the town of Mercy, Louisiana has been overtaken by a strange red algae bloom. Noon and her mother have carved out a life in the wreckage, trawling for the mutated wildlife that lurks in the water and trading it to the corrupt harbormaster. When she's focused on survival, Noon doesn't have to cope with what happened to her at the Cove or the monster itching at her skin.

Mercy has never been a safe place, but it's getting worse. People are disappearing, and the only clues as to why are whispers of underwater shadows and warnings to never answer the knocks at night. When the harbormaster demands she capture the creature that's been drowning residents, Noon finds a reluctant ally in his daughter Covey. And as the next storm approaches, the two set off to find what's haunting Mercy. After all, Noon is no stranger to monsters . . .

Review:
I was immediately drawn to this book with the breathtaking cover art. It took me all of one sitting to read this novel and it sucked me in from the very first line. The story explores themes of trauma, gender identity, and the aftermath of an assault. I enjoyed the connection between humans and nature, it felt like the ocean was a character throughout which I really enjoyed. In my life I find the ocean to be both serene and terrifying. Tran so seemlessly blended Vietnamese mythology, self exploration, horror, and sci-fi elements.

They Bloom at Night tells the story of Noon who is living in a post-apocalyptic Louisiana and after several people go missing, Noon is now tasked with finding the creatures and beasts that have taken up residence in the waters. This leads her to find herself and what this world means for her through haunting imagery and some body horror. This book is absolutely stunning and is filled with fantastic proae and a compelling lead character. The way this story weaves the horror throughout and the sense of unease was truly captivating. I would certainly recommend the book for teenagers who love horror or who are interested in a moody story that deals with generational trauma and loss.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

as i continue my horror journey, i find that i enjoy horror novels that emphasizes the author's culture and commentary on the specific culture's diaspora.

I love how beautiful and introspective Trang Thanh Tran's writing is, and this book is no exception!!! I raced through this one. The pacing was spot on, and the overall eerie vibe had me on the edge of my seat. One of the best queer gothic books I've read!!!

If you’re a fan of horror, you should check this book out. This was a great read because not only was it well written as a horror story, but it was a tale of self discovery journey for Nhung. Growing up, she struggled with her identity. She always wanted to be on the water in the boat her dad would take out to sea but, being female, she had to stay home with her mom while her younger brother gets to follow their dad’s footsteps. Everything that happens that leads up to the end is slow burn edge of your seat. I couldn’t see what was coming at each turn. It was well worth the time reading this book and it’s the first time I got to read a book by this author.

They Bloom at Night was unfortunately not for me. I really loved the cover! And I appreciated the Vietnamese folklore throughout the story, but ultimately it fell a little flat for me.

The story felt a bit disjointed and hard to follow. It was hard to picture the setting for me as well for some reason. I do think a lot of people will appreciate this book though.

Really enjoyed this spooky look into environmental disaster, and how it weaved together science and family mythology. The body horror was truly disturbing, and I say that with utmost respect and terrified awe! I also just really enjoyed all the characters, especially Noon. Her journey through this book was powerful, and fit in well with the horror aspects.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and I will definitely be picking up more by this author!!

"They Bloom at Night" delves into the horrors that lurk both beneath the surface of the water and within the depths of the human psyche.

Set in the ravaged town of Mercy, Louisiana, in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, the story follows Noon, a young woman navigating a world choked by a strange red algae bloom and populated by mutated wildlife. Noon and her mother survive by scavenging these creatures, trading them with the corrupt harbormaster. However, Mercy is far from safe. People are vanishing, and whispers of underwater shadows and nocturnal knocks haunt the town. When the harbormaster tasks Noon with capturing the creature responsible for the drownings, she finds an unlikely ally in his daughter, Covey. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to uncover the truth behind Mercy's haunting, facing not only the external monsters but also the internal ones that plague Noon.

This was a multilayered story with much deeper meanings than simple monster horror. It explored themes of trauma, survival, and the insidious nature of fear. The atmospheric prose and vivid descriptions painted a haunting picture of a town struggling to survive in a world transformed by disaster.

I was particularly impressed with the authentic-feeling diverse cast of characters, with lots of LGBTQ+ representation. It was refreshing to see such a wide range of identities woven seamlessly into the narrative. Furthermore, the incorporation of Vietnamese folklore and customs added a rich and unique layer to the story, making it stand out from typical horror novels.