In Bloom
By: Paul Tremblay
Another story that suffers from weird framing. We follow a reporter in Miami driving over to get the scoop on a story from the 1980s. I didn’t like her much and I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the weird relationship issues that she thought about all the time? She just didn’t seem really likable to me, which could just be my own bias creeping in.
We get to a flashback scene from the contact she meets. There’s a whole description of how he’s going to tell the story and the mannerisms he’s going to use, and then it takes us to the flashback. It took me a while to figure this out several pages into the flashback because this wasn’t really portrayed well. I guess I’m used to a story being told with real-time feedback about gestures and things along with reactions, maybe taking breaks throughout. The way this is written it sounds like our reporter protagonist just sits and listens to the whole incredible story without a response. Just a strange choice writing wise.
I feel like the flashback is the best part of this story and honestly should have been the entire story. It didn’t need framing. Just tell us about this kid and his struggles with his dad, then they go to a doomed baseball game together where the weird monster shows up. The monster is creepy, the whole scene is really well written and gets under your skin. And I feel like it could have stood on its own without any kind of framing.
Four stars for the monster, not the reporter. And I was not a fan of the cheesy ending, but I could see how people would love that part too.
My Rating: 4/5 stars