🦠 Book Review: In Bloom by Paul Tremblay (Kindle Edition, Creature Feature Collection #4)
A hallucinatory, slow-burn environmental horror that blurs the line between grief, memory, and the monstrous—Paul Tremblay delivers a short, unsettling tale that’s more about dread than jump scares.
🧠 Overview
Published in September 2023 as part of Amazon Original Stories’ Creature Feature collection, In Bloom is a 35-page short story set in Cape Cod, where recurring toxic algae blooms have the locals worried.
The protagonist, Heidi Cohen, is a journalist investigating the blooms’ origins. She seeks out Jimmy Lang, a local legend with a strange story from 1983—an encounter he claims is connected to the blooms. Jimmy’s account is fragmented, dreamlike, and possibly unreliable, involving a massive, passive “creature” that induces hallucinatory, mind-melting experiences rather than physical attacks.
The narrative leaves readers questioning: is there truly something in the water, or is Jimmy’s tale the product of grief and trauma over his father’s death decades earlier?
🌊 Key Themes & Highlights
- 🌍 Environmental horror: Climate change and ecological imbalance as the breeding ground for terror
- 🧠 Unreliable narration: The story filters reality through Jimmy’s possibly altered perceptions
- 🪞 Ambiguity: Tremblay never confirms the creature’s existence, keeping the horror psychological as much as physical
- 🧪 Real-world grounding: The algae bloom problem mirrors actual environmental phenomena
- 🎭 Creature as metaphor: The “monster” may be grief, memory, or the slow violence of environmental collapse
“Every year the fetid growth gets worse—but it’s been going on longer than anyone knows”
💬 Reader Reception
- ⭐ Goodreads rating: 3.05/5 from over 11,500 ratings
- 📖 Readers praise the concept and atmosphere, calling it thought-provoking and eerie
- 🧾 Some found it light on scares compared to other Creature Feature entries, with the horror more implied than shown
⚠️ Considerations
- 📄 Short format: At 35 pages, it’s a one-sitting read—best approached as a mood piece rather than a plot-heavy horror
- 🧠 Low creature visibility: The “monster” is mostly felt through hallucinations and suggestion
- 📚 Standalone: Works independently within the Creature Feature collection
🏁 Final Verdict
In Bloom is a quietly unnerving, environmentally charged horror short that trades gore and jump scares for ambiguity and atmosphere. Tremblay’s restraint leaves space for the reader’s imagination, making it a good pick for fans of psychological horror and eco-fiction who don’t mind an open-ended conclusion.
