Early Novella Review – Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Horror/Post-Apocalyptic
Length: 108 pages
Publisher: Tor.com
Release Date: October 19, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-1250804037
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
“We are a people who do not forget.
Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.
Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley of this book to review through NetGalley.
Thoughts: This book starts out on a ship that’s been sailing for a really long time (think hundreds of months) with a woman who has been pregnant for a really long time (well over your typical 9 months). The story unravels piece by piece as we try to solve a number of mysteries: why is our main character so disfigured, what happened to these people that they ended up on this boat, and what exactly is our main protagonist pregnant with?
This was a quick and strange (also strangely fascinating) read. There are very heavy Lovecraftian influences to this story. I really loved it, it was just so different and it completely had my attention the whole time.
The way it is written is beautiful, visceral, and eerie but also a bit different; you have to concentrate while reading this and at times I had to go back and reread things. Some of the things that happen here are just so bizarre that they require a double take, literally, to figure out what’s going on.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I enjoyed this a lot. If you want a uniquely different, creepy, and disturbing Halloween read I would recommend it. There is quite a bit of gore and other very descriptive things that are unsettling, so for adults only. If you enjoy stories with a heavy Lovecraft influence I would also recommend this.
