BLOOM relates the respective stories of Tennyson Middlebrook and his best friend, Allison, young children living in a world that is on the brink of collapse thanks to a parasitic fungus called “bloom” and that of Lil’it, a feh considered less than human who is passed around like an abused puppy bought on a whim. All three must learn how to navigate their crumbling worlds where each discovers their roles to be far more important than they could have ever imagined and that their lives are intrinsically intertwined.
BLOOM is an interesting mix of the Gothic and fairy tale, a world where the fantastic collides to examine the horrors of what happens when the past has been all but forgotten, thereby dooming it to repeat. All three main characters are societal throwaways – Tennyson and Allison are both children who live in a trailer park and Lil’it is both feared and revered by those who inhabit her world. By large, Kee’s novel examines three ideas: the concept of detrimentally using a small section of society for the greater good of the whole, the collision of science and religion, and the gulf that exists between the educated and the uneducated, subjects that loom large in modern society. The overall question it posits—what would happen if information became currency—is one that has certainly been asked before, and the outcome Kee provides is both bleak and hopeful. The narrative language, while forthright, is seamless and packs an emotional punch without being preachy. The more horrific situations in which the characters find themselves, while not graphic, might be difficult for some readers.
Though BLOOM is a bit slow at the start, Kee does an extraordinary job of tying the two worlds together and the plot quickly gains momentum and races along.
Reviewed by K.J. Pierce for IndieReader