I enjoyed this book a lot. What's keeping me from giving it four stars is the overall lack of depth and the amount of infodumps near the end. ( )

Bloom is a lovely telling of two seemingly different stories. There’s Tennyson and Lil’it—one a boy/young man whose story takes place in our world; the other a faerie, whose story is set in a different world altogether. It was fun and interesting reading about these two very different characters and worlds, wondering all the while how they were related.

That, I think, is the strongest quality of Bloom—the stories within the story, separate yet part of the whole. Wondering how the two worlds could be related to one another created a deeply engaging narrative, as did the characters that I found to be interesting and genuine. The story is, at times, endearing, which was a pleasant contrast to the sometimes more gruesome parts.

I’ve had a really hard time trying to figure out what to rate this book. It’s worthy of five stars for its uniqueness as well as wonderfully touching moments that I found wholly unexpected for this kind of book. But there are issues. There were a fair amount of typos that kind of let the story down in their own incessant way. The pacing also kind of flagged in the middle and then the end came too soon, in my opinion. But maybe I only think that because it’s a really great story, and I just didn’t want it to end.

Bloom is a story that is one part sci-fi, one part fantasy, and seasoned with a good dash of horror. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys these genres, or to anyone who is looking for an interesting and unique read. It’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a while and I’m glad to have found it.

Review re-posted from: http://saracsnider.com/book-review-bloom/ ( )

I really loved this book. I hope there is more and soon. This should be a must read for middle school and high school kids. I have asked my teenaged kids to read it. ( )

If you enjoy reading about the end of humanity, fairies, and gross stuff - then this is the book for you.
Bloom is a very complicated book. If I were to choose one way to describe the book I would say that it is the story of the power of knowledge. Knowledge is the key to everything and survival depends on it. The struggles lie as to how to obtain it, store it, retrieve it, translate and comprehend it. I was very confused about the miscellaneous groups of letters, characters and numbers at the start of the book and in between the chapters. I thought it was an editing problem. It took many chapters for me to figure out what that was all about - so I will not spoil it for you. The book is broken down in to two completely different worlds, and there was no way I could guess how the two would ever go together. The book opens with a young boy Tennyson, and his best friend Allison, trying to save young frogs from being run over as they cross the road. They come across an old man that had seen wave to them for years, dead, covered mostly by a tarp. Under the tarp, they find his neck is covered in what they think is fur - but it is mold. This mold, Bloom, is what will soon bring humankind and every other breathing being on earth to extinction. Therefore, now we cross to the other storyline, where a nasty old hag has kept Lil'it, born what we call a feh, a fairy, captive. Throughout even this introduction to Lil'it, you can see how her instincts kick in and she teaches herself what she needs to do to survive. Especially after her wings are cut off and she has no choice but to defend herself since she cannot fly off to safety.

You can see just a hint of the stories merging when Allison becomes sick, and battles with long and short-term memory loss. Tennyson decides to create a fairytale in one of her notebooks, this way whenever he comes over to visit - he can direct her to the book to prove that he is a friend. However, it is not a fairytale he is writing - and time will tell you how these worlds collide. Our world provides knowledge, and unknowingly to Lil'it, her world consumes knowledge.

The title of this book drew me towards it. Plainly, I liked the name Tennyson Middlebrook, and I wanted to know about his life, I wanted a look into the imagination of this author who came up with this great name. It took a great deal of creativity and imagination to compose this book. The author was very descriptive, and it was not hard to see what he was trying to show you. It is hard to classify this book under one genre', however, whatever it is, this book was not for me. It took me longer to read the book than normal, and I think it is because I became more and more uncomfortable with the story lines as it went on. Do not let this stop you from reading it. If you enjoy reading about the end of humanity, fairies, and gross stuff - then this is the book for you. ( )

This book has become my favorite. It deserves ten stars.

The story starts with the innocent childhood friendship between Allison and Tennyson. Those lazy summer days when you had fun exploring and playing outside. There friendship is one that endures over time. At the same time the book has a story within the story that you get glimses every other chapter about a fairy named lil'it. The stories seem completely separate until they start to intertwine near the end of the book.

The bloom is the plague of the twentieth century that takes over the world and we see how the bloom affects Allison and Tennyson. The fungus is actually a knowledge storage base.

I usually don't enjoy science fiction types of books but this one is so intriguing and really held my interest. I staid up several hours past my normal sleep time to finish it. I couldn't put it down as the action in the stories kept me wanting more.

This is one to definitely suggest and recommend. This is the book that would be passed around between my friends. ( )