BLOOM - Delilah S Dawson

4.5 stars

Well then. I haven’t felt that level of creeping, utter dread in quite some time—and certainly not while bathed in the surface level story of a sunshine cottage core sapphic love story. This story isn’t about the shock of a reveal. It’s about the never-ending ceaseless anxiety of the trap closing softly around you. Too gentle to identify as a danger. Too inexorable to escape.

I'm not even going to describe this story, because I think it works best when you can experience the inescapable dread in real time.

Stunning novella. Polarizing if you think the “reveal” is meant to be the draw of the tale. Recommended highly to my other short/weird/queer horror fans.