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In Bloom
The traditional 19th-century village of Blaume sits in the shadow of the mountains where the dragon, Monschborg, resides. Every year, the dragon demands a sacrifice. Every virgin boy over sixteen is sent up to the mountain to be eaten. Wolfie and his gang of awkward friends anxiously watch the day of sacrifice approach. Together they strive to lose their innocence once and for before they get sent up to the dragon.
262 pages, Paperback
Published March 17, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 3, 2021
The only thing I liked about this book was its cover. It's so cool and beautiful.
The rest on the other hand, made me facepalm so hard, I'm sure I threw myself through half the univers.
So what is this book about. It's kinda the "There is an all powerfull god - or in the books case dragon - and they demand virgin flesh." trope. Books that use this trope normally tend to use female virgins. This one however uses male ones, which made it interesting enough for me to check out.
There is also NO smut. Not a single scene, which surprised me and was great. So I guess that you could put that on the 'things I liked about the book' list as well.
I don't know what I thought we'd be getting. Maybe something like - oh I don't know -, the exploration or mental helath issues such as depression, anxiety or PTSD? Hurt/Comfort? A strange yet fascinating culture? Great worldbuilding? A bittersweet / sad lovestory, maybe?
What the story did though, was none of the obove.
Instead we got the WORST slaughter of the german language in a non german book, I have ever seen in my entire life, because the book thought that it needed to take place in Germany for no reason at all... or well, there was one. Because it took place in germany, the author thought he'd get away with fucking NAZI LANGUAGE. News Flash my good sir. It's never good to use something Hitler was promoting in your book. :) In case you're curious., the word is 'Übermensch' which means a human that is better than anyone else. You know the good old 'germany is the best race in the world' thing that made Hitler horny. Every time we use german, we use wrong grammer as well. Sometimes it's so bad, I don't even know, what it is the book is trying to say.
Some german names are fine. Some made me laugh, because they were made up or rather slightly changed names that were - apparently - to tame for the author. The dragon is by the way named after a german town. There's a chance that this was supposed to be a commentary on the german past. If it was, I wasn't able to pick it up.
Especially since we NEVER explore anything. The book is just edgy without consequences. Like in one scene one of the MCs friends is burning himself alive, because the pressure is getting to much and he can't continue living in this society. MC is a little sad for half a chapter and than everyone has forgotten about it. No trauma. No nothing. Take that scene out of the book and nothing changes. Especially since the guys motive could have been pretty interesting. But the way it was written and handeled made it nothing but edgy.
Especially since we have build absolutly no connection to any of the characters. We change the POV character 3 times and you'd think that the author does this to give you more insight into the pain and suffering that the people have to go through, but yeah, not really. The characters have no personality, their relationships are shallow and meaningless, the conversations are questionable and the love story is really bad. Or rather, the love storys. The build up is not that great, there is no time for anything meaningfull, for anyone to have a real connection, a real realtionship.
There is a weird war-subplot in there that surfs no purpose at all. Especially since it has no real connection to the main plot that is - there is a virgin boy eating dragon?????
There are hints of feminism in there, but like, it was done so badly again, that it's not even worth talking about.
What I DO wanna talk about is: there is a trans character and we misgender them for 75% of the book and than we treat it like it was a decision that they made. And then we misgender them some more. And the way the coming out happens is laughable. Someone calls them "boy" that knew they were born a girl, so there is NO reason for that character to call that other character a boy, but that sentence causes them to be like "Wait.... AM I a boy?" It's obvious the author doesn't understand dysphoria. Which isn't made better by the fact, that we follow the trans charactes POV.
Oh it's such a mess.
The ending is open and not really a ending at all.
I mean, I was team dragon, because he seemed like the only cool character, so I guess I at least got the dragon happy ending I had wanted.
If I had to summ my review up, I'd say: Reading this book was painful.
The rest on the other hand, made me facepalm so hard, I'm sure I threw myself through half the univers.
So what is this book about. It's kinda the "There is an all powerfull god - or in the books case dragon - and they demand virgin flesh." trope. Books that use this trope normally tend to use female virgins. This one however uses male ones, which made it interesting enough for me to check out.
There is also NO smut. Not a single scene, which surprised me and was great. So I guess that you could put that on the 'things I liked about the book' list as well.
I don't know what I thought we'd be getting. Maybe something like - oh I don't know -, the exploration or mental helath issues such as depression, anxiety or PTSD? Hurt/Comfort? A strange yet fascinating culture? Great worldbuilding? A bittersweet / sad lovestory, maybe?
What the story did though, was none of the obove.
Instead we got the WORST slaughter of the german language in a non german book, I have ever seen in my entire life, because the book thought that it needed to take place in Germany for no reason at all... or well, there was one. Because it took place in germany, the author thought he'd get away with fucking NAZI LANGUAGE. News Flash my good sir. It's never good to use something Hitler was promoting in your book. :) In case you're curious., the word is 'Übermensch' which means a human that is better than anyone else. You know the good old 'germany is the best race in the world' thing that made Hitler horny. Every time we use german, we use wrong grammer as well. Sometimes it's so bad, I don't even know, what it is the book is trying to say.
Some german names are fine. Some made me laugh, because they were made up or rather slightly changed names that were - apparently - to tame for the author. The dragon is by the way named after a german town. There's a chance that this was supposed to be a commentary on the german past. If it was, I wasn't able to pick it up.
Especially since we NEVER explore anything. The book is just edgy without consequences. Like in one scene one of the MCs friends is burning himself alive, because the pressure is getting to much and he can't continue living in this society. MC is a little sad for half a chapter and than everyone has forgotten about it. No trauma. No nothing. Take that scene out of the book and nothing changes. Especially since the guys motive could have been pretty interesting. But the way it was written and handeled made it nothing but edgy.
Especially since we have build absolutly no connection to any of the characters. We change the POV character 3 times and you'd think that the author does this to give you more insight into the pain and suffering that the people have to go through, but yeah, not really. The characters have no personality, their relationships are shallow and meaningless, the conversations are questionable and the love story is really bad. Or rather, the love storys. The build up is not that great, there is no time for anything meaningfull, for anyone to have a real connection, a real realtionship.
There is a weird war-subplot in there that surfs no purpose at all. Especially since it has no real connection to the main plot that is - there is a virgin boy eating dragon?????
There are hints of feminism in there, but like, it was done so badly again, that it's not even worth talking about.
What I DO wanna talk about is: there is a trans character and we misgender them for 75% of the book and than we treat it like it was a decision that they made. And then we misgender them some more. And the way the coming out happens is laughable. Someone calls them "boy" that knew they were born a girl, so there is NO reason for that character to call that other character a boy, but that sentence causes them to be like "Wait.... AM I a boy?" It's obvious the author doesn't understand dysphoria. Which isn't made better by the fact, that we follow the trans charactes POV.
Oh it's such a mess.
The ending is open and not really a ending at all.
I mean, I was team dragon, because he seemed like the only cool character, so I guess I at least got the dragon happy ending I had wanted.
If I had to summ my review up, I'd say: Reading this book was painful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review