Review: Dark Bloom by Molly Macabre

Blurb:

When a disease runs rampant, turning people into cannibalistic horrors, society comes to a halt. Kate manages to escape the sadistic captivity she has endured and collides with Nick, a Marine haunted by the scars of war.

They join forces to navigate a treacherous landscape, battling the undead and hostile survivors. But what happens when the monsters outside are the least of their worries?

Nick’s shame is crushing, and Kate’s distrust is swallowing her whole. Will they overcome the darkness that threatens to consume them from within? And what will become of a world overrun with creatures that cannot seem to stop…laughing?

Review:

There are times in life where you come across a book that’s just so perfect you have to pinch yourself to believe it’s actually real and not just a dream. Dark Bloom is just that. I read it back in October (best book of the month AND a top 10 read of 2024). And yes, I’m only just now reviewing it. I know, shame on me for taking this long to review a book I absolutely devoured, lived and breathed it while immersed. And even though it’s been a couple months since I finished it, this darkly beautiful book of emotional destruction has been living rent free in my mind, and I’m not at all mad about it. 

‘A large hunting knife…a macabre violin bow playing one deadly chord to end a horrendous symphony.’

I normally tend to avoid horror, both in books and movies because I’m a chicken and don’t typically like graphic violence outside of war violence (hello grimdark, my loves). That said, I’ve always enjoyed zombie movies, and for whatever reason these are my one exception for horror. But I don’t read/enjoy the concept as books. Only once did I try a zombie book, which was after I had previously enjoyed the movie based on it: Warm Bodies…too much brain munching for my taste. Based on that, I didn’t think I could like them as books, until now.

When we, at SFF Insiders, did the cover reveal for Molly, that cover just reached out and captured my interest. I don’t know what it was about it, but it kept nagging at me whenever I saw it online, telling me I needed to make an exception to my “no horror” rule. So when October rolled around and I wanted some spooky eerie aesthetics in my reading I decided to finally take the plunge. And it was the best reading decision of my life!

This book, guys… *mind imploding still from the aftershocks of reading it* 

I will try to articulate the magnitude of perfection that Molly has accomplished in this book, the feat she has reached in making me love a book so damn much it hurts. This book has left a huge gaping hole in my chest that can only be filled with the sequel (Molly, I need it like breath in my lungs D: HELP!)

From my experience of watching zombie films you really only ever focus on the characters surviving in the apocalyptic world, just fighting to stay alive and not get eaten or turned. It’s a very narrow view point, which for a film is fine for the most part. The storyline is always driven by that action, those near misses from groping hands of death and ravenous sagging jawlines. But for a book you want more than that. You want to see actual character development, more plot than just dodging the hungry hoards. Again, I have only read one zombie book and it didn’t quite deliver on that so much, though I will admit reading from a zombie’s perspective was quite unique. But Dark Bloom? It’s everything I needed and so much more.

‘The hardest part was learning to love the only person she was left with. Herself.’

You have these two characters, Kate and Nick, who are completely broken people before the apocalypse, and who are still dealing with those past traumas during said apocalypse. That shit doesn’t just get swept under the rug just because the undead are walking around feasting. These two are entirely multi-dimensional characters, whose pasts we keep getting flashbacks from to help us see why they act and react the way they do in this current dystopian world. We get the expected drama and action of fighting zombies, while simultaneously getting this deeper story of survival, suffering, and the strength to overcome the horrors of their past lives. They learn and grow, first as just traveling companions, each struggling to learn to trust each other just to survive their new broken world. But as the story goes along they learn to lean on each other more, build a tentative relationship that blooms into friendship, full of healing and tenderness. 

‘You’ve revived something in me I thought I’d lost.’

What Molly has done is incorporate some of the darkest themes/traumas that humans can perpetrate on each other and plumbed the dark depths of mental health, but she’s handled them with expert care, revealing the scars left behind by these terrible actions and then showing the depths of resolve and strength people can find inside themselves to overcome these horrific experiences. Dark Bloom isn’t for the faint of heart, but the payoff is worth it. These beautiful, fractured characters live and bleed in your heart as you cry right alongside them reliving their memories. You want nothing more than to reach into the book and wrap them up in the strongest, tightest hug, willing your love and strength into them. 

‘Nick was in love with the darkness in her eyes because he lived there, too.’

Another point, this book looks deceptively slender, and yet it reads like a much longer book? I mean that in a good way. There is just so much packed into Dark Bloom that it's just shocking to see the smaller page count. Like we get these flashbacks to both of their pasts (which also I normally don’t enjoy flashbacks finding them jarring to read, but in this book they were exceptionally inserted into the story so that they didn’t disrupt the flow at all). Then we also see their present perspectives, as well as them navigating this shattered world of the undead with plenty of action scenes, as well as dealing with other humans they come across. And then that whole bit at the end that was just…much wow O_O You’d really expect it was longer for as much as is packed into this attention grabbing cover! And again, that ending just leaves you begging for more! 

‘Though the sound of their breathing was unremarkable, it was a glorious symphony of survival’

Needless to say, my anticipation for the sequel is off the charts. I don’t know what to expect from it other than more darkly bingeable reading and emotional trauma, but I’m so ready for it! Bring it on!