Review: Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

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Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Published October 19, 2021

Dark Fiction  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Bookshop

Flowers for the Sea is a dark, dazzling debut novella that reads like Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler.

We are a people who do not forget.

Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.

Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.

Zin E. Rocklyn’s extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.


My 2 Cents For Free!

If you follow the bookish people on social media, I bet you’ve seen people praising this book here, there, and everywhere. There’s a reason for all of the praise. This book isn’t one you finish and forget. It’ll stick with ya whether you want it to or not and that is the mark of an excellent read if you ask me.

Flowers for the Sea is a gorgeously told tale of rage, isolation, and all the unearthly hells that the sea and sky have up for offer in this bleak universe created by author Zin E. Rocklyn. The sea is angry, the sky is angry but most of all the heroine of this tale is angry. And justifiably so.

She is stuck on a godforsaken sea vessel as the world dies. She is heavily pregnant with a child that she fears may not be 100% human. Who knows? This world has been turned upside down. At any rate, she doesn’t want it and she has no say in the matter. She is surrounded by people she despises, people who despise her, people who have made her an outcast time and time again. They may live what’s left of their miserable lives on this horrible ship. But her rage simmers and she keeps going out of pure spite. She is an incredibly written character.

There is a lot packed into this thin novella. The prose is filled with suffocating anger and descriptions of the dank, disgusting, rotting ship and the people who inhabit it. There’s a lot left to the imagination as the author never spells it all out for the reader and this made me eager to keep turning the pages, to attempt to soak it all in and figure it out.

I don’t want to say too much about this novella and honestly, I can’t spill out the words without spoiling the things that every reader should discover on their own. If you’re a fan of nightmarish worlds and powerfully strong women who persevere despite the odds, and a killer ending this is one you’ll want to add to your reading pile.

Content Warning: 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


About Author Zin E. Rocklyn


Zin E. Rocklyn is a contributor to Bram Stoker-nominated and This is Horror Award-winning Nox Pareidolia, Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters, Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology, and Forever Vacancy anthologies and Weird Luck Tales No. 7 zine.


Comments

  1. Iraxi sounds like she has an uphill battle! Compelling review!

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  2. Dang hell on an ark lolo. I need this.

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  3. Wow, I can't wait to read this! I'm starting it soon😁

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  4. Oooo this sounds great. And look at you reading and loving all the books!

    Karen @For What It's Worth

    ReplyDelete

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