Bloom

 

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

I normally don't tend to go for spooky books, but this had science fiction mystery and terraforming and general weirdness going on that I was like FINE. LETS DO IT.

An amazon summary, "The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable.

Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies--and yet not to these plants. What's their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again...." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Anaya, Petra, and Seth all have strange allergies; like being allergic to every pollen ever, water, and stuff of that nature. There is a strange rainfall one day and they all react pretty well to it despite their allergies. ...until the strange plants start showing up... and eating people. Pretty soon it's a race for survival as all the teenagers start developing strange things on their bodies... like fur, scales, or feathers. Dun dun dunnnnn

Honestly, that's enough summary.

This book was a very fast read because the characters were so boring and flat. They all had strong symptoms of, "I'm a teenager! Puberty is hard! Where are my parents who I begrudgingly love?" Seth was the only one who happened to be in foster care, but even that wasn't used to paint his situation, it was used as a plot device. Poo poo, I say, poo poo.

The most interesting part was to read about the Earth slowly being invaded by these plants, and everyone dying from the pollen they were releasing, and the world just going to crap. It was kind of hilarious to read about the military being a mess, as well as the scientists being a mess. It kind of wound up into this big like Scooby Doo sense of like, "Zoinks! I hope people stop dying so we can solve this mystery!"

It was fun? It just wasn't anything more than that.

Happy reading!