Flowers for the Sea

read for the tarot readathon 2023: queen of wands

i had a great time reading this and i absolutely loved the themes of isolation and anger throughout the story. the write was so lyrical and dreamlike but also dense for such a short book. i enjoyed the descriptions of the ocean and birth throughout the story and thought it was done so well. i love a fever dream horror so much but this wasn't necessarily fever dreamy but more just disjointed which left me confused and not in a cute way. but i would still highly recommend this story if this seems like the type of story you are looking for 

**3.5

So disturbing. Beautiful descriptions of horrifying things, with a big dash of the surreal. I absolutely do not like body horror when it comes to pregnancy and birth, but this was really well done so I won't rate based on that. I would have loved a little more structure or background, but this felt like an absolute fever dream and the style of dropping in on Iraxi with no explanation really worked.

This is a creepy, dark debut novella following the POV of a pregnant woman on ship whose community flooded. There were aspects I liked, aspects I didn't. I mostly felt like the writing style was too cerebral for me and I was missing a lot. What I did get, though I've never been pregnant and I'm not certain of Zin's intentions, was a story about a difficult pregnancy and postpartum depression, and I thought this was done well.

This was another strange one to me. A cosmic horror novella about a pregnant woman on an ark at sea giving birth to a creature. I don't really know why this didn't work for me but there was so much weird relationship drama and the main character's decisions just seem to come out of nowhere. The writing is good and I think I understand the intention of the story but it just wasn't for me.

3.5 stars

This novella is a mixture of many genres. There's Gothic, horror, post-apocalyptic.
Iraxi is pregnant and on an ark of survivors fleeing their flooded kingdom.
Her child could be the end of them all or it could be what saves them. Either way, Iraxi doesn't want this child. She has a feeling it isn't entirely human.

I enjoyed this. The ending made me want the next one right away. I loved the narrator. She is fantastic. I also found this creepy. I'm intrigued to see where this is going to go.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an audio review copy.

I don't understand why this book is considered horror/dark fantasy/ cosmic horror. There wasn't much cosmic about it except for maybe the description of Iraxi's child. There's not much back story. Why is she carrying this creature child? How is her child a creature when the father is human? There are a lot of plot holes and gaps in the story.

Something that really bothered me was the depiction of pregnancy in this story. I'm not entirely sure if the author has children, or has experienced pregnancy, but a lot of the information surrounding it was inaccurate or lazily researched. Also as a mother of 3, I know for a fact no woman wants to have passionate sex while experiencing active labor, and that's with a human child, nevermind some cosmic creature shredding your insides. I also find it weird how often the author mentions the main character's vagina scent. It's odd.

Characters are flat and not interesting. I was confused the entire time about this messy love triangle that didn't make sense. There are barely any horror elements in this novella and honestly I feel like the plot was thrown together just
To set up for the final scene.

There's not a lot of information on who Iraxi is, or why she's having a hybrid baby/creature that can speak full sentences at its birth.

Overall a very messy story. The cover is beautiful and the writing is good so I'll leave it at a 2 star.

Thank you to TorNightfire and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Strange, seductive, amd beautifully written. I cant say I understood the wreckoning I just experienced, but I 100% want more!