Exploiting the Cottagecore aesthetic and flowery prose, “Bloom” by Delilah S. Dawson delivers a deeply disturbing look at unhealthy love affairs and their outcomes.
Dawson, who broke through with her novel “The Violence,” restrains herself in a slow-paced novella of 200 pages. “Bloom” centers on naive, bookish and isolated assistant English professor Rosemary “Ro” Dutton as she attempts to settle into Athens, Ga.
The 27-year-old is newly single after ending a three-year relationship with an ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. She visits a farmers market one Saturday morning as a way to pass the time and distract herself. While stumbling through the crowded stalls, Ro comes upon the most beautiful, enchanting woman she’s ever seen: Ash.
Character Analysis
Main Characters
Rosemary “Ro” Dutton
Ashlyn “Ash” Gund
Erik
Jessie Aleppo
David
Rosemary “Ro” Dutton, 27, is the lonely, naive heroine of “Bloom.” The isolated academic works as an assistant professor after moving away from New York and her cheating ex, Erik, six months prior. While Ro is confident in her intellectual capabilities, she’s self-conscious about her curvaceous body and her fashion choices. She envies other women’s slender frames and easy-going styling.
Ro spends most of her free time in her rented home with her cat, Anon, researching, writing, grading, and watching Jane Austin adaptations on TV. She forces herself to go to a Saturday morning farmers market where she meets Ash and becomes instantly enamored.
Ashlyn “Ash” Gund serves as a seductress and teacher to the shy, sheltered Ro. She presents as strong, slender, traditionally feminine in long dresses with her hair braided.
She refuses to call Ro by her preferred name and scolds her for showing affection in public and offering romantic gestures. Despite being guarded and emotionally unavailable, Ash easily charms Ro with her ethereal beauty and command of the culinary.
Ro’s ex-boyfriend, Erik, is mentioned only in past tense as the cause of her paranoia about entering a new relationship. They lived together in New York where she studied at Columbia University and wrote her book while he taught college courses. She broke up with him after finding evidence he cheated on her with a student.
University of Georgia theater major Jessie Aleppo is another of Ash’s many admirers. The dramatic 20-something frequently stops by Ash’s spot at the market and demands attention and cupcakes. Ash tolerates her presence but doesn’t return the feelings. Still, Ro tracks her social media to confirm she’s no romantic rival.
David’s the man who crosses Ash and pays dearly for his disrespect. While Ro and Ash are hiking and playfully kissing on a hiking trail, David stalks them and video records them. He’s caught by Ash, who deletes the video and others and destroys his phone and throws his truck keys into a nearby river. But, Ash extends his punishment even further.
Plot Summary
Dawson’s “Bloom” bides its time allowing readers to clearly glimpse the dangers Ash presents while keeping Ro oblivious.
At the start, the shy English professor Ro serendipitously encounters the earthy, elf-like Ash during a random walk through a crowded farmers market. The two women instantly connect and begin bantering about Ash’s collection of cupcakes.
Ash offers Ro a sample of a lavender cupcake, which begins a weekly tradition of Ro buying a set of four every Saturday for a few weeks. “Bloom” begins to leave the figurative breadcrumb trail when Ash mentions using lard in her cupcakes that are made in her off-the-grid farmhouse outside of town.
Credit: Bing Dall-E image creator.
After several purchases at the farmers market, Ash invites Ro to her homestead to find a botanical companion for the snake plant, Tybalt, she purchased earlier. While there, Ro observes the lack of technology, a mishmash of old and newer items, and Ash’s secrecy around specific rooms of the house and areas of the property.
The first real sense of trouble is when Ro is caught snooping in some of the bedrooms in the house. This act upsets Ash and causes their first fight, which quickly ends. Then, Ash invites Ro to her home for dinner the following night.
For their real first date, Ro brings wine and a small snail as gifts while Ash cooks an elaborate southern-inspired meal. Ash encourages Ro to indulge in large platefuls and multiple helpings as well as several drinks.
They are enjoying a playful evening of conversation when Ro witnesses Ash’s violent side. The elfin woman picks up a shovel and clubs a raccoon to death to protect her chickens. This momentarily frightens Ro into stillness, but she chooses to remain quiet.
Excessive alcohol leaves Ro stranded at Ash’s, where she is put into the guest room. The reserved academic is haunted by dreams of the dead racoon and soon awakens with intense stomach pain and runs to the bathroom to vomit. She spends most of the night ill and wakes up barely able to go home and curl up with her cat.
Ro develops a suspicion that Ash’s cooking may have caused her illness. She decides to throw all of the leftovers Ash sent home with her into the garbage. But she agrees to go on a hike with Ash, despite the fallout from the dinner date.
When the two meet on an abandoned park trail, their flirting amps up and they begin kissing. Ash catches a man, David, filming them with his phone and confronts him by destroying his phone and throwing his keys into the nearby river.
Ro sees David’s abandoned truck in the parking lot when she departs with Ash still sitting in her car.
Later that night, the pair consummate their relationship after taking a bath. Ro notices Ash’s odd and secretive behavior–including clipping her fingernails and eating an eyelash that she collects from her lover’s cheek.
After waking up and having omelets with Ash, Ro returns to town thinking of her first girlfriend. She stops by a used bookstore and finds a befitting book to bring as a surprise gift, “The Love of Tiger Flower.”
Ro unexpectedly shows up at Ash’s home and is greeted coldly with a raised voice and a lecture on working and boundaries. The woman reproaching her doesn’t resemble the ethereal woodland creature clad in long pastel dresses with her hair in tawny braids.
Ash scolds Ro for interrupting her work and disrespecting her boundaries. But the women agree Ro can write love letters using the antique typewriter Ash gifts her.
The women’s relationship continues with peaks and valleys as Ro attempts to connect with Ash several times and is rebuffed. Still, she’s determined to make it work with Ash.
They once again meet at Ash’s home for a romantic dinner that ends in an intimate sleepover. An electrical outage leads a naked Ro to turn on her cell phone’s flashlight to seek out the fuse box in the basement.
She then makes some frightening discoveries about Ash’s work.
Strapped to a medical bed is David, who’s now missing his legs, and an abattoir equipped with bright lights and an assortment of tools– bone saws and machetes–old enough to be from the Civil War.
Ro knows she needs to leave but doesn’t know how to escape without waking Ash who she now knows is dangerous. Her phone cannot connect to 9-1-1 in the basement. They engage in a cat-and-mouse game with Ash calling for Ro as the trapped nude woman strategizes a means of getting out of the basement unseen by Ash.
Despite her best efforts, Ash does find Ro as she’s attempting to climb through the window. Ro realizes she must become an actress and go along with Ash’s crazy plans to stay alive. So, she agrees to join her captor in slitting David’s throat.
“Bloom” jumps forward in time to show Ro and Ash are still together. Ro has quit her job, given up her apartment, and now resides full-time with Ash. She’s now confined to a wheelchair and resigns herself to being physically and psychologically controlled by Ash.
Final Thoughts
“Bloom” possesses a delicate, illustrative style indicative of Ro’s literary state of mind. It deceptively draws readers in with intricate descriptions of Ash and her homemade cupcakes and soaps.
Readers realize long before Ro does that Ash poses a serious threat to the young professor’s well-being. Ro, like the tragic heroine of many a heterosexual story, makes excuses for Ash’s behavior all the while drawing herself deeper into her captor’s web.
Dawson makes deliberate choices in characterization and plotting to clearly make the point that mentally illness and murderous intentions can be found in lesbian relationships too. Female partners can be as vicious and hurtful as a man.
“Bloom” should be read and enjoyed for its well-crafted prose and flawed characters. It shouldn’t be categorized as a fast-paced horror.
Bearing that in mind, “Bloom” is highly recommended for readers willing to invest time and attention in details and literary allusions.
Rating
My rating is 4/5 stars.
Book Details
Title: ”Bloom”
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Year of Publication: 2023
Number of Pages: 200
