New Release Interview: They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran

New Release Interview: They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran

They Bloom At Night, is the second YA book from New York Times bestselling & award winning author Trang Thanh Tran, which released on March 4th and is available now! We are thrilled to be able to interview them and share some of that cli-fi inspiration and horror with everyone!

They Bloom at Night

by Trang Thanh Tran
Published by: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, Bloomsbury YA
on March 4, 2025
Genres: Horror, LGBTQIA+, Sci-Fi, Young Adult
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Goodreads

A red algae bloom has taken over Mercy, Louisiana. Ever since a devastating hurricane, mutated wildlife lurks in the water that rises by the day. But Mercy has always been a place where monsters walk in plain sight. Especially at its heart: The Cove, where Noon’s life was upended long before the storm at a party her older boyfriend insisted on.

Now, Noon is stuck navigating the submerged town with her mom, who believes their dead family has reincarnated as sea creatures. Alone with the pain of what happened that night at the cove, Noon buries the truth: she is not the right shape.

When Mercy’s predatory leader demands Noon and her mom capture the creature drowning residents, she reluctantly finds an ally in his deadly hunter of a daughter and friends old and new. As the next storm approaches, Noon must confront the past and decide if it’s time to answer the monster itching at her skin.

Thank you to Bloomsbury YA for sending finished copies!

Author Interview: Trang Thanh Tran

The novel’s eerie setting in Mercy, Louisiana, is deeply shaped by both natural disasters and the mysterious red algae bloom. How did you draw inspiration from real-life environmental concerns, and how does the blend of the natural and supernatural in the book comment on our current relationship with the environment?

Whenever I’m in nature, I’m always astounded by how randomly and beautifully the natural environment came to be. They are magical places. I blend in the supernatural because it does feel supernatural. In They Bloom at Night, there is an element of punishment, because we have not treated our natural world well. The results in our daily lives—strange weather, stronger and more frequent storms, the loss of wetlands—are real and scary. “Monsters” did not force the fictional town of Mercy to close. I grew up in deep southern Louisiana in a family of shrimpers, and that town doesn’t exist in the same way anymore because of climate change. This loss is what seeded the story.

Noon and Covey’s dynamic seems central to the narrative, especially as they navigate their fears and uncover the town’s secrets. What aspects of their relationship were most important for you to explore, and how do their interactions reflect the broader themes of trauma, survival, and resilience in the novel?

Noon and Covey have to fight against the expectations of their parents about who they should be, even if the alternative isn’t yet safe for them. Their friendship is as important, or more, than the potential of romance, because they relearn boundaries and consent after witnessing these concepts be violated in their own lives. They are careful with one another, healing from trauma and learning to hope for more than survival. At the same time, they challenge each other to do the “right” thing for themself.

The novel touches on the idea of monsters, both those in the water and the ones lurking within the characters. Can you speak to how you define “monsters” in the context of the story, and how do you hope readers might interpret the psychological and physical manifestations of these creatures?

One aspect of “monsters” I wanted to challenge in They Bloom at Night” is who gets to decide the definition. Often, society treats marginalized folks as monsters simply for being different while the truly monstrous walk in plain sight, their behaviors forgiven because that’s just how it’s always been. The novel is in the readers’ hands to interpret, but my hope is to show how “monsters” can be beautiful or ugly, seemingly kind or not. We should rethink who benefits from being able to assign others as outsiders. And of course, nature is terrifying!