They Bloom at Night

Seventeen-year-old Vietnamese American Nhung—or Noon—and Noon’s mother live on their boat Wild Things in Mercy, La., where a sinister red algae bloom has mutated the wildlife in the aftermath of a deadly hurricane. Though Noon is desperate to leave Mercy, Mom refuses, certain that Noon’s father and brother—whose bodies were never recovered following the storm—are “out there somewhere, reincarnated and waiting for us to rescue them.” They make their living catching and selling mutated sea creatures to Jimmy, Mercy’s de facto ruler. When people start disappearing, including a scientist studying the bloom, Jimmy threatens to repossess Wild Things unless they find the monster he believes is responsible. Along for the hunt is his daughter, white-cued lesbian 17-year-old Covey, who is also searching for her missing mother. As the trio scour the contaminated waters, Noon contemplates issues of gender identity, struggles to process a previous sexual assault, and contends with inexplicable body changes. While fluid prose occasionally makes for murky, complex plotting, it simultaneously conjures surreal and harrowing atmosphere through which Tran (She Is a Haunting) weaves a pulsing-pounding climate disaster thriller. Ages 14–up. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Mar.)