Trang Thanh Tran explores identity and transformation in They Bloom at Night
About Author
Trang Thanh Tran is the author of She Is a Haunting, a William C. Morris Debut Award finalist and an instant New York Times bestseller. They write speculative stories with big emotions about food, belonging and the Vietnamese diaspora.
Trang grew up in a big family in Philadelphia, then abandoned degrees in sociology and public health to tell stories in Georgia. When not writing, they can be found over-caffeinating on iced coffee and watching zombie movies. Connect with them on Twitter @nvtran or their website www.trangthanhtran.com.
Interview
Trang Thanh Tran explores identity and transformation in They Bloom at Night (Bloomsbury YA)
March 2025
In this atmospheric, layered adventure, Mercy - a small coastal town in the US - has been overrun by a strange algae and hit by severe storms. Just a handful of its former population remain. Teenager Noon has stayed in Mercy with her mother, but now they are being forced to hunt for a monster in its watery depths.
Through stories about the mysterious monster in the waters, author Trang Thanh Tran explores how Noon's identity loosens and transforms as she and her mother hunt for the monster in the ocean's depths, and are forced to confront the true monsters in the town's community.
Review: "This is a book about monsters of all kinds, and will appeal to those who like a dash of emotion with their horror."
Q&A with Trang Thanh Tran, introducing They Bloom at Night
"I hope readers will see that transformation is beautiful, that trans and nonbinary lives are beautiful, and even in
the darkest of times, we should want to be our truest selves."
1. Thank you for joining us on ReadingZone. Can you tell us three things about you that helped you become an author, and what brought you into writing for young adults?
I feel like it'll be quite obvious but the three things that helped me become an author: love for reading, writing in fandom spaces also out of love which made me a better writer, and spite. Yes, spite! I had to show myself and others that I could do it. I really love writing atmospheric stories that focus on coming-of-age with a core family background, so writing for young adults came naturally.
2. What happens in your new book, They Bloom at Night, and what was the initial idea that you wanted to explore through it?
In They Bloom at Night, a red algae has overtaken a small coastal town. Noon's mother believes their dead family has been reincarnated into sea animals, so they stay in the ruins with their shrimping boat to wait.
However, when the corrupt harbor master forces them to hunt for the creatures drowning people, Noon sets off on an unwanted adventure, making new and old allies while confronting past traumas that have returned to haunt them.
I wanted to explore how a queer teen can blossom into their truest self, even at the end of the world.
3. Can you tell us about your setting in a post-apocalyptic town of Mercy in Louisiana, which Noon both loves and hates. Is Mercy based on somewhere you know? How did the encroaching algae become part of its story?
They Bloom at Night's setting is inspired by my childhood living in the deep southern Louisiana, right across from the Mississippi River. I have vivid memories of this small town, where a surprisingly large number of Vietnamese immigrants settled and became shrimpers. There's really no other place like it.
Small towns can be very insular. There are great things about growing up in them like tighter friendship groups, but there's also a lot of bad. It's very hard when you love something or someone, but it has failed you.
The encroaching algae is a reflection on real world climate issues. Maybe they don't come with supernatural entities or creeping creatures, but algae blooms already exist! The invasiveness of the algae mirrors how Mercy is really in Noon's bones, even if they hate it.
4. There are monsters at the heart of this book - but the true monster is hidden in plain sight. What drew you to want to play with society's perceptions of where its dangers really lie, particularly around gender imbalance?
I think society likes easy answers, so it's easy to label people and things who are different - either in lifestyle or appearance - as monsters. However, I believe true damage is being done by those who aren't being held accountable for their actions, which happens often in cases of sexual assault. "Boys will be boys" while girls are expected to maintain a certain kind of image. I wanted to challenge the definition of monster and focus in on who gets to decide monsterhood.
5. How did Noon's story evolve and develop as you wrote They Bloom at Night, and what drew you to writing about her struggle with gender and identity? Why did you name her Noon?
I always knew that this book would be about the transformation in ourselves and the environment, but Noon's emotional arc took many drafts to uncover. It's scary to write and I thought digging deep would hurt me, but it was important that I did their story justice. I wanted Noon to be seen through this narrative as the person she has always been, no matter how they look.
Noon's real name is Nhung but she typically lets people call her Noon since most can't pronounce her name right. I think that's a common experience for people with non-Western names. It's a small form of survival. Noon is also just a lovely word to me. I associate it with daytime of course, which contrasts with the 'night' in the title and many of the night scenes in the book.
6. Noon and her mum are descendants of the Vietnamese boat people. Is this part of your own story? Why do you want to feature this as part of Noon's history and how do you draw on Vietnamese mythology for They Bloom at Night?
My parents are Vietnamese boat people, and their stories of crossing a whole ocean have always seemed mythical to me. To be able to survive in adverse conditions is incredible and so lucky.
I featured this in the story because it reflects real experiences and the complexity of how people settle in new places. In They Bloom at Night, I play with cultural superstitions or practices common in more rural Vietnamese communities, most notably the worship of tutelary gods.
7. Many of the young adults in They Bloom at Night face challenges with their ancestral history, and family, including Noon and her mother. Why do you put their relationship at the heart of this story?
I'm fascinated by familial relationships and how they shape us to who we are and what we want. Young people are often reliant on their guardians for shelter and protection, which is a power relationship. Young people have to renegotiate this power as they grow up. It was important for me to show that love and hate aren't mutually exclusive. We can still love the people who fail us, but that doesn't mean we can forgive them.
I personally like writing these coming-of-age stories that feature family, and the readers who like that will hopefully find it!
8. They Bloom at Night raises many questions and explores some difficult themes including sexual assault, alienation and othering. Was it a challenging book to write?
This was an incredibly difficult book to finish. It took many drafts to get Noon's emotional and transformative arc right, because I was too afraid to write it initially. It's been rewarding to see people connect with Noon's experience now that the book is out.
9. What kinds of discussions do you hope reading They Bloom at Night will raise, and what questions do you hope your readers will take from it?
I hope They Bloom at Night will raise discussions about “monsters” and who gets to define them and the role that norms play in facilitating a culture of sexual assault. Most importantly, I hope readers will see that transformation is beautiful, that trans and nonbinary lives are beautiful, and even in the darkest of times, we should want to be our truest selves.
10. What are you writing currently? What does your day as a writer look like, and where do you go to seek out inspiration?
I'm currently working on my third YA novel about a depressed teen who goes to Vietnam to bury her brother, only to awaken something demonic hunting down her, her sister and friends down. It's gonna be fun and bloody!
My day as a writer always starts with a little anxiety: will I write today, what am I doing, ahhh. By the time I'm done with my iced coffee, I hopefully have stamped those voices out and jump right into my manuscript. I write out of order, so I go where the feeling is right!
Inspiration comes most easily to me when I'm just out living my life and meeting friends, because some small detail will inspire a line or a character. Places also have a great influence on me because my books often have a strong sense of setting, whether it's a house or a creepy old town.
They Bloom at Night
She Is a Haunting
