Flowers for the Sea - by Zin E Rocklyn (Paperback)

About the Book

"Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp. Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she's pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award
Winner of the Pulver Award
An Ignyte Award Finalist

A Library Journal Editor's Pick! A Den of Geeks Best Books of 2021!

Flowers for the Sea is a dark, dazzling debut novella that reads like Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler

We are a people who do not forget.

Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.

Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she's pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.

Zin E. Rocklyn's extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.

Review Quotes

A Library Journal Editor's Pick! A Den of Geeks Best Books of 2021!

Winner of the Pulver Award
An Ignyte Award Finalist

"Gorgeously written."--Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author

"Rocklyn is angry, lyrical, honest, and heartbreaking, riding the line between fantasy and true horror." --Catherynne M. Valente, New York Times bestselling author

"A name to watch."--The Washington Post

"Rocklyn's lyrical gothic fantasy debut considers how life can persist in a world of rot, death, and destruction. . . . [They] conjure Iraxi's precarious position in fluid, lovely prose." --Publishers Weekly

"This novella will whet the appetite of fans of classics like Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, P. D. James' The Children of Men, and Octavia Butler's Bloodchild." --Booklist

"A lush, mesmerizing novella about survival and the hope of righteous anger. An auspicious debut baring beauty and razorfangs." --Paul Tremblay, New York Times Bestselling author

"A gorgeous, powerful debut. . . . You don't want to miss it." --Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author

"Rocklyn manages to write a darkly spectacular, yet strangulating world in the middle of the sea, with well-developed characters, vivid imagery, and dense lyrical prose....This claustrophobic story had me reeling as the tension rose until I reached the impressive ending."--Cemetery Dance

"Zin E. Rocklyn's extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek."--The Quiet Pond

About the Author

Zin E. Rocklyn is a contributor to Bram Stoker-nominated and This is Horror Award-winning Nox Pareidolia, Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters, Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology, and Forever Vacancy anthologies and Weird Luck Tales No. 7 zine. Their story "Summer Skin" in the Bram Stoker-nominated anthology Sycorax's Daughters received an honorable mention for Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, Volume Ten. Zin contributed the nonfiction essay "My Genre Makes a Monster of Me" to Uncanny Magazine's Hugo Award-winning Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. Their short story "The Night Sun" and flash fiction "teatime" were published on Tor.com. Flowers for the Sea is their debut novella. Zin is a 2017 VONA and 2018 Viable Paradise graduate as well as a 2022 Clarion West candidate.