Charis welcomes Trang Thanh Tran in conversation with Desiree S. Evans for a celebration of They Bloom at Night. The author of the New York Times bestselling horror phenomenon She Is a Haunting is back with a novel about the monsters that swim beneath us . . . and live within us.

Since the hurricane, the town of Mercy, Louisiana has been overtaken by a strange red algae bloom. Noon and her mother have carved out a life in the wreckage, trawling for the mutated wildlife that lurks in the water and trading it to the corrupt harbormaster. When she's focused on survival, Noon doesn't have to cope with what happened to her at the Cove or the monster itching at her skin.

Mercy has never been a safe place, but it's getting worse. People are disappearing, and the only clues as to why are whispers of underwater shadows and warnings to never answer the knocks at night. When the harbormaster demands she capture the creature that's been drowning residents, Noon finds a reluctant ally in his daughter Covey. And as the next storm approaches, the two set off to find what's haunting Mercy. After all, Noon is no stranger to monsters . . .

Trang Thanh Tran writes speculative stories with big emotions. They 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. Their debut novel She Is a Haunting was an instant New York Times and Indie bestseller, a William C. Morris Debut Award finalist, and a Bram Stoker Award winner.

Desiree S. Evans writes fiction for children, teens, and adults. She is co-editor of the anthology, The Black Girl Survives in This One, and a contributor to the anthologies Cool. Awkward. Black. and Foreshadow. Desiree is a 2020 winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant for children’s fiction awarded by the nonprofit organization We Need Diverse Books. She received her MFA in fiction from the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin and is currently the Southern Studies Fellowship in Arts and Letters Writer-in-Residence in Spartanburg, SC.

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They Bloom at Night: Trang Thanh Tran in conversation with Desiree S. Evans