Girls come of age in so many ways. In this book, they come of age by battling monsters, watching their friends die, losing their mothers, and killing for the first time. Their periods are the least of their concerns.<br/><br/>In this anthology of girls' coming-of-age stories by women of many kinds, we get to meet sixteen heroines, girls facing the challenges of adulthood and rising to meet them. Dark Blooms doesn't miss a beat in telling a wide variety of important stories that might have otherwise been buried and ignored.<br/><br/>These fresh and fantastic voices will reach inside of you and make you feel something you haven't felt since your own coming-of-age horror.<br/><br/>"Growing up is hard, and the world is full of horrors. This is the message Dark Blooms puts forth in sharp, evocative stories about the terror of coming of age. In this diverse anthology, you'll follow characters of different races, ages, genders, and sexual orientations as they struggle to make sense of their environment. From a tragic tale of a transgender girl making friends with a corpse to a fast-paced fantasy jaunt about not fitting into gender roles, this collection has something for everyone."<br/>—Briana Morgan (she/her), award-winning author of The Reyes Incident