Reviews

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is an interesting read, it’s a dark, poetic, classically romantic gothic read, and while I say it’s romantic, it’s not a love story in a sense, it’s a love story to fairytales, to childhood fancy, to wanting to belong. The book follows 2 plotlines, the present with ‘Bridegroom’ who meets Indigo Maxwell Castenada and becomes seduced by her mystery, soon marries her but with the explicit instruction from her that if he looks into her past, if he delves, he will lose it all. For a while he is content living this mystery and missing that part of his wife, until Indigo receives the call that her Aunt is close to death and they must visit her childhood home, The House of Dreams. While there, Indigo’s husband is tempted by Indigo’s secret, her childhood friend Azure, known to have gone missing, who she forbids to talk about, but he cannot resist not knowing. The 2nd plotline follows Indigo’s childhood with Azure, a childhood of 2 girls who form a sisterhood only needing each other, who believe in a fairy underworld and do everything together to ensure they can live there one day together, however their sisterhood strains as Indigo becomes more persistent and possessive of this dream and Azure finds a belonging elsewhere. But what happens to Azure? What happened to Indigo to make her so secretive?

The true heart of this book is the writing, it’s just delicious, it’s like red wine, dark chocolate, it’s just sxy, Indigo in particular is just incredible and while she’s potentially deadly and dangerous and you don’t really know much about her, whenever she is on the page, you’re in for a wild ride. Chokshi intertwines the story with fairytales, ancient stories and characters that the characters on the page start to shadow. It’s very clever writing, it gives off a powerful but unstable vibe, which is actually very reminiscent of the characters themselves. The Bridegroom isn’t a character I necessarily connected nor cared about, although seeing as he has back story but is never given a name, he really is more of a plot device and I’m sorry but as terrible as she was at times to everyone in this book, I couldn’t help but root for Indigo.

The house itself is also an interesting character, the building being almost alive, you get to know how it feels and how it reacts to the characters who play out their story inside it, likewise the fairy underworld written enough to be intriguing but not overwritten to be fantastical, this book really is just the right about of dark fantasy you want to curl up and get lost in.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review. I would really recommend reading this and what an introduction to Chokshi’s writing!

renfrizzle's review against another edition

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4.0

Brother's Grimm poetic dark fairytale. 4/5 because one POV did not capture my attention like the other did. Very good story!

obsidian_blue's review against another edition

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1.0

I started and stopped this one a few times over the past year and for good reason. This just drags and drags and the resolution was not very good at all. At times Chokshi seems to want to delve more into magical realism (which this book needed more of) but in the end it just read as if two characters had a problem with reality and then two other ones got way too obsessed with fairy tales and myths. There is no development of "The Bridegroom" and even less of "Azure."

"The Last Tale of the Flower Bride follows an unnamed, but handsome man meets an heiress named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. Indigo we find is obsessed with fairy tales/myths and the harm that comes to mortals that lay eyes on the true form of a god/goddess in disguise. Her husband who is a scholar of something finds himself wanting to discover his wife's secrets, and when she's called back home to her dying aunt and a home called "The House of Secrets" he finds himself being drawn into Indigo and her friendship with a girl named Azure.

If you want to know anything about the bridegroom, not too much to say. He's apparently beautiful and beyond tedious.

Indigo, same.

Azure as we follow through most of the book is just a teen that I felt was way too caught up in Indigo's life. I kept waiting for her to catch a clue, and it took til almost the end of the book to show it.

The plot such as it is, just drags along with the pace of the book. I don't know what Chokshi was trying to accomplish with this. Was this supposed to be a Young Adult kind of horror novel? Magical realism? What. It just jumps back and forth and doesn't want to be too dark or harsh.

Look to sum, this was not good. I kept wondering what the point of the story was and by the 80 percent point just despaired. I think I would have loved it, if the book did more of a

Spoiler

reveal like Tales from the Darkside with the man who told his wife a secret he was supposed to keep, and then crazy reveal, he's the monster he saw a decade or so ago."

but alas, we don't get that.

roobydooby_boo's review against another edition

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4.0

childhood trauma = magic ig?

bexkalvoe's review against another edition

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3.0

The writing was too fluffy for my taste, although beautiful and poetic. It felt like I could have trimmed off 1/3 of this book and not missed anything.
I also only cared about one of the two POVs, so I really only enjoyed half the book.
Had some good moments and a twist at the end, but it was just ok.

library_of_joanne's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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