Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

38 reviews

gracescanlon's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Domestic abuse, Death, Bullying, Alcohol, Child abuse, Abandonment, Infidelity, Grief, Physical abuse, Body horror, and Sexual content

Minor: Incest and Violence

lou_loo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is an eerie, gothic, dark fairytale.
We follow the story from the point of view of the Bridegroom and Azure.
This story is beautiful yet terrible; it is fascinating and disturbing; scary and haunting. It feels like a fairytale, like a story of magic and fantasy, but it is also a story of abuse, neglect and manipulation. We never know if what we are being told is real or not. We hope it is only magic; if it is not, it's horrifying and scary, showing us how terrible the world can be. If it is not magic, it is gaslighting, abuse and manipulation.
Azure's mother once told her:

"If she kept you around, she would break you into little pieces. You'd never be able to put yourself back together."

Azure found herself stuck somewhere between magic and reality, between the world she wanted to discover and the world Indigo wanted her to stay in.
Roshani Chokshi is an amazing writer, her prose is gorgeous and poetic; she keeps us hanging on a thread for the whole book and each time we think we'll understand the secrets, we find ourselves going deeper and deeper without seeing how it could end. The characters are complex and intriguing, I loved the meaning and role behind each character and how they represented archetypes from fairytales, and the personification of the House of Dreams was the completion of the ambience, it let the eerie vibes be complete and transported us into this mysterious world.
The best way to go into this book is knowing as little as possible, and I'm glad I picked it up ignorant.
This book is a 5/5 star and I'll remember this story for a very long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Blood

Moderate: Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

sappix's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Murder, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Death, Child death, and Drug use

Minor: Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Adult/minor relationship

reddsb00ks's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Bullying

karapillar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Murder

Minor: Incest, Gun violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Alcohol, and Vomit

page_karla's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Gore, Child death, Body horror, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Incest, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

If you like a book with pretty prose, good message, but no plot this is for you. 

This is a story of a young girl growing up going through a cycle of abuse through a fantasy-like lens that seems more like a delusional hellscape. It's basically the same event happening over and over as the girl slowly begins to realize that the relationship she has with her best friend is toxic. Also there's a groom looking for answers in the present day.

  The ending was predictable, and this read more like a contemporary novel than a fantasy.

This is a book for readers of contemporary explorations of mental health, female relationships, and growing up who love pretty prose and strong vibes. I would not recommend this to fantasy readers, despite the fact it was marketed as a fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Murder

lazalantinh's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An enchanted fairytale becomes a haunted reality. Captivating, tragic and bittersweet. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual harassment, Murder, and Sexual assault

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Context:
I borrowed The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi from my local library through the Libby app.

 

Review:

As someone who hates fairytales and dislikes romance, I was skeptical about a book billed as a gothic fairytale about a marriage. I became even more skeptical when confronted with the flowery, lush prose that placed me at a distance from the characters and their motivations. I am so glad I kept reading, however, because The Last Tale of the Flower Bride absolutely won me over. 

For me, the heart of this story is the tale of the friendship between Azule and Indigo. Within this story, it becomes clear that Chokshi’s constant references to fairytales and her lush prose serve a purpose, which is to creatively and compellingly paint a portrait of an incredibly codependent female friendship. I am blown away by Chokshi’s originality as she approaches a storyline that could have easily been a trite thriller or melodrama from a place of compassion, empathy, and true artistry. 

 

Given how much I love the chapters exploring Azule and Indigo’s friendship, I am less enthralled with the chapters from the Bridegroom’s perspective. Although they contain moments of beauty and clarity, I think they serve as unnecessary padding. I believe The Last Tale of the Flower Bride would be a more effective and powerful story if these chapters did not exist, and we instead remained immersed in the story’s central plotline. 

 

The Run-Down: 

You will probably like The Last Tale of the Flower Bride if . . . 

·      You are looking for a unique take on toxic female friendships and codependency

·      You love fairytales and folklore (but even if you don’t, give it a try!)

 

You might not like The Last Tale of the Flower Bride if . . .

·      You can’t stand flowery prose, no matter how it serves the story

·      You go into the book expecting a romance (seriously, I think this book is mismarketed)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia, Alcohol, Child abuse, Classism, Death, and Domestic abuse

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Child death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent