Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

70 reviews

aelsaj711's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

2.75

This book is actually quite good for the right reader. I don't think I have matured enough as a reader to have read this, which is why I gave it this rating. Reading this is like being dropped into a dimly lit maze and bumbling around in the dark until about the the 75% mark. This is for a specific niche of people, to which, at the moment, I am tangential to. This book is an excellent character study on two people that I think many people might be able to relate to to a certain extent, which I believe is this book's biggest strength. The prose is excellent as well, but it is a lot to process. Even though technically the book is short, it took me as long to read as a book double its length. I suggest only reading this book when you're looking to be confused as you're being led into the depths of The Flower Bride. The pay off was almost worth it for me, but I'm sure for others it might have a higher impact.

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callistag1's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

jeyjeyyy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

lou_loo's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings