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anni_swanilda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, and Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent
maeverose's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.75
So close to being five stars
TL;DR: The writing and gothic atmosphere are a 10/10. Gave me Rebecca vibes. So satisfied with the ending.
I love how gothic and atmospheric this book is. I loved the dreamlike magical realism elements. I almost want to immediately re read this and annotate it. I didn’t even realize until I finished it and I don’t know if it was intentional (since I’ve heard this is a bluebeard retelling) but Bridegroom’s pov felt very reminiscent of Rebecca. With his quick marriage to Indigo and her secret past with Azure, who’s almost supernaturally tied to the house. And him being unnamed throughout the whole book (which I love).
I found zero objective flaws with this book (outside of the unnecessary body shaming of one of the antagonists), but the main thing that makes me hesitant to give it five stars is that at a few points it triggered my anxiety a little bit (it might’ve just been because I had too much caffeine that day honestly lol). I also really don’t like to read about toxic friendships, which is a big part of this book.
But mostly I loved it
“Too often the truth of a memory lives not in the mind but in the heart, in the subtle and sacred organization that makes up one’s identity. But it is a tender place to reach, and I am wounded by touching it.”
TL;DR: The writing and gothic atmosphere are a 10/10. Gave me Rebecca vibes. So satisfied with the ending.
I love how gothic and atmospheric this book is. I loved the dreamlike magical realism elements. I almost want to immediately re read this and annotate it. I didn’t even realize until I finished it and I don’t know if it was intentional (since I’ve heard this is a bluebeard retelling) but Bridegroom’s pov felt very reminiscent of Rebecca. With his quick marriage to Indigo and her secret past with Azure, who’s almost supernaturally tied to the house. And him being unnamed throughout the whole book (which I love).
I found zero objective flaws with this book (outside of the unnecessary body shaming of one of the antagonists), but the main thing that makes me hesitant to give it five stars is that at a few points it triggered my anxiety a little bit (it might’ve just been because I had too much caffeine that day honestly lol). I also really don’t like to read about toxic friendships, which is a big part of this book.
But mostly I loved it
“Too often the truth of a memory lives not in the mind but in the heart, in the subtle and sacred organization that makes up one’s identity. But it is a tender place to reach, and I am wounded by touching it.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing and Fatphobia
Graphic: Animal harm, suffocation, cult behavior Moderate: Delusions/Unreality, step father grooming his step daughter, as for the gore, most of it is kind of metaphorical or in the fairytales, so it’s not super descriptive but it’s brought up a lot so I put it in moderate.kristenlcoates's review
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
meshell's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a beautiful twisty fairy tale within a fairy tale - the story pulled me in, every sentence, intentional, melodic, and woven together with meticulous prose, I felt a sense of perpetual tension, that feeling of not too much, but just enough, throughout the novel, and I was not disappointed with where we ended up. When I stopped reading, it was like I remembered to breathe again.
It is unsettling, romantic, haunting and fascinating. I will be thinking about this novel again and again.
The novel is told from two perspectives, Azure and The Bride-Groom, and they jump comfortably between the past and the present - telling a story filled with grief, neglect, unreliable memories, the struggles of finding ones identity in adolescence, and the magical worlds children create to escape terrible realities. I found most of the characters complicated and mostly loveable.
All that said, this story needs a bunch of content warnings.
Grateful to both Netgalley and the Publisher to have had the opportunity to read it a bit early and share my thoughts.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism
annamorgan27's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness and Pedophilia
heartbrekker's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My first audiobook ARC was destined to be five stars when its Roshani's adult debut!
If it wasn't already obvious—I adore Roshani Chokshi, so this should come as a surprise to no one that I loved this hauntingly gothic tale of childhood friendship, marriage, and faeries. I actually don't think anywhere in the synopsis does it mention faeries, but they actually indirectly play a vital role to the entirety of this story, which was a pleasant surprise. The book market is oversaturated in faerie content currently, but Roshani brought the creeps and magic of true fae to the forefront of this story. I'm not going to go too much in detail because I think this story is told best by following along yourself. A lot can be considered spoilers so the less I talk about this book, the better.
Anyway, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride follows two dual perspectives. The first a man merely known as Bridegroom who marries Indigo and follows her back to her childhood home when her estranged aunt's health is near its end. The other POV does not appear for the first few chapters, but it was a pleasant surprise that I think a lot of reader's will find interesting. But back to Bridegroom—he starts to realize something is amiss as soon as he steps into the House of Dreams (Indigo's childhood home). The house seems almost... sentient, and Indigo refuses to acknowledge even a single detail of her past. It's all very peculiar and discomforting, so Bridegroom begins to investigate.
I found the unraveling of Indigo's secrets to be highly entertaining. She initially reminded me of Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because of her larger than life aura, so it was great to learn about her from another character rather than her own POV. Obviously, that decision makes her wildly more mysterious. Her marriage to Bridegroom was interesting too because in the beginning, Bridegroom is certainly the one not in control when it comes to their relationship, but as the story unravels, Indigo does too. She becomes less composed and "seemingly" perfect. The House of Dreams unsettles her, and Bridegroom senses it too. To be honest, this story was a journey into whether this marriage would become stronger or obliterated. Readers will enjoy trying to guess what the endgame will be for these two.
The writing is extremely telling rather than showing (think writing like Erin Morgenstern), so if you don't like that then maybe don't pick this up quite yet. All gothic literature is very lyrical and detailed, so it didn't bother me one bit getting to listen to Roshani's laments of love. Her writing burns the brightest in this standalone; she was meant to write gothic literature. The fact that I read this in a day alone shows how entrancing it was, couldn't stop listening for a second.
Now I'm definitely going to come back to this review with spoilers. I want to scream about the other POV to the rooftops! I'm very excited to see people's reactions to this story, and I really hope Roshani decides to write more within this genre in the future. I'll be the first to read them!
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
If it wasn't already obvious—I adore Roshani Chokshi, so this should come as a surprise to no one that I loved this hauntingly gothic tale of childhood friendship, marriage, and faeries. I actually don't think anywhere in the synopsis does it mention faeries, but they actually indirectly play a vital role to the entirety of this story, which was a pleasant surprise. The book market is oversaturated in faerie content currently, but Roshani brought the creeps and magic of true fae to the forefront of this story. I'm not going to go too much in detail because I think this story is told best by following along yourself. A lot can be considered spoilers so the less I talk about this book, the better.
Anyway, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride follows two dual perspectives. The first a man merely known as Bridegroom who marries Indigo and follows her back to her childhood home when her estranged aunt's health is near its end. The other POV does not appear for the first few chapters, but it was a pleasant surprise that I think a lot of reader's will find interesting. But back to Bridegroom—he starts to realize something is amiss as soon as he steps into the House of Dreams (Indigo's childhood home). The house seems almost... sentient, and Indigo refuses to acknowledge even a single detail of her past. It's all very peculiar and discomforting, so Bridegroom begins to investigate.
I found the unraveling of Indigo's secrets to be highly entertaining. She initially reminded me of Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because of her larger than life aura, so it was great to learn about her from another character rather than her own POV. Obviously, that decision makes her wildly more mysterious. Her marriage to Bridegroom was interesting too because in the beginning, Bridegroom is certainly the one not in control when it comes to their relationship, but as the story unravels, Indigo does too. She becomes less composed and "seemingly" perfect. The House of Dreams unsettles her, and Bridegroom senses it too. To be honest, this story was a journey into whether this marriage would become stronger or obliterated. Readers will enjoy trying to guess what the endgame will be for these two.
The writing is extremely telling rather than showing (think writing like Erin Morgenstern), so if you don't like that then maybe don't pick this up quite yet. All gothic literature is very lyrical and detailed, so it didn't bother me one bit getting to listen to Roshani's laments of love. Her writing burns the brightest in this standalone; she was meant to write gothic literature. The fact that I read this in a day alone shows how entrancing it was, couldn't stop listening for a second.
Now I'm definitely going to come back to this review with spoilers. I want to scream about the other POV to the rooftops! I'm very excited to see people's reactions to this story, and I really hope Roshani decides to write more within this genre in the future. I'll be the first to read them!
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying and Child death
More details on the pedophilia: constant fear of unwanted touching/ discomfort towards a particular man throughout youth that leads to unwanted touching by said man to the child at 17 years old—could be more than unwanted touching but unclear due to end of the scene