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A review by ohmage_resistance
Until the Last Petal Falls by Viano Oniomoh
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
I'm generally a fan of aromantic fairytale retellings. This one was pretty good, but a little bit less up my alley than I was hoping.
On the positive side, it was nice to see how the author changed details about The Beauty and the Beast to better fit the Nigerian setting. On the other hand... one of my least favorite tropes, as an aromantic person is the "(romantic) love makes you human"/humanizing power of (romantic) love trope (you might be able to tell why I don't like the original The Beauty and the Beast story very much). This book subverted the assumption that it's romantic love that has that humanizing power (which is nice) but it did it by replacing romantic love with queerplatonic love. That’s not actually as huge of an improvement as it could have been and is still going to feel alienating to some a-specs who feel like they can’t have or don’t want a QPR or a romantic relationship. Basically, it feels like the core premise of what was bothering me, as an a-spec person, about The Beauty and the Beast was still there, which isn't what I generally hope for in an aro fairytale retelling. IDK, I probably should have guessed it was going this way based on the start, and I don't want to blame the author much because it's not like QPR stories couldn't use more rep, but those are my feelings about it.
Also, this story was a little bit too far on the sappy side of things for me personally, but that's just my personal taste. But other than that, I enjoyed the book, with the characters and their struggles. Also, I liked the shout out to Raybearer (as a Nigerian inspired fantasy book with ace rep), that’s sweet.
On the positive side, it was nice to see how the author changed details about The Beauty and the Beast to better fit the Nigerian setting. On the other hand... one of my least favorite tropes, as an aromantic person is the "(romantic) love makes you human"/humanizing power of (romantic) love trope (you might be able to tell why I don't like the original The Beauty and the Beast story very much). This book subverted the assumption that it's romantic love that has that humanizing power (which is nice) but it did it by replacing romantic love with queerplatonic love. That’s not actually as huge of an improvement as it could have been and is still going to feel alienating to some a-specs who feel like they can’t have or don’t want a QPR or a romantic relationship. Basically, it feels like the core premise of what was bothering me, as an a-spec person, about The Beauty and the Beast was still there, which isn't what I generally hope for in an aro fairytale retelling. IDK, I probably should have guessed it was going this way based on the start, and I don't want to blame the author much because it's not like QPR stories couldn't use more rep, but those are my feelings about it.
Also, this story was a little bit too far on the sappy side of things for me personally, but that's just my personal taste. But other than that, I enjoyed the book, with the characters and their struggles. Also, I liked the shout out to Raybearer (as a Nigerian inspired fantasy book with ace rep), that’s sweet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Homophobia, Car accident
Suicidal thoughts related to curse, so there is a little bit of a fantastical element there.