A review by beccam22
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

5.0

This book is not what I was expecting by the pitch I’ve always been told. The marriage is not hinging on stories told by the wife and what he learns from her stories, she doesn’t tell her own story until the last chapter so why use that in marketing?

This book is about female friendship, the indescribable love of childhood friendship and the darker side of knowing someone so truly that you know every way to hurt them the most.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Classism

the two young girls mention only eating pure foods and not eating lunch but only snacks like an apple for lunch. They compare bodies in a few scenes. Azure has a step father who lusts over her more than her mother(his wife) and it is heavily implied that he imagines Azure while having sex with her mother because he can’t have her. There is also a scene where she is drugged, unconscious, naked on their bed and he is touching himself watching her while her friend takes a photo of him. Her mother is jealous of her daughter and leaves her while she is 18 but not yet graduated to be with him so the daughter can’t “tempt” him. The husband was abused as a child and his brother died but he was told he never had a brother, the mother removed photos and they gaslight him into believing he made up his brother to the point that he thinks he is the only one who remembers him so surly he must be in fairy. He is able to remember what happened to his brother but it is not explored as much as I would have liked, it was very much a side-side plot. In the end it is revealed that indigo has been azure since graduation, indigo died technically by an accident but she was plotting their suicides for years. Azure then is able to take indigos identity until her husband reveals the truth and stays with her to learn her story. Hence “indigo” being the flower bride until he is able to really learn who azure is.