A review by tigger89
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a book that I believe is best enjoyed without knowing too much about it. If you're someone who loves fairy tale retellings, you might enjoy this gender-swapped tale featuring a genre-savvy protagonist discovering the woman he'd married might be a monster. In addition, the majority of the story is told via flashbacks to Indigo's childhood and teenage years, narrated by her best friend. I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the twists and turns in this book, but I still enjoyed the journey of discovering how we were going to get to the things I'd seen coming.

Chokshi's lush descriptions are probably the best part of this book. I could picture the House of Dreams and the Otherworld so easily that I almost felt as if I was reading an illustrated edition. My criticism would be that this felt like a novel about Indigo's childhood that occasionally flashed forward to her future husband, which wasn't really what I'd been expecting from the cover copy. What we got was still a great story, don't get me wrong, but I'd expected more focus on the husband using his knowledge of fairy tales to navigate the danger he found himself in, whereas the primary focus was actually on the story of Indigo's origin.
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