[REVIEW] THE LAST TALE OF FLOWER BRIDE - ROSHANI CHOKSHI (ENGLISH REVIEW)

 All reviews here are purely personal opinions and do not intend to degrade or glorify the work of others. Everyone has their own reading tastes. Thank you.

source: Goodreads

Title: The Last Tale of Flower Bride

Author: Roshani Chokshi

Publication: 14 February 2023

Pages: 304 pages

ISBN: 9781529384062

Language: English

BLURB

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales--the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after--and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor's extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo's dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife's secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.


REVIEW

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving this ARC book! Here is my honest review.

I know the author and then they said that it has haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic, so I’m in to request this book. I have big expectation of this book but I am disappointed as I read this book.

I love Mexican Gothic, I love how creepy that book is so I think I will find it in this book. But no, we will only follow the story, which honestly for me is not very clear whether what is happening is a reality with elements of fantasy or just the imagination of the characters. The world is less solid, the house that is described as the House of Dreams feels less like a magical house, only a whisper that opens the eyes of people who have difficulty distinguishing reality and imagination.

The book only focused with the past story of Indigo, open with The Bridegroom as the point of view then suddenly switch to Azure, Indigo best friend, to tell us about what happen in the past. I assure you that there’s more story of the past then the present. We have dual POV from The Bridegroom, whose name I don't know, and Azure. The friendship and relationship are so toxic, well Indigo actually a toxic person. Obviously I don’t like her at all, but hey I don’t like anyone in this book at all. We didn’t see any character’s development and the plot kind of slow because we really see too much of Indigo and Azure life.

If they said that this book is dreamy, yes I can feel that while read this book. The writing is like fairy tale and we got many fairy tale stories here. I don’t know what is the relation of this fairy tale with the plot but it’s nice to read that.

There’s plot twist in the story, I actually guess it at the beginning but the author could drive my guess with the plot that is happening at the book and make me forget about it. I think this is the best part of the book for me, all conflict end here. And the ending, I can not decide whether I like it or not, I tried finishing this book to see what is happening at the end and what kind of decisions will be made by the characters. After I know, I feel like “okay good for you”. Just like that. Sadly this book didn’t leave good impression for me.

I give this book 3/5 ⭐rating. This is not my kind of book but still recommend it for everyone who like gothic fairy tale story.

ALSO READ: [REVIEW] LIFE CEREMONY: STORIES - SAYAKA MURATA (ENGLISH REVIEW)

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