Children are often raised with fairy tales. Whether they be in the form of a tale about a princess meeting her prince and living happily ever after, or the form of an elf and a shoemaker, or the form a pair of siblings escaping a witch’s candy house, children are often regaled with different fairy tales. However, as we grow older this love tends to fade, and fairy tales are deemed a childish thing.
Roshani Chokshi, however, opposes this notion. Chokshi is a lover of fairy tales and uses them to craft her thrilling adult debut novel The Last Tale of the Flower Bride where fairy tales are the tiles that pave the path to discovering the secrets that characters keep hidden. This story sucks the reader into it not only because of the spectacular suspense and enthralling mystery, but also because of the complexity of the characters and the depth of their emotions. These details paired with Chokshi’s flowery (but not forced) prose—which she uses in even the darkest moments of this novel—create the thrilling tale that is The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, leaving the reader both wanting to know what happens and slightly fearful of what awaits them on the next page.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride follows two characters: The Bridegroom and Azure. The Bridegroom quickly meets, falls in love, and marries the mysterious yet charming Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. However, for their relationship to last, he must make a promise to her: he will not go digging into her past. For most of their marriage, The Bridegroom only knows the details about Indigo’s past that she’s willing to tell. Until Indigo is called back to the House of Dreams—her childhood home—because her aunt is on her death bed. In the House of Dreams, the Bridegroom encounters a mystery: the disappearance of Azure, Indigo’s childhood best friend. In order to figure out the answers to questions that plague him, he must break his promise to Indigo and dig through her past, even if it leads to the ruin of their relationship.
Mysteries, secret pasts, and morally grey characters are by no means new or groundbreaking tropes; however, Chokshi uses them in a way that makes this work stand out. The Bridegroom does not only attempt to solve the mysteries of his bride’s life, the secrets in her past, but also the secrets and mysteries of his own life, creating two puzzles he (and the reader) must attempt to solve in tandem.
As for the morally grey aspect of this novel, Chokshi plays with the reader’s love for them. There’s been a rise in reading books with morally grey characters (specifically love interests), and these characters often leave readers smiling at their actions; however, Indigo’s—this story’s morally grey character—actions often leave the reader reeling due to the absurdity of them, raising questions about what lines to draw and where.
Not to mention the way Chokshi plays with what a main character is, for the Bridegroom is the first character we meet (which is often regarded as a rule to figuring out who the main character is), but he’s never referred to by a proper name. His point of view, his thoughts, his past, are the first ones the reader encounters, but his storyline is secondary. Indigo and Azure, the mystery of them, are the ones that play the bigger part of the novel, yet the Bridegroom is the character the reader knows the most about.
Its bewitching mysteries and fascinating fantasy elements paired with the masterfully made characters only make up some of the reasons why The Last Tale of the Flower Bride has been praised and praised by so many people. Chokshi’s love of fairy tales—especially some of the more niche ones—becomes apparent throughout the pages, creating (as V.E. Schwab said) a story as sweet and wicked “as a piece of fairy fruit” for many to enjoy.
Grade: A+
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Print length: 292 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: February 18, 2023
Genre: Fantasy
