Play Book Tag discussion

I have mixed feelings about this one. I was decently entertained for the most part, so that's a plus. I do feel bamboozled, as the story I expected from the synopsis didn't appear in the book at all, so that's a minus. The writing was good, but the prose got overwrought and I rolled my eyes and skipped the purpler sections. So. Hmm.

How to explain this book?

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is, I think, a YA novel masquerading as adult fantasy horror. That in itself isn't bad, but I do think I expected more of the marital dynamics of this adult couple and then got a troubled teenage friendship between two girls.

The story centers around Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada, the heiress to a hotel fortune, and two people who are enchanted by her: her childhood best friend Azure, and her nameless husband who marries her some amount of years later. The husband is a folklore scholar and finds himself attracted to Indigo because... er. Magic? Maybe? Also because his brother disappeared as a child and he, for some reason, believes he got lost in the Fae realm. This is the thread of the story that kept me interested at first, which is a shame, because all of the husband's sections are underdeveloped.

I found his narrative voice interchangeable with Azure's, who turns out to be the dual protagonist of the story. She has disappeared ever since Indigo's eighteenth birthday party, and we get the tale of her troubled friendship with Indigo through these alternating chapters of flashbacks. I was far more interested in the husband's storyline, but he quickly became flat and unbelievable as a character, so by the end I was more invested in Azure's story. I never understood what drew the bridegroom and Indigo together aside from physical attraction, which I hear is not a great reason to get married. He really just exists as a vehicle to tell more of Azure's story. I think there could have been some really compelling marital dynamics to dive into here, but the author doesn't seem interested in that.

There is a "twist" at the end, but I guessed it in about chapter four. This book also has the YA trope of every single adult being utterly incompetent and/or cruel, which I don't really care for. I desperately wanted Azure's mom to act like an actual mother. I can understand being neglectful, but (view spoiler)[when her husband is clearly grooming her daughter for sexual abuse, Azure's mom gets jealous that he's not paying more attention to her! Lady, wtf! (hide spoiler)]

Anyway, I think the book devolves into a bit of a knockoff of The Craft, which is fine, but the longer we went on, the longer I hoped someone would act like an actual human being and not just a caricature. Indigo was largely boring, all things considered — she's heir to like billions of dollars, but all she cares about is (view spoiler)[killing herself and Azure when they turn eighteen so that they can stay child-like forever? Girl, have some ambition, you could buy and sell the entire world it sounds like! (hide spoiler)]

The longer I think about this book the less sense it makes. But it was a quick read, the prose was pretty evocative in spots, and I liked a lot of the imagery it created. But I didn't much care for the personified settings, and I kind of wish the characters had been pettier and more bloodthirsty. (view spoiler)[I had sort of assumed that Azure had killed Indigo out of jealousy, so that she could live the life of luxury that Indigo took for granted, but nothing like that comes up. (hide spoiler)] This book seems allergic to acknowledging the class struggles endemic to its main characters, which feels like a huge missed opportunity. I kept waiting for an explanation for why someone with the surname Casteñada had amassed such huge dynastic wealth, but the author ignored it. There could have been some really good meditation on the intersection between race, class, privilege, etc; but the book seemed more concerned with painting a pretty picture of tragic fairytales. Alas.

Okay, enough ruminating. Three stars because I liked it fine, but it didn't wow me for all the above reasons.