Gorgeous photo by @onetruedaydreamer!
Hi fairy friends!
Welcome back to day 2 of our readalong for our January Adult featured book: The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. I hope you’re all loving the book so far!
Today we’re reading from chapter 7 to the end of chapter 14. Let’s go!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi, from chapters 7 to 14. Please only read on if you’ve finished this section!
-!SPOILERS!-
The Bridegroom doesn’t think Hippolyta is sane, but can’t stop listening to her nonetheless. She’s telling him to find Azure, the House misses her, The Otherworld knows the girls’ secrets. This is so eerie!
It’s clear both Indigo and the Bridegroom romanticise the magic and mystique of the idea of faerie, but… maybe too much. Azure was the same way, so why did her and Indigo fall out? Did she stop believing in faerie? What do you think?
The Bridegroom starts to get curious, asking the housekeeper about Azure and Indigo. They were inseparable, two halves of the same soul, until one day they weren’t.
Tati gifts Azure and Indigo The Otherworld. It’s magical, or it seems it, and at the age of fifteen Indigo suggests maybe her and Azure are supernatural beings cursed to a mortal life.
At sixteen, Tati is throwing Indigo a birthday party. Azure overhears them arguing, Tati is definitively telling Indigo that the money, Indigo’s settlement, has nothing to do with why she became her guardian, she did it because she loves her. Right before the party, Indigo comes up with the idea of her and Azure switching places. Most believe Azure to be Indigo, but Tati knows better.
Do you think the Bridegroom’s brother was real? What do you think happened to him?
What are your theories about Azure? Why did she leave? Was she even real?
Do you think the girls and the Bridegroom actually had magic and the ability to see into, or even visit, faerie?
This book is getting so eerie, I love it!
See you tomorrow for another day of reading.
Love,
Shannon
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Somehow I do think the Bridegroom’s brother was real, and that they crossed a threshold together that for some reason the brother couldn’t return through.
I think Azure may be stuck in the otherworld and that Indigo is locked out of it. An irrevocable split seems to have occurred.
It’s very difficult at the moment to tell whether magic is real or whether there’s just a mystical nature to their imagination. I want to believe that the Bridegroom’s brother is real, but we could just as easily be reading the words of a madman…I have not got a theory yet as to what happened to him, if indeed he was real.
As for Azure, I get the impression that there’s a side to Indigo that we haven’t discovered yet, and whatever that side is has something to do with Azure disappearing.
The semi-sentient house is an interesting addition – and it’s this odd place where I don’t know if we’re being led astray by unreliable narrators or if indeed magic is real.
I haven’t seen any hard evidence that faerie exists…yet. So I’m going to go with not real, for now, because I can’t decide whether magic is real in this world or not.
I don’t really know where this is going, the bridegrooms chapters feels a bit dry, and other than the stuff about his brother I don’t really know what’s going on. With Azure’s chapters I feel like at least we get to know more about what happened. I feel like someone mentioned that Azure might be stuck in the otherworld, and i have the same thought. That or maybe that they switched places again and that Indigo might actually be Azure? Something still feels a bit off with Indgo.
I really don’t know what to think of the bridegroom’s brother. I like the idea of him having a brother who mysteriously disappeared into some kind of otherworld, but I still think it’s possible that the bridegroom was a lonely only child who made him up, and who is now being driven insane by his overly secretive wife and her wacky aunt.
I do think Azure is real though, as only the bridegroom seems to remember his brother whereas lots of people in the House remember her. Indigo is really suspicious and I think she has something to do with her disappearance, probably intentionally.
At the start of the book I thought the Otherworld was real but now I’m wondering if it’s just a figment of their over imaginative minds as children?
The whole story just gets my mind whirring trying to work out what’s happened and what’s going to happen!
I agree with your thoughts on the Otherworld! I’m still feeling like the magic in this book isn’t real, but created by Indigo and Azure.
I think what happened to Azure will turn out to be very real, but the mystery will be uncovered through this Otherworld space behind the house where the girls spent all of their time.
I’m loving the slow reveal of little tidbits of information that I know, at the end, I’ll be thinking that I should have seen it coming!
I do think his brother is real and I agree with the previous comment that it sounds like they were going to go on a picnic together and, for some reason, his brother stayed there and he didn’t. And maybe that’s what happened with Indigo and Azul… they went together but, for whatever reason, they ended up being separated into two different worlds.
And, as a side note, I just love when the setting is sentient! Deborah Harkness did this with The Bishop House in A Discovery of Witches and it’s just so fun when the setting is also a character! Especially when that character is trying to make The Bridegroom (and us) see just what is going on!
1. I am more and more convinced he was. I think he fell into the world of Faerie and was lost to the rest, who forgot him as a byproduct of him leaving the world. It is different from Azure though, so it could very well be that his brother never was real.
2. I think she was real, but I’m unsure if she disappeared to Faerie or if she somehow died trying to get there. I think she was unhappy in this world and wanted to escape it. Too many people remember Azure for her not to be real.
3. I think some sort of magic is present and real in the world. I don’t necessarily think the girls and bridegroom have magic or an ability, but more that the magic lets them see it. Magic choses what it shows and to whom and can take it away just as easily.
Do you think the Bridegroom’s brother was real? What do you think happened to him?
I personally do not think he is real. And if he was then I feel like the same thing that happened to Azure happened to him. Maybe it has something to do with the Otherworld.
What are your theories about Azure? Why did she leave? Was she even real?
I think Azure is trapped or currently in the other world. I do think she is real but she is gone for a reason and the pain of her being gone is too much for Indigo or maybe Indigo had something to do with this. Sorry typing out loud ?.
Do you think the girls and the Bridegroom actually had magic and the ability to see into, or even visit, faerie?
I think the girls have I think the jury’s still out on the bridegroom however, he is catching on to a lot.
The plot thickens.
Daily Q&A:
Q:
1.) Do you think the Bridegroom’s brother was real? What do you think happened to him?
2.) What are your theories about Azure? Why did she leave? Was she even real?
3.) Do you think the girls and the Bridegroom actually had magic and the ability to see into, or even visit, faerie?
A:
1.) I think so. It stands to reason that it’s possible he found a way to Otherworld (Faerie, whatever name holds it) & holds some air of myth/fairytale/folklore. How very Chronicles of Narnia if the door to the Otherworld was, in fact, in the wardrobe.
2.) She’s given so much of herself to Indigo. She’s traded places with her at a public, albeit masked, event. I wouldn’t be surprised if Indigo had a hand in her leaving, but I’m curious to see how it played out. Azure seemed to be feeling on equal footing with Indigo after the masquerade, but “was that feeling of equality shattered or upset the balance of their friendship,” or “was it something else entirely,” are all thoughts I’m having while waiting for the rest to unfold.
3.) I’m not sure about the Bridegroom since his brother was missing without him, but maybe what happened to his brother & what happened to Azure have more in common than I originally thought. The main difference would be that he’s the only person who seems to remember his brother while several people still remember Azure.
They can’t all be schizophrenic, right?? So the brother must be real somehow and they really do have access to the faerie realm. Or maybe his “brother” is really just his other identity/alter-ego.
My theories about Azure is that she is real, but she is actually the “Indigo” we know. Parallel to the brother being the Bridegroom’s “alter-ego” then Azure is Indigo’s alter-ego.
I do think he was real. I don’t think he had an imaginary brother. Maybe he found a way to the Otherworld and was never able to get back. I am guessing Azure and Indigo had some sort of falling out-more than a fight and that is why she left. Maybe as children it is common to see faerie and visit.
Okay, so Indigo has some serious issues with reality. She seems to want people to play “pretend” with her (bridegroom – don’t pry, Azure – talking about the faerie world and how they’ll be one soul and such). I’m still wondering what exactly happened to her parents. Maybe the loss of them is what makes her want to pretend all the time. Her power over others is really frightening. Tati is walking on eggshells and trying to gain Indigo’s love. Azure is completely entwined with her to the point where she believes they are connected and becoming one person. The bridegroom will do anything to stay with her. She seems to have this way of manipulating the world into doing what she wants. I’m still confused about what the Otherworld truly is? They go there a lot but it seems to be just a pretend place with no actual beings in it. Just whispers and shadows of fae. The bird dying freaked me out. It seems like Indigo and the House might be interconnected and that she’s doing things with the House to scare the Bridegroom? Such a weird book so far but I can’t seem to put it down!
I love the sentient house it feels like real character that loves Azure. I think the brother and the magic is real but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the other world is part of their imagination from wanting it to be real so badly.
I have so many questions. I’m pretty sure Bridegroom really had a brother but maybe he went to the otherworld and that caused that his family forgot about him, maybe. I think Azure is real but Indigo has something to do with her disappearance. A part of me thinks that maybe the Indigo we know is actually Azure. I still don’t know what if the Otherworld is real, only the kids have seen it so maybe it has something to do with believing since your a kid to work.