The story comes to us in the first person perspective of two characters, one of whom is the unnamed man who is referred to as ‘The Bridegroom’.

I’m not sure I can capture how much this book moved, gripped, devoured me. Chokshi draws stars from the darkness. An opulent, engrossing tale with all the power of a myth and all the truth of a parable—reading a story like this reminds you why we tell them in the first place.” Content notes include abusive relationships, inappropriate advances, being drugged, abandonment, grief.

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The book reminds me of Rebecca with the main character without a name and the hasty marriage. I don’t really feel a connection between the couple and wonder why they like each other. There is plenty of foreshadowing in the woman’s pov, which works at times but also irritates an equal number of times. Reading Chokshi's prose is like sinking deeply into the overstuffed arms of a plush, purple velvet sofa. Her lavish descriptions ... wrap you in sumptuous sensory detail." - New York Times The gothic atmosphere of this fairy-tale romance, mixed with heartbreaking tragedy, creates a story that hovers between fantasy and illusion. It begins with an enchantment and ends with its breaking. In between, a dream becomes a nightmare—until they both wake up. Chokshi’s adult debut is recommended for lovers of gothic romance, magical realism, and stories where fairy tales come true, especially when they shouldn’t.”

And yet the fairy tale or the myth that I think most applies to a long-term relationship … is the Greek myth of Hercules. In one of his tasks, he is supposed to wrestle Proteus, the sea god. And when Hercules is wrestling the sea god, Proteus starts changing shape. He turns from a lion, a leopard, a boar. He becomes the shape of water itself. The drink on the left will fill your belly for the rest of your days, but you will only be able to speak truths. Their relationship, in many ways, represents the tension of growing up. It's the desire to stay young enough, stay innocent enough, that fairyland and fairy world makes itself known to you. Like in an age at which magic is not just a possibility, but it is real. And then the tension of growing up and essentially realizing that the other world is now closed to you.” Her storytelling weaves a spell upon the reader, leaving us feeling as if we are either dreaming or intoxicated, or perhaps a bit of both.A sumptuous, gothic story about an obsessive female friendship cursed to end in tragedy, a marriage unraveled by dark secrets, and the danger of believing in fairy tales – the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

She looked like the nostalgia that settles in your ribs at the end of a story you have never read, yet nevertheless know.”When you're a teenage girl and when you're with your friends, you are invincible, you are invulnerable, nothing can touch you. And in the same token, you are at your most magical. You are the definition of being caught in the in-between. Not quite a child, not yet subject to the rules of adulthood … It's really a fairy tale conceit to be a teenage girl.”

There are plenty of references to fae elements in the plot, but we never know whether they were actual or just in the imagination of the characters. Quite a lot is left unsaid. The two get married after Indigo gives him an ultimatum that he can’t pry on the life that came before this new life, but the Bridegroom struggles to keep his curiosity about Indigo’s life at bay. When she receives a call that her aunt is dying and they must go to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, to be with her, it looks like secrets may come out.tw/cw: loss of a loved one, extreme nightmares, a lot of blood depiction + drawing blood, gore, abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, gaslighting, animal deaths, human deaths, murder, mention of child death, kind of brief mentions of dieting/eating a very specific way, bullying, cheating, codependency, suicidal ideation and thoughts, drugging, pedophilia (very weird things being said, the child being scared/constant state of fear at home, creepy and unsettling vibes every scene with intention for more, and then at 17 years old unwanted touching/brushing past + maybe more/set up to be more… this is a hard trigger warning, but it is a constant thing in the book that is very hard to read so please use caution) Hallowed ground was not always a fixed, physical place. Some sacred spaces were indivisible, the taking of them an endless communion that ate of your flesh, drank of your blood, and its grisly alchemy fused itself to the very skin of your soul so that no matter where you were, you would never be without it.’ Anyway, I’m excited to continue and I’m really curious about The Bridegroom’s brother and how he might come in to play later. I don’t trust Indigo. Something is clearly up. It’s an interesting choice for the author to not name the Bridegroom, but it just makes me think that he’s almost inconsequential in the overall story.