The Bookworm: 'You May Now Kill the Bride'

You May Now Kill the Bride, by R.L. Stine. 344 pages. Harper Teen. 2018.

“No, I’m not And I’d never hurt Marissa. I’d never cast spells like those. I’d never try to spoil her big day like that. And I’d never stir up whatever”—his voiced dropped to a whisper—“whatever evil our ancestors were up to back in the day. Because that’s what it is. Evil. Maybe that’s why you’re drawn to it.” (p. 262)

Though I don’t remember when I started reading My Beer Year, I recall the date and where I was when I started reading You May Now Kill the Bride.

May 1. LAX.

It was probably 5 a.m. I was waiting for my flight to Denver, the first leg of my trip home after 10 days in LA for the annual conference. The book had been in my backpack the entire time and I had not touched it. (I always take a book or two to the conference but never get a chance to read.) With an hour or so to wait (I like getting to the airport early), I decided it was high time to start reading Bride.

Last week, I decided it was high time to finish it, especially since I have some older Fear Street books in my reading queue. (Are they appropriate for the season? I have no clue.)

Bride tells the story of two sets of sisters, two doomed weddings, a mountain lodge, a squirrel stampede, books full of spells, and the Fears’ ancient feud with the Goodes. It’s a worthwhile first book for the Return to Fear Street series by Harper Teen.

The writing in Bride is clear, concise, and flows well. The characters are rich and, surprisingly, realistic. That has been a good trend with these new books; the characters are more than paper thin or very stereotypical. Harmony, the main protagonist, is likeable and believable.

Believable is also a good adjective for Bride. The dialogue is especially realistic and engaging. There are elements that are a stretch or just plain fiction—this is Fear Street, after all—but everything else is realistic and plausible.

Bride features lots of drama and misdirection. A lot of it feels like page filler, but it keeps you turning the page to find out what happens next, to get closer to the twist. The ending is a bit rushed, as if Stine thought, “Oh crap! I need to finish this in fifteen pages.” The twist and ending are unexpected, but they feel rushed.

Bride also features a number of similarities to The Shining. I don’t want to say many are glaring—I noticed some only after watching the moving recently (I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen)—but some are hard not to notice. I assume they are just fun references, but there is one element that is obvious. It tarnishes the book just a little for me.

One to the miscellany:

• I felt embarrassed when I started reading Bride that morning at LAX. I think I even tried to keep the cover out of view from everyone else. I wondered why. Was I just being too self-conscious? I’m a 36-year-old man reading young adult fiction. What does that say? I have no clue. Should I care? No! I like these books and should not feel ashamed to read them in public.

• One of my notes is, “No fatties in Shadyside.” I don’t remember why I wrote it (probably because I wrote it in May), but it does ring true. There is only one character in all the Fear Street books I’ve read that is described as chubby. There could be more, but there is only one I remember. So there are apparently no fatties in Shadyside. Perhaps they’re too busy eating to mess with Fear Street.

• Yes, there is a squirrel stampede. These books never fail to entertain.

• There are some noteworthy elements about Harmony’s characterization. Not only does she drink alcohol (she drinks wine during one scene), she’s promiscuous. She thinks about hooking up with the older guys attending her sister’s wedding, and mentions that her friend “disapproves a little of all the guys I’ve been with” (p. 281). This is a much more realistic characterization of a teenager girl (or maybe some of them), and it has been missing from the series forever. I often think about writing my own Fear Street–style series with all the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll included, all the stuff everyone knows happens and wants to read about, but Stine is getting close to doing that himself.

• As I just mentioned, Harmony gets tipsy with wine in one scene. However, in the exposition leading to the scene, she mentions drinking whiskey instead. It is no doubt a continuity issue, but it is the only one I noticed. The text of Bride is very clean, especially compared to the A Fear Street Novel series.