You May Now Kill the Bride

"Two sisters, divided by time. Each with a terrible resentment she can barely contain.

Two Fear family weddings, decades apart... Each bride will find that the ancient curse that haunts the Fears LIVES ON. It feeds off the evil that courses through their blood. It takes its toll in unexpected ways, and allows dark history to repeat itself."

R.L. Stine has been on of my favorite authors since I was a kid, so he can't do any wrong in my eyes! But even if he weren't one of my faves, I still would have given this book 4 stars. The only reasons I couldn't give it 5 stars is because I wasn't fond of any of the male characters (except for Max, he sounds adorable) and the lack of a resolution regarding some of the family members. In the last few show more chapters, nothing is said about the rest of the family as if they just ceased to exist, so I found that to be a little weird; however, it didn't completely take away from the ending/wrap-up.

The book is divided into four parts. Part one is set in the 1920s and focuses on two Fear sisters: Rebecca and Ruth-Ann. Rebecca is the pretty, sociable sister, while Ruth-Ann is the younger, shy sister. Ruth-Ann is hung up on her boyfriend, Peter Goodman, but she later finds out that he was cheating with Rebecca and had proposed to her. Of course, the inevitable cat fight ensues, only resolving on the day of Rebecca's wedding. The sisters make up and the wedding begins only to end in a double tragedy.

Fast forward to part two and present day, and we have another set of Fear sisters: Marissa & Harmony. The girls have a rocky relationship due to an incident that is revealed later in the book. But the girls are putting their differences aside because Marissa is getting married the next day. The day of the wedding comes and goes without a actually wedding. Marissa is missing. We assume she got cold feet but that assumptions is quickly squashed.

Part three details the search for Marissa and the revealing of another tragedy. We discover some more of the family history. Part four, of course, concludes the story: we find out what happened to Marissa, happened to cause the original 1920s incident, and how Harmony goes back and fixes everything.

I would recommend for those who like a little paranormal with their mysteries and/or those who would like to relive a bit of their childhood with the greatness that is R.L. Stine. show less

This DID NOT END how I expected and gosh am I happy.

As are the Fears. You heard me. FEAR CHILDREN ARE HAPPY. What universe is this?? A Fear chose peace over evil! Love over revenge (ok well not quite).

My brain doesn't know how to process this and I'm quite frankly PLEASED by how this turned out.

There's some minor spoilers below, with any major ones behind an actual spoiler tag.

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Y'all know how upset I was about the majority of the "Fear Street Relaunch" titles*, like to the point that I called into question my very sanity for continuing to read them (then again I continue to read Sara Craven romances and ho-boy do they hurt my brain). So I was...skeptical about this one. Even with the nostalgic cover (which I do approve of) and the show more inclusion of the actual Fear family doing actual Fear family things I wasn't sure this would go down well.

I was so prepared to be angry I had a box of goldfish at my side to throw at my kindle.

So see my surprised face when, despite some minor continuity problems and character motivation weirdness I was really really enjoying this book.

Picture this: you're a Fear kid - honest to goodness child of the Family Fear who is very aware of how EVIL your ancestors were, of how much DARKNESS your family brings to everyone they know and how ACURSED the entire family seems to be no matter what they do. Your reaction? To of course dabble with all that Dark Arts of the Fear Family to play hijinks on your somewhat estranged older sister during her not exactly happy wedding.

This is after possibly ruining her life a year ago when you kind of sort of accidentally made mincemeat of her boyfriend's hand after getting somewhat tipsy and flinging yourself at him for a kiss which he rejected.

Guys we definitely got ourselves a Fear kid here. Harmony Fear embodies literally everything wrong with the Fear Family while still giving me a surprising ending that left me smiling. She's cool with manipulating people, judging them on their appearance, wrecking folks' lives for petty revenge, using the Dark Arts of the Fear Family to enact even pettier acts of perceived slights and in general giving the finger to wholesome (or even polite) attitudes.

Oh and she likes to build cabinets in her basement because she's really good with woodworking. this random bit of info shoved in our faces brought to you by the fact its important to know when she accidentally makes mincemeat of her sister's boyfriend's hand but has no real actual bearing on her personality otherwise

You see Harmony is sort of jealous of her perfect golden child older sister. They're not close, but they're not really enemies - well they weren't until last year when Harmony DID THAT THING and ruined Marissa's life for like point 2 seconds. After doing some minor dark spells to liven things up and freak out the guests/her family, Harmony resolves to do better by her sister and help her because in the end she really loves her.

Then Marissa disappears and immediately the patriarch of the family (who also used to dabble in the Dark Arts of the Fear Family, in his youth at least) accuses her of doing something. you see the venue for Marissa's magical day is CURSED. Nearly 100 years earlier another set of sisters - alike in jealousy and inability to emphasize with each other - died thanks to the Goode Family scion sneaking his way into the affections of BOTH daughters and this led to their death. For reasons.

Mad props to Stine for bringing back that old Goode Family feud. Demerits for making it too convoluted to be useful.

The first part of the book is actually written with the 1923 Fear Sisters as the main focal point. Then we jack-knife to the present day and let me tell you there is nothing more jarring then reading a very nostalgic feeling/sounding/written Fear Street novel that includes modern every day things like Twitter.

There's your typical red herrings that occurred, as well as "omg is this supernatural or just the case of overly creepy humans taking advantage of the fact the Fear Family has a lot of superstition and dark secrets in their history" bits plus the ubiquitous ending each chapter on a OMG WHAT DID YOU DO sort of exclamation that makes you think someone is hacking up kittens while eating puppies but really is just they wore black and blue together with brown boots.

In the end though Harmony did something that surprised me. While we've had other Fear Family members do the right thing in the past. Not all of them were the Root of all Evil in Shadyside. They usually found themselves either stuck in the same curse as the Evil Ones (and eventually becoming Evil themselves, sorry Sarah Fear) or being killed in service to the Evil Ones, but some of them did do honest to goodness GOOD things. Law of Ratios. Harmony, who I twigged as being on the road to Evil Fear Status with a gleeful cackle and jaunty wave...took a left turn and did the right thing out of LOVE.

But the ending doesn't really hang together when you think about it ok so Robby's girlfriend was really with Aiden, Marissa's ex who Harmony maimed so horrifically a year ago and together they were plotting and scheming to destroy the Fear Family (as most people attempt to do if they live in Shadyside long enough). Cool. My question is, how did Harmony going back in time to save the 1923 Fear Sisters prevent the murders of the present day so that Marissa could have her happy day? Aiden's entire motive was tied to Harmony destroying his future. Literally that was the ENTIRE REASON that he was coming at the Fear Family. It had nothing to do with the 1923 Fear Sisters or the Goode Family Curse on the Fears or hell that the Fears are the root of most evil doings in Shadyside. That entire plotline was basically a HUGE RED HERRING. Also was Aiden dead? If the only reason why Marissa was able to disappear/reappear (as well as the 1923 Fear Sisters) was because of the Goode Family Curse on the Fears...why did Aiden seemingly do the same thing? am I thinking about this too hard? Probably.

I can recommend this though for a fun, quick paced way to spend an afternoon. Please Mr. Stine - please continue like this and don't go back to the worst of the Relaunch titles (looking at you GIVE A K-I-L-L).

*need a refresher? Here you go:
GIVE ME A K-I-L-L review
The Dead boyfriend review
Can You Keep a Secret? review
The Lost Girl review
Don't Stay Up Late review
Party Games review show less

(This review will be on my blog All the Ups and Downs soon).

I was a huge R.L. Stine fan back when I was in school. I was constantly reading every book I could read by R.L. Stine. I credit him with my love of horror books. Anyway, when I heard R.L. Stine was writing new Fear Street books, I had to read them! The first in this series is You May Now Kill the Bride. I absolutely loved it!

The pacing for You May Now Kill the Bride is fantastic! This book really was a page turner. I found myself not wanting to put it down. Each page had me hungry for me.

I really enjoyed the plot of You May Now Kill the Bride. Part of this story takes places in 1924 where we learn about the Fear/Goode curse. A Fear wedding takes place, but it really doesn't show more good as planned and tragedy ensues. The other part of the story takes place in present day. Another Fear wedding is about to take place, but it doesn't happen because the bride has gone missing. Will this Fear wedding end in tragedy as well? There were a few plot twists which I really enjoyed even if a couple of the plot twists were somewhat predictable. Even though You May Now Kill the Bride is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. There were no cliffhangers at the end of the book, and all of my questions were answered.

R.L. Stine did an amazing job with the world building like always. I always felt like I was part of the story. Even though this is a work of fiction, everything felt real. I found myself even holding my breath at the most climactic parts of You May Now Kill the Bride.

I felt that all the characters in You May Now Kill the Bride were fleshed out very well. I enjoyed all the characters very much. My favorite character was Ruth-Ann. It was hard not to like her as I could really relate to her on a personal level. However, all the characters were interesting to read about even the minor characters. Most of the story is told in first person from Harmony's point of view. While I did find Harmony annoying right at first, I quickly ended up liking her.

Trigger warnings for You May Now Kill the Bride include magic, the occult, murder/death, and minor violence. There's also one scene where a character hurts their hand which isn't overly graphic, but those who are a bit squeamish may not like it too much. There's also another scene about a body being found after being found at the bottom of a cliff. The description isn't very graphic, but some may find it unsettling.

Overall, You May Now Kill the Bride was such a really good and quick read. The plot is fantastic, and the characters are written very well. Fans of R.L. Stine will truly love this story especially those that loved the original Fear Street series. I would definitely recommend You May Now Kill the Bride by R.L. Stine to everyone aged 15 . It was so good! show less

This novel read like Fear Street fanfiction written by a middle schooler so there's that.

I mean, it's R.L. Stine.