Book Blog: What I’m Reading

The Bridesmaid: Ruth Rendell

Rating: 4.5 stars

May 1, 2009

If there is such a thing as a bad Ruth Rendell book, I’ve never come across it. She writes the most perfectly-realized, absolutely believable characters; even when they’re batshit crazy, you can understand their thought process. Senta, the bridesmaid of the title, is indeed one of the batshit crazy ones — and yet it’s believable that Philip, the protagonist, would fall heedlessly in love with her, telling himself that she’s eccentric rather than a bunny-boiling loon. This, of course, is why everyone should distrust the Manic Pixie Dream Girl types, because there is a very fine line between endearingly wacky and padded-cell scary, and it’s hard to see that line until it’s too late.

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