a bridezilla and a bride killer

Tansy, Farah, Lauren. Saskia, and Domenica became fast friends in grade school, and they have stuck together through good times and bad. They all have their secrets, and as they move into a season with two weddings between them all, those secrets will start leaking out and making trouble for them all.

Farah got engaged to her boyfriend after dating for many years, and she was excited to finally plan her wedding. After waiting so long, she wants to make sure that her wedding is perfect, from the bachelorette party to the ceremony. So she plans a getaway to Ibiza for her bridesmaids, and she can’t wait to have a perfect weekend with them.

But as Farah was making her perfect plans, Tansy showed up and announced that she had gotten engaged. She’d only been seeing him a few months, but she was going to get married right away, and she planned a bachelorette weekend at a wellness camp, the weekend before Farah’s bachelorette weekend in Ibiza. Farah resents her for that, but there is nothing she can do. To be the happier bride, Farah has to be gracious.

Saskia was the first in the group to get married, and now she’s a trying to start a business as a professional event planner, so Tansy asked her to help plan the wedding, and she is annoying them all with the group texts and imperious attitude. Domenica is an attorney with powerful clients going through expensive divorces. She is strong and independent and resents Saskia for giving up on her dreams and becoming a wife and mother to someone she believes is not worthy of her. Lauren works at a cosmetics company and feels like the others don’t think much of her job. She’s been in love with Farah’s brother since high school and still carries a torch for him even though he ended their relationship and is dating a younger woman named Eva.

Eva and Tansy became fast friends after Farah introduced them, so Tansy has invited Eva to be part of her wedding and, of course, to come to the bachelorette weekend. Eva is a content creator, so she was able to get Tansy some of the things for her wedding for free or at a discount, like this alcohol-free, organic wellness weekend. But when Tansy has an allergic reaction during the cacao ceremony, a search for her EpiPen yields nothing. Tansy is dead, but was it intention, or just a cruel accident?

It’s not until Farah’s modified bachelorette weekend that the women know for sure, because a friend of Saskia’s who was with them is poisoned. At that point, the police are certain that it’s murder. All of the women in the friend group have their secrets, but which one of them would kill to keep those secrets? And as the women become more anxious about their safety (and for Farah, about her wedding), will they all survive? Or will there be more killings before it’s all over?

You May Now Kill the Bride is a darkly comedic look at bridezillas and old friends, at the secrets that hold friend groups together and the ones that rip them apart. It asks the question, what if one of your ride-or-dies turns to killing to keep their secrets, and the answer is not at all what you would expect.

I enjoyed reading You May Now Kill the Bride, but there were times I struggled to keep all the characters straight in my head. And many of them, if not all of them, come across in the beginning as very unlikable. But as I got to know them more and find out about their backgrounds, it was easier to see the good in them too, so I started to root for them. It did take some time though. I think anyone who grew up in a tight group will see some of their own friends in these women, and may feel a stronger tug towards how they interact. And those of us who don’t can see the inner workings of the group and see what we missed out on.

Egalleys for You May Now Kill the Bride were provided by Random House Trade Paperbacks through NetGalley, with many thanks.