Pentapod reviewed The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Review of 'The Robber Bride' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The Robber Bride is a sort of gender reversal of the Brothers Grimm story "The Robber Bridegroom," in which an evil bluebeard type character lures three brides to their doom and eats them. Three very different women (Tony, Roz, and Charis) all meet a fourth dark, mysterious, and compelling "robber bride" character (Zenia) while they're all at university. Zenia befriends them all separately, preys on their various weaknesses, and tricks them out of money, and finally seduces then throws away each of their significant others. She then vanishes and the book picks up in the 90s, some decades later.
Through the book we flash back to each of the three friends, learning about their troubled childhoods, how they met and were manipulated by Zenia (apparently a pathological liar), how each of the men in their lives left, obsessed with her, and then how each of the three have dealt with …
The Robber Bride is a sort of gender reversal of the Brothers Grimm story "The Robber Bridegroom," in which an evil bluebeard type character lures three brides to their doom and eats them. Three very different women (Tony, Roz, and Charis) all meet a fourth dark, mysterious, and compelling "robber bride" character (Zenia) while they're all at university. Zenia befriends them all separately, preys on their various weaknesses, and tricks them out of money, and finally seduces then throws away each of their significant others. She then vanishes and the book picks up in the 90s, some decades later.
Through the book we flash back to each of the three friends, learning about their troubled childhoods, how they met and were manipulated by Zenia (apparently a pathological liar), how each of the men in their lives left, obsessed with her, and then how each of the three have dealt with the aftermath. It doesn't sound extremely gripping but it's very well written and I had trouble putting the book down once I got into it. The three women are very well described and all have interesting, unique personalities and backgrounds. Zenia herself remains a mystery; she tells every character in the book a different story about her origins and background so it's never clear what's real about her and what's not. The book is mostly about how the three friends react and deal with Zenia, rather than the direct actions of Zenia herself.
I liked the characters of the three friends; I did find them a little dated feeling, particularly in regard to the marriages/partnerships however. The three men in the book who Zenia captivates seem very shallow and lifeless and it's hard to feel that the three friends should be particularly sorry to lose them; and none of the couples seem to have any ability to communicate with their partners at all, which makes these relationships seem very shallow. Still, an interesting read.
There's also a short story in "The Stone Mattress" collection that follows up on the three friends some time after the end of this book.
