A Kiss Before Dying, by Ira Levin

[rachelmanija]

A classic noir novel by the author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives.

A handsome young sociopathic decides to set himself up by romancing and marrying a young woman with a rich father; unfortunately, this plan depends on him not getting her pregnant until after they’re safely married. When he gets her pregnant before she’s even told her father he exists, he has only two choices: abortion or murder. The former proves difficult…

That’s just the first third of this perfect little thriller, which has a great narrative voice and a plot with the intricacy and neatness of an expensive pocket watch. It has a number of plot twists, several of which are genuinely surprising and which I have not seen imitated before. It’s less dated than it is a snapshot in time, and a quite atmospheric one at that. I read it in an evening, which I recommend as it’s short and also the sort of book where every little detail is going to turn out to be relevant.

This has been filmed twice; please don’t spoil me for how the movies changed things, as I either haven’t seen them or don’t remember them, and now I want to see them.

I particularly enjoyed the revelation of who Bud Corliss was and how neatly that was set up, the bit where you know the narrator has to be one of two men but you have no idea which, the schadenfreude and “how’s he going to get out of this?” of his panic after mailing a fake suicide note and then discovering his murder victim has failed to actually die, the sheer chutzpah of him methodically going after all three sisters, and the ending where the incident with the Japanese soldier that was mentioned on the very first page comes full circle, with him stepping into his very first victim’s shoes.

A Kiss Before Dying

Comments

[kore]

Stephen King has a hilarious rant on people who turn to the last page to see HOW IT ALL CAME OUT (uh, guilty) and how Kiss Before Dying cockblocks them, because the screeching bombshell twist happens like 1/3 of the way in and you have to read it all to get it.

....man, I dunno if you want to see the 1991 film (Matt Dillon, Sean Young). Without spoiling, it was just sort of blah yet terrible.

[sovay]

A classic noir novel by the author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives.

Okay, that does sound relevant to my interests.

[kore]

....oh wow, it was his first novel, published when he was TWENTY-FIVE. Fucking brat.

[cyphomandra]

I had not in fact read this one (I’ve read Stepford and Rosemary’s Baby, possibly Boys from Brazil) but I just clicked over to see if the library had this on reading your review above the cut and now I’m just starting Ellen’s section :D I am avoiding reading everything else in your entry and the comments but will return, assuming I don’t expire from tension first...

[cahn]

Holy cow. This post is the reason I was immersed in this book basically all of today when I wasn't doing other things.

That TWIST, omg.

V sryg FB ONQ sbe nyy gur fvfgref. Va fbzr frafr cnegvphyneyl gur ynfg bar. V zrna, V thrff va fbzr cerggl boivbhf jnlf vg'f abg nf onq sbe ure, ohg pna lbh vzntvar ubj fperjrq hc ure urnq vf tbvat gb or nobhg eryngvbafuvcf nsgre guvf??

Nyfb, guvf cebonoyl zrnaf V unir fbzr fbpvbcngu va zr, ohg V jnf gbgnyyl vagevthrq ol ubj ur jbhyq trg njnl jvgu uvf cynaf. Naq ur nyzbfg qvq! Juvpu jnf cneg bs gur nccrny, V guvax -- vs ur'q orra pnhtug orpnhfr bs uvf pneryrffarff, engure guna Tnag orvat n enaqbz fgebxr bs yhpx ur pbhyqa'g pbageby, vg jbhyqa'g unir orra fb jrveqyl snfpvangvat gb jngpu uvz tb.

[carbonel]

I haven't read this one because I normally skip past horror and thriller genre (suspense makes my stomach hurt) novels, but I have an unreasonable fondness for This Perfect Day, an SF novel also by Levin, even though it has serious flaws.

Jo Walton wrote a review of it, and the first comment below it is from me.