Ted Dekker - The Bride Collector review

It's been way to long. But it seems I'm equally slow with reading as I am with writing new blog posts. Lately, I'm trying to finish Ted Dekker's The Bride Collector, but it's taking me longer then I was hopping for.

Although I've never read anything by Dekker before, except "The House" which was written by Dekker and Peretti, I was sure his books were great. Maybe because I saw the movie "Three" 2 years ago.

What starts as a great suspense thriller is somewhat watered down by the shallowness of the main character love story, in my opinion. At first, the serial killer is super smart and FBI agents can't get a single lead on his next move only to conclude that his is psyhotic thinking that he is serving God while he is actually serving the Devil by killing beautiful girls.

Paradise, who comes from a mental institution and is supposed to have powers beyond the sound mind, ends up being a "regular girl" with a low self esteem. I'm sure there should be more trauma from seeing her father killing her mother and himself while she was younger then "just" thinking "he could never love someone like me".  As the main character Brad is struggling to admit that he is falling in love with Paradise, I feel that their difference is not extreme enough. She is just not unlovable enough to make the love story a bit more dramatic. While she thinks that a guy like Brad can/will never love her, Brad doesn't think about it at all until suddenly he realizes she is beautiful, and hurt as well, from inside then all the good looking  girls he ever met.

I'm afraid that on a scale of 1 to 5, this one would end up between 2-3. I was just annoyed to much with the love story and the serial killer who converted from God's servant to devil's demon by just one sentance "maybe you are not serving God, but the Devil".

If you are Ted Dekker fan and just can't pass his books, you can get the book with another 10% by the end of May on Bookdepository, just by clicking the link above. Just enter "May11" at checkout.

Take care and read well.

D