Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Bright Young Women

Bright Young Women takes the victims of a serial killer and breathes much needed life back into their stories. There have been countless stories of the defendant told throughout the years, and we have all heard his name. Until now the stories of his victims hadn't been told.

We mainly follow the story of Denise, a college student at Florida State who was brutally murdered by the defendant. Instead of glorifying him for being mediocre, this narrative shines a bright interrogation light directly on his incompetence and all the careless police work that led to his success. Our main POV is told from Pamela, who was best friends with Denise. Pamela is articulate, ambitious, and smart, yet somehow her narrative wasn't believed by police or press over the defendant.

The misogyny of law and victim blaming is alarming. The prose holds a primary tone of accountability with undertones of feminine rage. I loved every minute of getting to know the sorority girls as they were, HE has had enough fame. It's their story now.

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samspur's review against another edition

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dark inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Ugh, throw away all the men in this book. They were written so beautifully ugly. It took me awhile to realize this was based on a true story. I think naming the villain the defendant was a good choice. It took away any celebrity status they had. Overall a really good mystery with perspectives from sapphic women.

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themis_biblos's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I have such mixed feelings about this. The idea, the writing, the discussions it provokes should all be five stars. However:
1. In the acknowledgements Knoll thanks Kathy Kleiner Rubin, giving the impression that Knoll spoke to her and had her permission to tell this, albeit fictional, story. I've since seen people allegedly close to Kathy saying that that never happened. I'm sceptical - if that's true, Rubin's name surely wouldn't have made it into the acknowledgements? I don't know.
2. I loved, loved, loved the way Knoll discusses what a pathetic man The Defendant in reality was - contrary to how he was and continues to be portrayed, what the women (both those who survived and those who didn't) went through - not just on the night it happened, but after in the news, in the courtroom, in the public. How they were judged, written and gossipped about without their consent or input. However - why then did Knoll choose to write about them yet again, even if in this case the focus was on the women? She could have made it entirely fictional and it still would have hit.
3. A minor detail: It drove me up the wall how Knoll had the characters speak through their body language, but then always explained what gestures meant in italics right after!

But all that said, I was still impressed and moved and sad.

"They just don't want her to get hysterical," I said in the family's defense. Tina scoffed. "And so? What's wrong with being hysterical? It's a hysterical thing that happened."

I'd been asked to go over it so many times already that I was starting to feel like certain aspects of my story were more hindrance than help, that I ought to simplify it. No one tells you that the truest stories are the messy, unwieldy ones, that you will be tempted to trim in the places that make people scratch their heads. It takes fortitude to remain a true and constant witness, and I did.

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burnourhistory's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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mothie_girlie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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bookishevy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

January 15th, 1978, president of the top sorority at Florida State University Pamela Schumacher is startled awake at 3am by a sound she decides to investigate. She discovers four of her sisters badly injured, two would succumb to their injuries, inficted by a serial killer who escaped prison in Aspen, Colorado. Pamela soon meets Tina Cannon, a young woman whose friend Ruth Wachowsky went missing four years prior. Tina believes the man responsible for the sorority murders is the same one who took her friend.

The story is told from the perspectives of Pamela and Ruth. Pamela's is from the present when she receives a letter summoning her return to Florida and through flashbacks. Ruth's is from winter 1974 until her disappearance that summer and provides insight into how unhappy she was before meeting Tina.

Inspired by true events, the novel's name comes from the judge, who called Ted Bundy a "bright young man," which is ridiculous because the only thing Bundy had going for him was that he was a white male. Pamela often points out that The Defendent's (how Knoll refers to Bundy here to keep the focus on his victims and their families) good looks and intelligence are exaggerated.

He was able to carry out this final killing spree due to the ineptitude of law endorsement in Colorado. It made officers look less incompetent to paint him as this slippery genius, and the press was just as complicit in his glamorization.

It's up to Pamela and Tina to do what the men in charge of the investigation failed to do.

Ruth put her own happiness aside to appease her mother. The Defendent targeted young women because they are conditioned to please others. While reading Ruth's heartbreaking account, I was reminded of the killer's monologue in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher's version) when he tells Mikael "It's hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain. But you know what? It is. And they always come willingly."

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lollymac's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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hanhantap's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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