A review by spicycronereads
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Ack! Audiobook loan expired before I finished! So I ended up listening to most of this book and then having a pretty long gap between when I heard the last two hours or so. Thinking back to my initial listen and thoughts, I didn’t really find the characters likable. There was enough of a mystery to keep me engaged though.

It’s a thriller with no romance elements. The story is narrated from two points of view over multiple time periods. So that gets a little confusing. And then at the end suddenly there’s a male narrator which really felt like it came out of left field. A lot of the narrative hinges on women bonding together over the violence done by men and forming support networks among systems that failed them.

In terms of diversity there are a few lesbian characters. No racial diversity that I can tell. And obviously no spice or swooniness. 

Overall, it was an entertaining listen. The mystery of how everything fit together and the larger themes of society failing women were pretty engaging. Don’t know that I’ll ever need to listen to it or read it again.
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