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A review by floralfox
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
1978: Sorority President Pamela Schumacher becomes an eyewitness to a man escaping her sorority after raping and murdering her best friend, Denise, and killing another and maiming two others. In the 4 am confusion, she briefly mistakes the man as Denise's ex, Roger, who she comes to understand once assaulted a fellow sorority sister. Despite the fact she only mentions Roger's name as her initial misreading, the police latch onto the slip and dismiss Pamela's insistence that she knows it was someone else, going on to condescendingly treat her as a nuisance. Only after Pamela is approached by a mysterious woman named Tina Cannon does she find out the true identity of the murderer: a man referred to as The Defendant for the rest of the novel, obscuring his name and revealing him for the slimy, tantrumming loser he really is, instead of the brilliant, charismatic charmer the media insists on treating him as. Together, Pamela and Tina forge a friendship based on their common grief and commitment to truth and justice.
1974: Ruth Wachowski meets Tina at a complex grief group, a place for women to process and work through their complicated feelings about the loss of someone they both loved and were hurt by. Ruth is mourning her father, but at first, we learn little about how he treated her and are exposed to her overbearing, victim-complex mother, who punishes Ruth with silence, tears, and unfair accusations. She also forces Ruth to parade around her ex-husband—a man who cheated on his wife with her when she was just 17, only to turn around and do the same thing to her with an even younger woman. Mrs. Wachowski is deeply concerned about appearances, about the image of a picture-perfect family more than doing anything to create a reality of a family bound together by love or any sort of compassion. Ruth withers in her shadow, and her ill-treatment manifests in acne and facial pocks that make her feel deeply insecure and ugly. Tina sees Ruth for who she truly is, though, and they develop a friendship that soon turns romantic. The narrative moves backward to reveal the truth about Ruth's father and as it propels Ruth forward to her untimely demise at the hands of The Defendant.
40+ years later: Pamela receives a letter that gives her hope that Tina will finally get some closure to her grief since Tina's body was never recovered.
PROS: I loved the complex, multi-layered, realistic characters. The novel was a gripping and realistic portrayal of love, loss and grief, and later-1970s mindsets and socialization regarding gender and sexuality. The backstories were well-developed and the sexism the women faced was insidiously commonplace and all too familiar. I really liked the exploration of the strained mother/daughter relationships between Ruth and Mrs. Wachowski and Pamela and Mrs. Schumacher, and the clarity that was given to the latter relationship.
CONS: The structure allows for the 1970s timelines to have references to what will happen far into the future. This sets up a lot of tension as she hints and foreshadows what the result of her mistakes will be, but I often found that what was set up didn't feel like it was executed didn't match (often in a way where the reality wasn't quite as bad as the expectation). This lead to some confusion and loss of impact. There were other places where I felt confused and had to reread, just because of wording and syntax. The present-day timeline was a little too stretched out and I often felt the explanations about the legal jurisdiction issues regarding Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Florida were a little hard to follow, too. Overall, these issues were minor, but kept me from giving the 5-star rating.
1974: Ruth Wachowski meets Tina at a complex grief group, a place for women to process and work through their complicated feelings about the loss of someone they both loved and were hurt by. Ruth is mourning her father, but at first, we learn little about how he treated her and are exposed to her overbearing, victim-complex mother, who punishes Ruth with silence, tears, and unfair accusations. She also forces Ruth to parade around her ex-husband—a man who cheated on his wife with her when she was just 17, only to turn around and do the same thing to her with an even younger woman. Mrs. Wachowski is deeply concerned about appearances, about the image of a picture-perfect family more than doing anything to create a reality of a family bound together by love or any sort of compassion. Ruth withers in her shadow, and her ill-treatment manifests in acne and facial pocks that make her feel deeply insecure and ugly. Tina sees Ruth for who she truly is, though, and they develop a friendship that soon turns romantic. The narrative moves backward to reveal the truth about Ruth's father and as it propels Ruth forward to her untimely demise at the hands of The Defendant.
40+ years later: Pamela receives a letter that gives her hope that Tina will finally get some closure to her grief since Tina's body was never recovered.
PROS: I loved the complex, multi-layered, realistic characters. The novel was a gripping and realistic portrayal of love, loss and grief, and later-1970s mindsets and socialization regarding gender and sexuality. The backstories were well-developed and the sexism the women faced was insidiously commonplace and all too familiar. I really liked the exploration of the strained mother/daughter relationships between Ruth and Mrs. Wachowski and Pamela and Mrs. Schumacher, and the clarity that was given to the latter relationship.
CONS: The structure allows for the 1970s timelines to have references to what will happen far into the future. This sets up a lot of tension as she hints and foreshadows what the result of her mistakes will be, but I often found that what was set up didn't feel like it was executed didn't match (often in a way where the reality wasn't quite as bad as the expectation). This lead to some confusion and loss of impact. There were other places where I felt confused and had to reread, just because of wording and syntax. The present-day timeline was a little too stretched out and I often felt the explanations about the legal jurisdiction issues regarding Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Florida were a little hard to follow, too. Overall, these issues were minor, but kept me from giving the 5-star rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Murder