Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy of this book.

I think it was a timing thing for me, because I read the first 1/3 of this book and found it extremely boring. I just couldn't get into it. So I have to set it aside for now. I may come back to it another time - it has many 5 star reviews.

On a muggy night in 1978, a Florida State University sorority girl decides to not go out with her friends—a decision that saves her life. In the early morning, Pamela investigates a noise in the house, sees a man leaving, and discovers a brutal crime. With her sorority sisters brutally murdered, Pamela finds herself in the deadly web of one of the most prolific serial killers in history.

On the opposite side of the country, Tina believes the man responsible for her best friend’s disappearance is the same man who committed the murders in Florida. Tina’s search for justice will takes her on a journey that unites her and Pamela in a shared goal.

Bright Young Women is the latest from Jessica Knoll (Luckiest Girl Alive). While it’s quite apparent that Ted Bundy is the killer, Bright Young Women is a unique story in that Knoll doesn’t specifically name him, a technique to ensure the focus of this book is the two ladies who are bonded together over their shared tragedies. Knoll has done a fantastic job in ensuring the reader is absorbed into every aspect of this story. From the anticipatory chaos of the sorority house as the students prepare for a night out, to the gut-wrenching, enduring grief both Tina and Pamela endure, every emotion is palpable and the anticipation intense.

Bright Young Women is available now.

*I received a copy of from Simon Element and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

You know when you watch a movie and you were emotionally rooting for the hero/heroine? That was me while reading this.
Yes, honestly it was harrowing plot and this is based on Ted Bundy's spree. I liked how Jessica Knoll wrote this without making that guy the main focus and romanticizing him. Because honestly, many writers who try to have a book loosely based on serial killers make the SKs the central point of it all and not the victims.

Good plot but just kind of had some loose threads in between. still got my attention tho.

3.5

Yes! Jessica Knoll has become an auto read author. Loving her style! Give this one all the stars and jump in!! Thank for allowing me to read an advanced copy!

A novel about young women affected by the heinous crimes ofTed Bundy in the 1970’s— and their mission to assure that he is convicted and punished. The premise enticed me and for the most part the complex story kept me interested and engaged. The novel’s theme is advertised as showing how extraordinary the women are and, in actuality, how unremarkable was Ted Bundy in intellect, despite popular belief. Author Knoll skillfully depicted him as simply a liar, an opportunist, and a psychopath. Many additional messages surfaced though, such as about family dynamics, and specifically about mothers’ expectations and shortcomings. There was a lot to process as the saga unfolded. With numerous timelines and characters, the book required careful attention. I also read that the author researched the killer’s cases and history extensively, and so I sometimes wondered-and wanted to know- if certain incidents and details she related were factual, or created fiction.

I appreciate receiving an Advance Reader Copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley. All ideas and opinions in the review are my own.

This was a big anticipated read for me. I love fiction based on true crime. This book was so well written and the ties to each of the characters is so complex. Following the stories of the victims (including survivors living through it) was so fascinating. Highly suggest this read to anyone who is a crime junkie. Thank you to Jessica Knoll and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

How do you not have mixed feelings about this? Here are some real people with their lives and horrors being retold. Are they being celebrated in a weird way? Are they being hijacked and sensationalized? As someone who actually remembers the capture, trial, and execution of Bundy, I found this exploitive. I wanted to see it as empowering but I couldn’t get there. These are real people. There was an attmept to memorialize them. I don’t know how successful it was. I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know how this will hold up.

This novel gripped me from the first chapter and didn’t let go until the very end. I like how the author put the emphasis on the victims of this fictionalized take on a true crime.

I definitely recommend it when it's published next month. It's a fictionalized version of Ted Bundy's killings with the focus on two women who are connected through it. I really enjoy how it's an original story based on truth while somehow not exploiting the real life tragedy. I also enjoy how Bundy's name is only mentioned once in the book which puts the focus on the victims instead of the killer.

Highly recommend.

"Bright Young Woman" follows the survivor of a vicious attack on her sorority house by a serial killer and her fight for justice.

It's partially my fault I wasn't a fan of this one. It wasn't super clear to me this was going to be pretty much fact-for-fact based on Ted Bundy, including using exact scenarios and some of the names of the women he murdered. It's supposed to be part of the discussion in true crime spaces now of centering the voices of the victims of crime (particularly women), as opposed to the killers themselves, but it undermines that by using real-life murders and just replacing very real people with fictional characters. That doesn't exactly give those real women voices in the narrative, and actually is just using their lives and experiences as plot points. Not that Knoll should have used the real women's names, either. The whole thing just feels like it's trying to be a part of this moment in how we as a society handle the problem of true crime, revictimization, and exploitation, but it was startlingly off-base in its approach in using real murders to do it. It's just not making the statement I think it wants to make, in my opinion.

She could have written this book with a fully fictional killer and fictional victims and it would have been a completely different story for how I felt about it ethically. Because of my own feelings about true crime, this one just wasn't for me.

READ. THIS. BOOK.

This book offers a perspective on Ted Bundy that was much needed. Bright Young Women is inspired by his attack on the sorority house; although the serial killer is actually never named in the book. I think that was my favorite part about it. Instead, the sole focus of this book is on the victims; how their lives were tragically cut short and how that can affect those around them in ways that luckily most of us cannot imagine.

Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, made the decision to stay in and catch up on work instead of going out with her friends that night. That decision ended up changing everything for her, and it was the reason she survived. This book was written from two different perspectives and skips around from present day to the past. It was easy to follow and to get lost in the story. Jessica Knoll does an amazing job of portraying the shock and emotion that those involved had endured. After reading this book my thoughts on this case have shifted in a way I would not have expected.

I highly recommend this one! It was fast-paced, very interesting and the overall message of the book is important. Why does the media and law enforcement paint a false picture of a ‘bright young man’ who did bad things— when really he was average at best and bad throughout? The lives he took were those of bright futures, and those are the lives worth mentioning.

Jessica Knoll has done her research to bring us a fictionalized account of the events surrounding Ted Bundy's crimes and capture. I had to keep going back to the description to make sure this was really fiction, because as the author flips between the accounts of the witness (Pamela) and victim (Ruth), it sounds like a true account of the actual crimes.

But what really impressed me was the way Knoll took the story of Bundy as an educated, witty, and handsome ("Kennedy of Killers") celebrity and showed him as a divisive, ignorant, and small man, whose obsessive need to kill made him the ugliest of criminals.

Jessica has taken a story that captured the TV's, news and minds of so many of us as we learned about one of the most prolific serial killers of our time, and shown us the humanity of the victims and the people who loved them.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon Element, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for an arc of this fascinating title.

Bright Young Women
Written By Jessica Knoll
Published By Simon Element
Release Date September 19, 2023
Genre Mystery/ Thriller True Crime



WOW! This is a very well written and researched novel that captivated me from the beginning. It can be hard sometimes to adequately describe the way a book about actual events has been put together because of the work that the author puts into it. I look at the whole picture and not just how the authors words created the story to be told. There is so much work that goes into a book like this and the author does a brilliant job of ensuring the reader gets the whole picture.

Ted Buddy wreaked havoc on on the country when he took bright and beautiful women and raped and then ultimately killed most of them. January 1978 takes a terrible turn when sorority president Pamela Schumacher at Florida State University in Tallahassee Florida wakes up to the sight of someone running from the house and sees the most horrible sight one can see. Several of her roommates were brutally attacked and killed.

Then the book shifts to Seattle WA where we met Ruth Wachowsky who will also become a victim of Ted Buddy. Ruth befriends Tina Cannon who after the disappearance of her friend Ruth, decides she is going to search for answers. While Tina is focused on finding Ruth, she learns about Pamela who is living in Florida. It is at this time that the author switches between present time and the mid 70’s.

The author does a wonderful job of building up the story to show the reader how Bundy took the lives of the young women and the way that women ultimately took him down. This is a good book for fans of true crime as well as thrillers.


4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

I moved to WA long after serial killer Ted Bundy had been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, but he was still on everyone’s mind. The stories I heard! Those accounts were mostly of people who’d crossed paths with him, but they somehow shone a light on the killer. 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡 by Jessica Knoll takes the spotlight off of Bundy and places it where it belongs, on his victims.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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The story is told by two women, but features three. Pamela, the president of the Florida State University where two of his killings occurred, has the biggest voice covering 1978 right up until the present. Ruth, one of his “victims” in Washington, gives us a perspective of how a life can be rolling along looking bright, and then suddenly be over. Both Pamela and Ruth have ties to Tina, a woman determined to find this killer and see justice prevail.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I liked the way the story unfolded, moving around in time to get a full picture of the strength these women possessed. I also appreciate when I have some familiarity with a story, but then get to experience how an author puts it together in their own way. Jessica Knoll did that very well, and yet I’m also uncomfortable with one of her choices. All the victims in the story were 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 closely based on the real women involved, many even using their actual names. All, but Ruth. She was completely fictionalized until her murder, which was exactly the same as that of one of Bundy’s final Washington victims. Why wasn’t that vitcim’s true story worth telling? (𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 @ataleoftwolitties 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.) It was an odd inconsistency that continues to nag at me and cooled my rating just a bit. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WOW! What a book! I couldn't get enough of it. Jessica Knoll gives the other side of the famous serial killer story-the people left behind. It's very much based on the true story,, though names have been changed. She weaves several timelines together, the 1978 story where Pamela, a sorority sister to several of the FSU women killed, goes on day by day fighting for justice for her friends, the 1974 time period where a young woman named Ruth is finding her way in the world, learning about herself and how to be happy before being murdered in the Seattle area, and the present day story where Pamela continues to seek justice for Ruth, along with Ruth's friend Tina. There's a lot going on, but it works. It's scary and unsettling, and I love how the author only mentions the name Ted once in the whole book. This is going to be a best seller, I can tell!

I will start off by saying I am not very learned in the true crime world, so I wasn’t familiar with the story that was based on. But the writing is solid, the story flows well, it was addicting and empowering. It’s just very dark, with lots of triggers.

I liked the topic and subject matter of the book, I’ve always liked true crime and crime fiction is usually worthy read as well.
The first couple of chapters failed to grab me. I couldn’t understand why Pamela wasn’t grasping what had really occurred or why she didn’t go investigate when she heard thumps and bumps.
I didn’t connect with the story or the character which is a shame.

An interesting blend of true crime and psychological thriller- set in the late 70s- a unique representation of violence against women. From the author of Luckiest Girl Alive, Jessica Knoll is making a name for herself with her captivating writing style and strong female characters.

*Thank you to the published and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this book & its unique take on the true crime genre. While I did find some parts to be slow, I was interested in Pamela’s story.

I do wish there would have been more of a distinction between this book being more true crime or more a work of fiction - the lines were blurred for me.

I’m curious on the authors research to adequately tell the story of what happened with the murders at FSU and if the story telling in this book did justice for the victims families.

I will, however, definitely be trying more books by this author in the future!

I just finished reading Bright Young Women thanks again to Net Galley. I truly appreciate the opportunity to be able to read these books and giving my opinion before their release or shortly thereafter.

This book was a fairly easy read, but it did take me a little bit of time to remember who was who, as far as the characters. But the characters were intriguing to me. I did not love this book, but it wasn’t boring and I enjoyed reading it.

I really wanted to read this book because I grew up in the 80’s and in Oregon. I was born in 1975 and I remember this serial killer being in the news and see his smiling arrogant face as a kid. I remember reading about what he did in Florida too. I remember my mother talking about him and watching the tv THAT early morning in Florida. This book brought back some memories for me.

The book intertwines two women lives, Pamela and Tina, who meet under terrible circumstances. The book goes back and forth between the late 70’s and present time, which I really liked because the reader really gets the details of the victims in the story. And yes, parts of this book are true or based on real live events, but some of the characters storylines or details are not.

Whether the storylines of some of the characters were total fiction or not, they felt real and it’s what kept me reading. I already knew the ending for the killer, but connecting with the characters was what kept me going. It didn’t feel like just another fictional thriller/suspense story.

If you like true crime and fiction, but with very real emotions and bonds of strong female characters then you will enjoy this book.