This novel starts off in a most dramatic way - it’s 1978, and one night in the middle of the night, sorority president Pamela wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a man fleeing the house - only to discovery he has just brutally attacked multiple of her housemates. The book follows the aftermath, along with Pam’s perspective in the present day when she hears from someone from that long ago time. And there are also chapters set in 1974, from the perspective of Ruth, who we know from the start will go on to become another suspected victim of this man.

The book is inspired by and roughly based on real victims of the infamous Ted Bundy, who was one of the first celebrity serial killers. But his name is never uttered in the book, rather Pamela refers to him solely as “the Defendant.” Like Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution or Clemence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant, rather than glamorizing the serial killer, the book seeks to put the spotlight on the nameless female victims of such killers. And this one additionally makes some very cogent points about how women’s voices were dismissed in the search for the killer and his prosecution.

While there are only a few scary scenes in the book and the violence is not gratuitous, the whole book just sort of oozes a feeling of creepiness and menace. Indeed, it was dark enough that I couldn’t read it in bed because it made it too hard for me to go to sleep; I had to switch to a different book at night while I was reading it! And if you, like me, are sensitive, I recommend not googling Ted Bundy - I couldn’t even read his whole Wikipedia page because it was just so disturbing.

This book is excellent and extremely well-written, but definitely is one that is going to haunt me - both the book itself and the notion that it was based on a real person who was just so psychopathically evil.

4.5 stars

Bright Young Women was a provocative and enthralling look at one of the most famous serial killer cases in the US. Centering the women affected by this tragedy was poignant and I loved the devices the author employed to downplay the perpetrator and some of the most salacious details of the case. If you are a fan of true crime and also recognize its inherently exploitative nature, this book is for you.

This extremely well written novel chronicles the life of Pamela, the president of the sorority at FSU where Ted Bundy murdered 2 women and bludgeoned 2 others. Pamela has never forgotten that horrific evening, and she has never stopped fighting for justice. Interwoven info Pamela’s story is the story of Ruth, another of Bundy’s victims, living in WA and charting her own course in life. Bundy is only mentioned by name one time, at the very end of the novel, to center this story wholly on the women. We get to know them, we get to see their families and what their futures would have looked like, and we only know The Defendant as a monster—just as it should be. This book is horrifying, but it is also so well done, and if you loved Notes on an Execution or The Quiet Tenant, this is for you.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

You know of him, but this is a tale of the victims and the survivors. Taking on one of the most notorious serial killers without ever mentioning his name is a pretty daunting task. I would want to call out his name at every moment, but that just adds to his infamy. I liked it, but I guess I was wishing for a little more thrill. I feel bad saying it, but for me it’s true.

PS: It’s Ted Bundy and the FSU XO murders

Themes: 🔪👯‍♀️🏫💥⚖️

My thoughts: 🥸🤓🙂🙃

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Thank you to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for the eARC!

I have heard so many people buzzing about this book & it did not disappoint!! I’ve always been a fan of true crime so I was super interested to read Knoll’s adaptation. It’s based on the true events surrounding the serial killer, Ted Bundy. In her book, Knoll seeks to bring light to the way serial killers are sensationalized & victims/survivors are forgotten. I was immediately sucked in to both story lines. The book jumps right in, opening up to the scene of the crime. I appreciated the way the story was told by 2 women that were close to the victims. It was unique & enthralling. Also, can we talk about the genius behind the title? It’s a play on the judge calling Ted Bundy a “bright young man”. The only thing I didn’t love was that I felt like there were a lot of threads to this story & it was all tied together & wrapped up a little too quickly for me. This was such a minor thing though. Overall, I really loved this book!

This ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Bright Young Women follows the paths of two women whose lives were drastically changed by a serial killer in the 1970s. Ruth Wachowsky was living at home with her parents in Issaquah, WA. Young, newly divorced, battling cyclic acne, and hiding a secret, she is forced to live under her mother’s watchful glare. Ruth joins a grief support group and befriends two women and her life finally begins to change.

Four years later, Pamela Schumacher (Pam Perfect), is president of her sorority at Florida State University, pre-law and engaged to a fraternity brother. Her world is turned upside down when her sorority house is the scene of a grisly attack and murder. In the aftermath, their lives are forever woven together by The Defendant and his trail of destruction.

Jessica Knoll does an excellent job telling these women’s stories from multiple time periods. The killings are gruesome, but not too graphic, and the way The Defendant is described gives the reader such a creepy feeling. I read that Bright Young Women is based off the Ted Bundy killings. I was born in the 80s, and don’t know much about him or the stories of his victims and enjoyed reading this immensely. This book is perfect for fans of true crime. Like Luckiest Girl Alive, this read like a movie and I could vividly picture what was happening in my mind. There are additional themes of gender roles, sexuality, and strained familial relationships.

4.5 stars rounded to 5

A sincere thank you to netgalley and Simon Element for an electronic copy of Bright Young Women. This review is my honest opinion and all thoughts are my own.

I was really excited for this title, having enjoyed Knoll’s previous work, but after the first few chapters, I found myself losing interest. I think I’ll try again later with an audio version to see if that improves my experience.

I love this newest thriller by Jessica Knoll!!!!!!!!!! It is filled with mystery, tragedy, & triumph all in one book. You don't want to miss this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Bright Young Women!

First thing to know about this one is that it is NOT a thriller like I assumed from the synopsis. That might have just been my issue, but it definitely threw me while reading. It was still a well-written character driven novel about female friendships. It was slow paced so make sure to take note of that as well!

I’d recommend checking this one out if you have been bothered by the uptick of movies/tv shows about serial killers and never about the victims.

This book was high up on my most anticipated books of the fall, and I was elated to receive an advanced reader copy!

This book definitely lived up to its hype! Jessica Knoll did a fantastic job taking a tragic true crime story about a serial killer, but refuses to focus on the kill, instead turning it into an exquisite character study on survivors of traumatic events.

Bright Young Women is roughly based on the Sorority House killings by Ted Bundy in the 1970s in Florida. It takes one of the surviving sorority sisters and tells her story after the awful night she lost her very best friend and sister. The loss of her friend fuels her determination to become a lawyer and fight for all the bright young women out there!

Very very good read! It was captivating from beginning to end!

Lastly, thank you to Net Galley and S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the Advanced Reader Copy of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. This was my first novel to read of Jessica Knoll, and now I can not wait to tackle more!

This was such an impressive piece of work! Jessica Knoll drops us into a story about one of the most famous serial killers of our time and does not even mention him by name. She disrupts what we have ever known of this man, characteristics that we were told help lure women into his grips and instead focuses on the beauty and intelligence that he took away. The POV and time changes kept the pace of this plot going and it was a book that was hard to put down. Thank you NetGaelly and Simon and Schuster for this ARC!

I really enjoyed Jessica Knoll's "Bright Young Women." It's a new perspective on how we report on and talk about serial killers (and men generally). She focuses on the women involved and female victims, giving them more power over their story. I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good. I love true crime stories but hate how it makes these horrible people so well known, when it should be the victims who are the ones that are known. Jessica Knoll must feel the same way because she didn't mention the name of the killer once, instead focusing solely on the victims. It was a solid book and a good way to make the victims more known.

If you're a true crime fan, definitely pick this book up.

This was a true story about a group of college students in Florida sorority house
2 are dead and 2 are injured
Another girl is awake and comes down stairs
She sees the guy but he doesn’t see her
It takes years before all the details are out and the accused is brought to justice

I adore Jessica Knoll, both as an author and as a human. (Her Instagram, with all of her homemade pasta sauces, Bravo reactions, and posts about rescue bulldog Frank, is one of my favorite accounts.) Luckiest Girl Alive is one of my all-time top reads. So when I heard that Knoll's newest novel was loosely based around the Ted Bundy murders, I was thrilled. Then I was ESPECALLY pumped when I learned it was about the Florida State Murders, as I spent my freshman fall semester attending FSU and living in the dorm building literally right next to the Chi Omega sorority house, where the murders take place. Needless to say I really wanted to LOVE Bright Young Women, but it just was a 3-star read for me. Understand that Knoll's writing is FLAWLESS and beautiful, but the book was just not what I was expecting. Bright Young Women serves to make a statement about the precious and valuable lives taken by Bundy in the 70's, and to tell their story, in opposition to the sensationalism that Ted has received in recent years. I guess I was expecting more of a thriller, but this was mostly literary prose. I'd compare it to The Girls by Emma Cline, in the way she writes about the Mason family cult. Knoll is an exceptionally talented writer, and this was a wonderfully done book, just not my normal preference of story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

The premise of this book sounded intriguing to me, especially being a true crime lover, but the execution fell a little flat for me. I liked that the focus was on the women in this story rather than 'The Defendant' but I didn't find the writing or the character development to be very compelling. I felt like these women's lives and personalities could have been given far more credit than what was done with this book, especially given the time period when women were often overlooked and under-valued. Even the main protagonist came off as a bit one note and less interesting than her background and life would suggest. The best parts of this book were that of Ruth and Tina's story. I hate giving this only 3 stars because I wanted to like it much more than I did, but it just wasn't it for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy!

Content warnings: graphic violence, sexual violence, sexual assault, murder, blood & gore

I really wanted to like this book but I am so intensely disturbed, I’m having a hard time. It’s well written and the characters are well fleshed out. If you’re interested in a book about a serial killer that spares absolutely no gruesome detail, this is for you! If you’re a woman, it will extremely piss you off, too. Anyway, I won’t be sleeping for a week or so, don’t mind me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance reader’s copy.

When Pamela Schumacher was awakened in the night at her Florida State sorority house, she walked through picking up after her sorority sisters as usual, being the president and a mother hen. She saw the television left on and the dirty plates. And then she saw the intruder. A man was leaving by the front door, crouched, holding something. Pamela saw his face before he opened the door and ran out.

She was never the same.

Pamela went upstairs to check on the girls and found two that were badly wounded. The two that were killed she didn’t know about until later. She knew that they had been injured too, but her shock kept her from understanding the full extent of what she was experiencing until hours later, when a nurse and former sorority sister had called to check on her, and the rest of the house. That was after they had been swarmed with police, EMTs, crime scene technicians, and reporters. So many reporters, all standing outside the house.

Pamela took the lead as best she could inside the house. She tried to help find the girls places to stay, to get them packed as they were allowed back into their rooms, to help the police with their investigation. She had seen him, after all. But she was also devastated. One of the young women who had been killed, Denise, had been her best friend.

Meanwhile, another woman, had arrived in Tallahassee with a purpose. Tina was hunting someone, a man, the man that she thinks killed her friend back in Seattle. He had killed others. He was known for his brutality. He had been caught in Colorado and escaped. Twice. And now he had struck in Florida, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with it any more. She found Pamela and showed her the mug shot. Pamela knew at once that it was the man she had seen leaving that night. He was the one who had killed her best friend.

These women could have succumbed to the fear. They could have made quiet homes for themselves and let the police handle it (not that they’d done a great job so far). Instead, they used their trauma to make themselves strong. They fought back. They remembered. They became the part of the story that should be told. They were Bright Young Women, and they deserve to have their stories told.

The new novel from bestselling Jessica Knoll is a study of the women who survived Ted Bundy. The ones who lost friends, family, lovers to the hands of a brutal killer and kept moving forward. Despite the crimes and the criminal, the missteps of police and mistakes of judges and insensitivity of the press, the women take over this story and show just how important it is not just to survive in life but to thrive, to live well, and to keep your power.

This novel is powerful and shattering. Knoll’s way with words brings scenes to life with a desperate accuracy that is heart-breaking and soul-crushing. It is not for the weak, not for the traumatizes, definitely not for everyone. But it is also inspiring and real and brutally honest and a celebration of hope. Bright Young Women is the flip side to the story every hears about serial killer Ted Bundy. It tells the story of the women he left behind, the ones who he didn’t touch but left scarred by loss anyway. It’s the story of how crime affects us all, cuts us, disarms us, wounds us, but doesn’t kill us. And we can use our strength to remember, to change the system, to take away the power from the men who kill and return it to the Bright Young Women who shine so brightly, in life and in death.

This book is for the survivors.

Egalleys for Bright Young Women were provided by Marysue Rucci Books/Simon & Schuster through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to get my hands on an ARC of this book. I’m gonna be generous and say this is 3.5 rounded up.

Truly, I don’t have a lot to say about this book. The description sounded like something I would love but it just failed to hook me. There was nothing I disliked about it, but I just… didn’t love it. I think the timeline jumping was a little jumbled and difficult to follow.

Still thankful I read this book! I still say pick it up and give it a chance if you like true crime, but a warning that the lines between fiction and non-fiction in regards to the Ted Bundy story are a bit hard to decipher.

Murders at a sorority house in Florida in 1978 lead two women from separate coasts to embark on a journey to find justice for those they love. This book is fiction meets true crime, and it is written in such a way that it focuses on the victims, the survivors, their friends, and families. It does not focus on the killer. In fact, he is referred to as only The Defendant throughout the book. The two main characters, Pamela and Tina, are courageous women who persevere to ensure The Defendant pays for his crimes. Two of Pamela's sorority sisters have been killed and two others horribly injured. Tina's girlfriend, Ruth, is missing, and Tina believes she is a victim of the same killer. They soon meet and join forces.

The story goes back and forth to different time periods. We learn how Ruth meets Tina and what happens to her. The ending of this book is satisfying, albeit sad.

This book will be one of my favorite books of 2023! The author is an amazing writer. She made me laugh once or twice, and she brought me to tears more than a few times. You care about the characters and what happens to them. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a thriller or even true crime.