nteresting, but difficult to read. The story of how two women's lives were affected by deaths of their friends - who were both victims of the serial killer, Ted Bundy. Bundy is never named in this book, and is referred to as "the defendant". Although Bundy was seen by a Chi O Sorority sister, I do not believe it was the young sorority president, Pamela Schumacher, that is described in the book. The other woman seeking justice was Tina Cannon, who was the female partner of one of the West coast murder victims, Ruth.
Somehow, this story did not work for me - whether it was the angle of victim Ruth's relationship with her family, and Tina, or the outlandish story of Pamela's disappearance as a young child for 4 days in Florida. I did not understand this plot twist, or the attraction, then spurning of Pamela by the journalist, Carl - who then provided the closure for how Ruth's life ending since he had "befriended" the defendant (and sold out Pamela by giving the "Defendant" evidence that could weaken the state of Florida's case against him.
A bizarre book.

Really enjoyed this novel - a fictionalized version of the Chi Omega killings at FSU and Ted Bundy's killings. I loved the connection of Tina & Pamela and the various topics the book addressed - tactfully done. After reading this, I spent a lot of time reading about the Florida killings specifically, and while this is fiction, it's very close to the truth, which I appreciate. Smartly written and engaging - thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This book was a hard read for me. It was based on Ted Bundy, but from the view of women who knew the women he killed. Great idea. BUT, I went into it thinking it was a thriller, so I kept trying to figure out when the twist would come, and what it would be since it was so seeped in fact. Plus the back and forth story lines were confusing and didn’t really feel necessary. So for me, good idea, bad execution.

This book is a winner! I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a thriller, it's just an excellent novel that turns the traditional serial killer book on its head. Written from several different points of view - all from women - in both the past and present, it tries to make sense of the tragic, unexplainable events that happened in a sorority house in 1978 and elsewhere, and how they affected those left behind. It uses modern sensibilities to remember the victims instead of the killer, who usually gets placed in the spotlight. Can't say enough good things about this one, which also got me out of a slump of three-star average fiction reads.

Two women, Pamela Schumacher and Tina Cannon cross paths and timelines in their search for a killer who relentlessly took their friends’ lives. Inspired by a real-life serial killer case, this book gives voice to the victims whose lives were cut too short.

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN by Jessica Knoll is a heart-wrenching book about fighting for justice and giving victims their names back.

I found this one exceptionally hard to get through based solely on the fact that I’m very familiar with the real case this is based on, and it’s difficult to dive into such a brutal book while getting to know and fall in love with the characters.

This book was intriguing to read, though I did have a hard time discerning fact from fiction and the POVs occasionally felt a tad too similar for me to be able to keep them apart.

This is a story that definitely requires the reader to be in the right headspace, but one I’d recommend for anyone interested in true crime!

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Marysue Rucci Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: September 19

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. All I can say is, "WOW!" I am not familiar at all with the details surrounding serial killer Ted Bundy or the story of his violent killings, so this was a terrifying, twisty page turner. It is a retelling of the murders from the perspective of the women who were impacted by the serial killer instead of the other way around. I'm going to sleep with one eye open tonight!

Bright Young Women tells the story of a woman living in a sorority house when someone breaks in and kills two of the girls, injuring two others, as well as the story of a victim of a similar crime a few years previous. It's a character study of the girls, based (I think) on Ted Bundy, but it's really not about him at all, and instead about grief and the journey they go through. I really enjoyed this book, thought that it was complex and interesting. I think that it was a little confusing when it continued switching POVs between Pamela and Ruth, in addition to covering multiple different timelines (for example, Pamela had the timeline of the break-in actually happening, the timeline of the trial, and the present day timeline all mixed together with Ruth's story), but overall, this was a fascinating and well-written book that I couldn't put down.

This was a fresh, insightful, dark and chilling look into serial killer mythology...from a female view.. Takes a much covered subject and presents it in an invigorating way.

Bright Young Women pulled me in immediately and never let go. It's so engrossing! I love every choice Jessica Knoll made in structuring this novel — the name for her murderer, the dual POVs of Pamela and Ruth, the focus of the story, and the way she weaves so many threads together to craft such a unique and explosive narrative. Five stars all the way.

Read this if you:
🚨 are a true-crime junkie
🏋️‍♀️ love stories focused on strong female characters
🖤 have ever struggled with fear or trauma

This book is a fictionalized account of a well-known serial killer's (we don't say his name) last few murders before his capture. Our main character is Pamela, a young woman who was present in the house that night and is the only eyewitness to his crimes. The book follows Pamela as she deals with the aftermath of the killings, both immediately after and some 43 years later. It is a riveting account.

I started this book late at night (I do not advise that 😅) and definitely lost sleep, both because the premise alone scared me and because I wanted to keep reading. I can't get over how compulsively readable I found this story, and I hope others get as much from it as I did. There are so many wise kernels of truth and insight scattered throughout this book; it is a fantastic read that spans genres and I highly, highly recommend it!

Thank you to Jessica Knoll, Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy 🫶

Bright Young Women is a crime fiction novel based on the crimes committed by Ted Bundy. It is told through the perspectives of two young women, Pamela and Ruth, who were impacted by the serial killer, leaving the focus on the victims’ story rather than the killers.

What to expect:
-A fictionalized story about the crimes committed by Ted Bundy
-Dark subject matter
-Multiple POVs
-FSU and Washington State settings
-Complicated family relationships
-LGBQT+ rep

WOW. This book blew me away. It's a fictional treatment of the FSU sorority members centered on Pamela, a type A future lawyer who learns that in a sexist world her behavior is on trial as much as The Defendant's is. If you know who committed the murders in Florida (and Utah, Colorado, and Washington) you know the Defendant's name. But hey, I'm with the author--we don't need to say it.

This book covers a lot of ground. The theme throughout: the patriarchy hurts us. It blinds men who consider themselves to be good, rendering them incapable of taking female witnesses seriously and doing their jobs. It gives them a warped framework to view the world through, which is how we get good ol' boy judges who call serial murderers "partner" and "son" and bemoan the wasted talent in him, the murderer, the guy who was actually failing out of law school and destined for failure, a complete loser. Meanwhile the women he killed were on their way to becoming counselors, teachers, artists--their actual wasted potential is ignored.

And it gives us the shitty media narratives that we've been hearing about this loser for 50 years. Male journalists latch onto a slick story that people want to read. Suddenly the killer is wildly handsome and suave, a seducer, your A+ boy next door. The real story--that he was irredeemably damaged, that he learned how to take advantage of the niceness that's ingrained into "good girls" from birth, that he was *never* going to be a real lawyer--somehow that has taken much longer to start to take hold.

Bright Young Women is a fictionalized account of a well known serial killers attack on a sorority in the 70s and a witness and a loved one of a victim coming together to bring justice.

I thought this was a very interesting take on a serial killer story with great writing.The events themselves are very easy to find out about, but the perspectives that Knoll chose to delve into were very unique. I loved that the narrative was on the women and not the killer. I felt a lot of frustration with society and how women were treated at the time (I can only hope things are better now). While I absolutely LOVED everything at the beginning, the pace lost some steam for me towards the end. After sitting with it for a few days though, I do appreciate what it accomplished with the ending. Actually the more I think about it, the more I love it.

This is a must read for all true crime fans. As a Seattle resident, I thought I’ve heard all the stories of a certain serial killer. But I was wrong.

What this book marvelously does, is gives a voice to the women. Ted Bundy is a household name. But can you name a single one of his victims? The book never refers to him by name, but only as “the defendant”. He’s not the good-looking charismatic man that you need to know. It’s the women who’s lives have been cut short who are the marvelous, wonderful ones.

The book focuses on two timelines - Pamela a survivor of the Florida State sorority house murder, and Ruth a victim from Lake Sammamish.

As far as narration goes, it’s beautifully done. Sutton Foster narrates the Pamela chapters and I adore her! (Any other Bunheads or Younger fans?)

This will be one that sticks with me for awhile.

I did not really enjoy Luckiest Girl Alive, so I was hesitant about this one, but ended up really enjoying it and getting caught up in the stories of Ruth/Pamela. The writing style is sometimes hard for me to follow and I sometimes got confused what happened (I just feel like some of the descriptions were much more complicated than they needed to be? And the pacing/time jumps were sometimes difficult to follow). This book tackled so much and fairly well. The topics were dark (I mean, it's a retelling of Ted Bundy's murders), but I think she did a good job capturing the time period (especially being a woman during this time), weaknesses in the police system, and exploring the characters' different griefs.

As I read in other reviews, retelling a real-life, horrible event in a fiction story blurs the lines between what really happened and what didn't, which makes it an uncomfortable read at times. Overall, this book was definitely well-researched and is an emotional one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll!

I recently read Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll.
I loved it because I’m a fan of true crime. Why? The criminal brain is fascinating to me: why do they do what they do?
Jessica does a FABULOUS job of telling a semi-fictional account based on the true story of the Chi Omega murders/attacks at the hands of Ted Bundy.
Also, the author is GREAT at putting her readers IN the life of the main character, a survivor of the Chi Omega crime.

There were some grammatical errors:
1, Pg. 270: should read “how do you know…” but it reads “how do know…”
2. Pg. 327: Ted didn’t give his name with the main character, Ruth, introduced him as Ted in her internal dialogue.
3. Pg. 333: Day 14,970 is repeated twice.

If you’re looking for a spooky read for this Halloween season, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll is a good go-to. You can request it on NetGalley now.

Extremely thought provoking, well paced, slow burn thriller that I couldn't stop reading.

The focus on the women, and the diminishing of the killer was fantastic. I was growing up in the time when the real Bundy had escaped and grew up in a world that felt surreal; so many seemingly so impressed with him, while the women he had cut off the lives of were rarely mentioned.

I was impressed with Bright Young Women, and recommend it.



Thank you to S&S / Marysue Rucci Books and NetGalley for the DRC

I just finished it & overall I enjoyed this. I had some issues (changing pov was confusing at times), but I thought it was really unique and full of discussion topics! It’s not a thriller at all though . More of a slow burn character driven literary novel. One I will be thinking about for a long time nonetheless

“Why do we know the names of the notorious serial killers and not the names of the victims whose lives were cut short?” BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN is an extraordinary story about the survivors of one of the first “celebrity” serial killers. It's a victim-centered, slower paced literary crime fiction, not a traditional thriller or serial killer trope.

Bottom line up front: I LOVED THIS BOOK!! I finished it a couple weeks ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

Jessica Knoll’s writing is brilliant. I don’t think I went an entire chapter without highlighting at least one sentence. Some of the imagery that her words created are indelibly imprinted in my memory. The way that she articulated a horrific and traumatic event from the survivors’ perspective was some of the best (and most accurate) I’ve ever read. It gave me chills! It perfectly encapsulated her intentions with this story – to be the “antidote to Dahmer” – and she succeeded.

She showed us a world that amplified a serial killer, found fault with the victims, and subjected women to rampant sexism and unrealistic expectations. And in the midst, she alluded to how this world helped open the door to a societal true crime obsession and a newer generation’s critique of it. She wrote an impactful and effective story without being heavy-handed or ever losing sight of the victims. It was incredibly thoughtful and well done.

Huge thank you to Simon Element Publishers, NetGalley, and the author for the arc. It’s easily one of my favorites this year.

I’ve loved all of Jessica Knoll’s books so far, so I had a feeling this one would go right along with the others. Although, I didn’t love it as much as Luckiest Girl Alive, I still enjoyed it.

I’m a sucker for a good serial killer story, especially when it’s set in the 70s like this one is. Jessica Knoll always writes a good complex female MC; one that you root for throughout. She does a great job at setting up the story and following through the entire time, leaving me wanting more.