On a Saturday night in 1978, a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house, killing two young women and severely injuring two others. The lives of those who survive, including sorority president and key witness Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed. Across the country in Issaquah, Washington, Tina Cannon is convinced that her missing friend was murdered by the same person four years ago. Determined to find justice, the two women join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation.

I went into this book blind, and WOW, I am so glad I did. I feel like it's wrong to say I loved this book, given the nature of it, but I did. The story is told from the points of view of Pamela, a key witness in the Florida murders, and Ruth, a victim in Washington, with dual timelines switching from the 1970s to present day. Although the characters are fictionalized, they are based on real victims and witnesses. In a world where serial killers are unfortunately sensationalized and idolized, I love that the author gave the women names and only referred to the perpetrator as "The Defendant." I knew who "The Defendant" was in the first chapter, but readers who aren't familiar with the case won't find out his name (and only his first name) until the end of the book. Just a brilliant and thought-provoking novel showcasing the tabloid fascination with killers and shining a light on the bright, young women whose names are often forgotten. I highly, highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element, S&S/Marysue Ricci Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from Simon Element via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I really enjoyed Jessica Knoll's first book, The Luckiest Girl Alive. I was not as impressed with her second, The Favorite Sister. But this one is by far my favorite! I could not put it down and was genuinely said when I finished that there was nothing left to read.

I actually did not realize that this is a fictionalized account of Ted Bundy's crimes, with a lot of truth sprinkled in. Prior to reading, I thought it was just fiction about a serial killer similar to Bundy. So this was a unique way to go into reading, and the fact that Bundy is nearly never mentioned by name kept me unaware throughout.

The multiple points of view and multiple timelines are extremely well done. They made sense and I enjoyed seeing the characters' growth (or lack thereof for Ruth's mother) between the 70's and today. Plus, of course, the societal differences in these two time frames - such as Tina being asked to fetch coffee at the conference, Pamela basically being brushed off by the police.

There were so many heartbreaking moments. Trying to mention without spoilers - one of the phone calls Pamela makes near the beginning, one of the last chapters that takes place in Washington. And also so many instances of the characters living up to the title of Bright Young Women.

Inspired by the Chi Omega murders from Ted Bundy, Bright Young Women is story of the women who were left behind after the brutal slayings of a serial killer.

Pamela is the president of her sorority and an overachiever. She's heading to law school after graduation. One Friday night, she stays in, avoiding a party, and falls asleep at her desk. When she wakes up, nothing is the same. The lights and tv are on, the living space is a mess, and...a man runs out the door. She finds two of her sisters bleeding from their faces and two other sisters are dead.

Pamela connects with Tina, a woman who is on the hunt of a serial killer who killed her friend, Ruth, a few years prior. Together, the two women fight for the truth and for some sort of peace.

Jessica Knoll has written an excellent book that explores the after from a heinous crime. So often, we remember the killer, but not the killed. This story is about the pain that lingers after loved ones are brutally taken and the fire that lives to see justice served.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

🙏Thank you so much to @bookclubfavorites for the gifted book and to @simon.audio for the free audiobook!

💛Wow. This was intense. I didn't realize who this story was based on when I started and I think that's intentional to keep his name out of the spotlight, but STILL. I had no idea what I was getting into and in some ways (the shock factor) that was good and in other ways (also the SHOCK factor) it was bad for me 😳

💛Anyways onto the story! I was hooked so fast and my eyes were bugging out right off the bat! 😳

💛I haven't read the authors previous works so I was very surprised by how immersive her writing style was. I felt like I was right there with these characters the whole time!

💛While it was written so well, I did struggle with a lot of the content, so I'd highly recommend looking up content warnings.

🎧The audiobook performance was perfection though so if you're planning to read, I highly suggest the audio!

We’ve come a long way ladies! This book is addictive and dark, a fictional true crime thriller, and inspired by the real life events of Ted Bundy and his victims. Starting at the end of his terror, the story opens up with a Florida university sorority house that experiences horror one night and sets up our main character, Pamela, to set out to bring this monster to justice. I really enjoyed how this author highlighted the way women were talked to and treated by law enforcement, school officials, and even family and boyfriends. Women just weren’t taken seriously during the 1970’s and I’m so thankful to all the brave women who have paved the way to offer us a better life now. The other thing I really liked was the way Knoll turned the narrative around and exposed Bundy as the “small” and evil monster that he was instead of the “smart, good looking, and charming young man” we’ve been indoctrinated with all these years. If you enjoy true crime, this is your book! I did feel like it got a little long at the 3/4 mark, but I’m not a true crime reader and the darkness started to weigh me down a bit. But all in all, it’s an excellent story, very well thought out and expressed! Thank you Netgalley, Simon Element and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on September 19, 2023

This book was inspired by a judge calling Ted Bundy a "bright young man" when he was sentenced to death. Just think about that...

Bright Young Women gives a voice to women who were/are dismissed by law enforcement, family, society and their own partners. This is more of a slower paced book than I usually like but it was crafted so well between the Pamela and Ruth perspectives and multiple timelines. It's extremely satisfying how it all unfolds.

Bright Young Women comes out September 19, 2023. Thank you NetGalley, Simon Element, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books and Jessica Knoll for an early copy.

I really enjoyed this! Crime without gore or overly intense details. Very well done alternating story and time lines.

In January 1978 a serial killer - known as “the defendant” in this novel - terrorized the Pacific Northwest, killing young woman.

At Florida State University no one is even thinking of him until he brings his terror to Tallahassee. The main narrator, Pamela, unwittingly becomes an eyewitness to the murders of two of her sorority sisters and two other women who were scarred for life by this criminal.

On the other side of the country a young woman, Ruth, has gone missing and her friend Tina is convinced the same man is involved in the Florida crime and her friends disappearance. Tina travels to Florida to team up with Pamela to uncover the truth of police incompetence and corruption and to seek justice for their friends.

The novel weaves today’s timeline and 1978 with dual narration by both Pamela and Ruth -the missing girl - seamlessly.

This story delves deep into the errors of an investigation in 1978 where men had a narrow view of a woman’s capability and the resilience of these smart women who would not back down to the societal views of them.

This chilling, sharp, thought-provoking story is a lesson in the power of sisterhood in a homophobic, woman-demeaning community and the leaps and bounds women have taken to extradite themselves from what society deemed to be appropriate at the time.

I applaud these bright young women who stopped at nothing to not be silenced.

If you like fast paced and turn paging mystery, then this story is for you! It took me some time to realize who the serial killer was and I was ok with that. I truly liked that this story was about bringing a voice to the women who have been forgotten about. By not saying/giving the serial killer’s name, Jessica Knoll removes his stardom and that’s a pretty amazing feat. This was a great retelling of such a popular serial killer while respecting the victims. Thank you Jessica Knoll, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ebook.

This story is told in a variety of timelines and POVs – we've got present day Pamela, college-aged Pamela, and another person who might be a victim of the same killer that visited Pamela's sorority house, Ruth. The way the stories were interwoven was supremely well done, and while you know what end is coming to Ruth, it didn't make it any less unfortunate when you arrive there.

Bright Young Women is definitely not misplaced in the suspense genre, but I did appreciate how much of the story was centered around the women and their lives in 1970's America, where homophobia is running rampant and women are more objects than people.

This was a one sitting read for me!

loved Luckiest Girl Alive but honestly, i loved this even more!! thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

DNF @ 70%

I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately ended up not finishing it for multiple reasons. I initially didn't realize this book is based on Ted Bundy until doing some research after feeling like this book read more like a crime novel than a thriller. I thought it started off really strong and it drew me in quickly, but that changed around the halfway point when it started dragging and feeling repetitive. I usually like dual POVs, but they got a little confusing in this one with Tina being a side character in both Ruth and Pamela's lives. I kept having to remind myself whose POV I was reading from. I do like how this book focused more on the victims of the crimes rather than the person who committed the crimes. This one had so much potential, but it fell flat for me.

This is the first fictional true crime book I’ve read that actually centers the victims. Other than the obvious (not naming The Defendant) time and time again the author reminded the audience of his vileness and ineptitude. She painted such an accurate picture of womanhood; you must be calm and rational, hospitable, and the smartest in the room for your voice to actually be heard. This novel critiques society without feeling performative, which made it feel like the author was, at times, speaking from her own experience. Although the book was long, I found it to be engaging from start to finish. The title is perfect - at the end of it all, this story is about bright young women.

Thank you to Jessica Knoll and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

Absolutely startled and shattered by this novel -- what a book! I'm a recovering true crime girlie with many complicated feelings on the genre (most of which cycle around revulsion at the mythologizing our culture does of brutal men as tortured masterminds), so there was no way I could resist a sharp and clear-eyed retelling of America's most famous serial killer's final act. Though the Defendant's shocking violence is the catalyst for the narrative, Knoll works hard to give him as little oxygen as possible. Pamela, Ruth, and Tina (all victims of the Defendant's violence, either primary or collateral damage) provide the novel's beating heart, and I could barely force myself to put the book down, I was so enamored of them. Each woman's complicated relationship with her family, with the men who purport to love and/or protect them, and with society's general disdain for women like her is so compelling. Knoll is razor-sharp and merciless in describing the myriad ways women are punished for standing out--being too smart, too loud, too queer, too fat, too persistent, too impertinent, too beautiful, too wanted. I'll be thinking about this book for years to come, and I'll be adding Knoll to my auto-read list!!!

4.5 stars, rounded up
Bright Young Women is based on the real life murders of two sorority members by Ted Bundy.
Pamela Schumacher is the president of her sorority in 1978 and has chosen to stay home on Saturday night to catch up on paperwork. In the early hours, she hears a noise and goes to investigate and sees a man leaving the House. From there, the story goes back and forth between the present and past. She meets a woman who has flown in from the west, a woman convinced she knows who the killer is. The two team up, doing their own investigation when the Sheriff seems focused on another man.
There’s also a side story about a woman named Ruth, a young woman finding her own identity and becoming comfortable with her true self.
I loved that this wasn’t the typical criminal or psychological thriller. It was much deeper than that. The characters felt fleshed out and real. Knoll has done an excellent job of getting the feel for the period, especially that weird polite mindset of young women not yet caught up in the women’s liberation movement. She’s created a consistent tension, a current of suspense that runs throughout the story, but that never veers into the sensational.
The title is a play on the words of the Florida judge who called Ted Bundy “a bright young man”. Because the story truly is about the young women here who are the bright ones, finally recognizing their own worth and intelligence. But it’s also a story about male incompetence; men wanting The Defendant to be smart to mask their own mistakes. Or in the case of a reporter, to use The Defendant as a stepping stone to his own fame and glory.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon Element for an advance copy of this book.

I am soooo bummed with this one. It was one of my top 5 most anticipated reads of the year and I ended up cancelling my pre-order after finishing this because it was just eh.

I think the idea was fantastic and it got messed up in the execution.

Pamela, one of the main characters, was supposed to be this strong and intelligent young woman but instead her actions did not coincide with her supposed intelligence. At the very beginning she was acting as though her being the sorority president was akin to a security clearance and she should be the one to call the families and tell them their daughters were raped and murdered. WTF?? This would never actually happen in a sorority.

The timelines were also confusing because Tina was a side character in both Ruth and Pam's story, so I never knew the POV and kept having to refer back. I also was frustrated with the legal terminology and I would bet money that they didn't have an actual attorney read through the book before being published because so many parts were incorrect.

I guess I just didn't get the point of the book. It wasn't really vicitm-centered and it didn't really touch on any of the complexities of Ted Bundy. If it was going to be written this way, it may as well have been nonfiction.

Inspired by true events (loosely based on Ted Bundy) this follows two women brought together by their determination to convict the right man following the tragic murders at a Florida sorority house in the 1970s. Absolutely loved the first half, but the story loses steam and kind of coasts to the conclusion. I’m not even a true crime girly myself, but I still really enjoyed this.

I definitely had to sit with this one after finishing it to compose myself, going back to pages where things felt unclear only to realize that what I just consumed was fictional/yet inspired by the brutal slayings and reign of terror that Ted Bundy placed on the nation in the mid to late-70s.

I am so thankful to Book Club Favorites, Simon Audio, Mary Sue Rucci Books, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital, physical, and audio access to this heartbreaking narrative coming from the victims, removing the power and lust from the perpetrator's name, and leaving his name out of the book as whole, to highlight the true importance -- the lives of those lost and their loved ones around them.

Media loves to glorify the "attractive killers" based on how formerly abused victims lust after this killer, speaking to something so psychologically twisted that such a horrid man could have admirers. It's a weird phenomenon. I really enjoyed reading narratives from the Victims and their loved ones' Points of View because we haven't curated those stories and they are the ones that need to be told and heard.

Bright Young Women delivers strength and wisdom to women who stood up against law enforcement and their local government centers, to fight for justice in a dismissive era. Trusting your gut and following your instinctual heart go a long way, and I was just so captivated by our two female MCs who did what they needed to protect those they loved and survive.

Bright Young Women is set to publish on September 19, 2023, and I highly recommend you add this one to your TBR!

Thank you to S&S and NetGalley for the ARC.

Jessica Knoll remains an auto-buy author for me. Her writing is so sharp and unapologetic I find it almost intoxicating.

This takes the traditional serial killer thriller and turns it on its head to instead focus on the empowerment of the victims and survivors. Not once does Knoll refer to Bundy (whose murder spree this is based on) by name due to wanting to keep the focus on the women of the story - and I freaking love that. This was also a unique thriller in the sense that you a) know who the bad guy is and b) know what ends up happening to him, but what you don’t know is how we get to that point. For that reason, while this falls under the thriller umbrella, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a traditional one insomuch as it is a social commentary on what the women of that time had to deal with in the midst of this horrific killing spree.

There were aspects of this that I found to be a little confusing that ultimately held this back from a five star rating for me, but overall this was a sharp literary style thriller that did not disappoint one bit.

It’s just another typical night in The House—or so Pamela thinks until she sees a masked intruder sneaking out of her sorority house. What soon follows is a nightmare beyond her imagining: whoever it was Pamela saw killed two of her sisters and left another two permanently maimed, and worst of all is the police refuse to help Pamela and her sisters understand the tragedy.

So Pamela goes rogue. With the help of Tina, a vigilante therapist, and Carl, an investigative reporter, they discover they’ve crossed paths with a serial killer who somehow was able to repeat his pattern around the country. It’s up to the three of them to bring the killer to justice and they vow they will—even if the police are hellbent on standing in their way.
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So this was intriguing as all hell. Basically you have a fictionalized account of the Bundy murders told from the POV of a witness and a victim. It’s obvious a lot of research went into this both in terms of the case and time period, and I also appreciated how Knoll gave us two perspectives that spanned across decades too.

But I gotta admit that at times this was really dry and long-winded. It was also a little confusing to follow along Pamela’s POV because of how everything was written. The conclusion also felt a little rushed and kinda incomplete—I was really expecting more absolution I guess. I didn’t hate this by any means but I wasn’t blown away like I expected to be. I still think fans of Knoll’s and those who followed the Bundy case should still give this a try though, so definitely go for it if you get the chance to snag it on Netgalley.