JESSICA KNOLL. She did it again. After reading Luckiest Girl alive I was like well I guess I’ll never sleep again. And here we are with a new one that also knocked it out of the park with its horror and sharp commentary on what it means to be a woman. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Knoll's somewhat fictionalized take on Ted Bundy's Florida State University sorority house murders was originally 5 stars for me. I re-rated to 4.5 because of something that came to light after I read it. First, what I loved. This is the best entry to the growing Micro Genre of fiction about serial killers that centers the (usually female) victims. Rather than ignoring or making the killer a cardboard cut-out (as these books often do, she totally demeaned and defanged him. She debunked the media’s portrayal of him as brilliant, a cunning lawyer, incredibly good-looking, etc. And, apparently, her portrayal is based on fact. This story deals with memory and highlights how men in power often discount what women say. Knoll cleverly tackles serious gender issues in an unputdownable package. BUT, I wish there had been an Author's Note explaining what where she fictionalized parts of the story and WHY she fictionalized some parts, but not others. Her choices surrounding Ruth's character, in particular, are perplexing.

Bright Young Women reads almost like a true-crime novel told from the perspective of a woman who survived Ted Bundy as well as a woman who did not. Although the story is fictional, the events are similar to the reality of the case. Pamela was the sorority president who saw the killer as he fled the house after killing several of her sorority sisters. The story is told from her perspective directly during and after the killings as well as decades later as she seeks answers to some of the questions that remained unanswered. The story is also told from the perspective of Ruth, one of the killers victims, in the lead up to her death. I loved the multiple perspectives and did not want the story to end.

Rectifying the pitfalls of the true crime genre, this novel focuses on the extraordinary strengths of the survivors rather than the supposed "genius" of The Defendant. I felt immersed in the survivors' ability to find the strength to face what the world thinks of as a monster. But these women and this book know the truth: he's not a monster, just a misogynistic, entitled sad, unimpressive man.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I wouldn't call myself a true crime fan but I do find the psychology of serial killers interesting, so when I saw that Jessica Knoll was releasing a book from the victim's POV of an infamous serial killer, I was immediately interested. This book grabbed my attention from the start and I thought it was cool that the author didn't once name who the killer was, but you knew exactly who it was. As my first of this author's books, I didn't know what to expect when it came to writing style and character work, but I really enjoyed it! It did take me far too long to connect who a specific character was in both of the POVs, but I blame myself for that more than the author. I didn't really know what the point of the side POV was until I made that connection and it did lower my enjoyment. I remember thinking "I wish this was two separate books following each of these characters" because I was so interested in both but had no idea how they connected. Overall, this book kept me hooked and I read it in two sittings, and I was still invested in the story despite obviously knowing the ending. It did make me more interested in this author's backlist and I'll probably go back and check them out.

Book Review: Bright Young Women ✨

“𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.”

⁉️: Do you follow true crime cases? Which ones have baffled you? If not, what are your plans for the weekend?

@JessicaKnollauthor’s Bright Young Women released earlier this Fall has stayed with me so much so that I took my time understanding and slowly uncovering the two parallel and intertwined narratives of Pamela Schumacher, the narrator and witness of her sorority members who were killed by The Defendant (referring to Ted Bundy) and Martina Cannon (woman who loses her lover, Ruth) to him but her body is never found. As the story unfolds, both women struggle for acceptance, for establishing their credibility, and speaking up against injustice.

At a time when the term “serial killer” was not in the nation’s vocabulary, the media and judge treated him in a way that I found absolutely outrageous by calling him a “Bright Young Man.” Knoll’s extensive research, thoughtful recognition of witness testimonies, and fight for justice for the victims and recognizing how difficult it was to nail Bundy down for conviction is an important reminder for how testimonials and eye witness testimonies can also be questioned. Moreover, what I appreciated about Knoll’s novel is that through its unique framework, it draws attention away from the fascination mainstream media has with perpetrators often problematically romanticizing them to sharing stories of women who were his victims and were often vilified or seen as being not credible in the eyes of the law because of who they were, their sexuality, their being as a whole. And, it reminded me of the novel She Said, which was a documentation of the New York journalists who collected testimonies against Harvey Weinstein which ignited the #MeToo movement. If you haven’t picked this book up, you should. Jessica Knoll is a brilliant author, and I am already looking forward to her next book! 5 ✨from me!

Thank you @bookclubfavorites, @simonandschuster and @jessicaknollauthor for the gifted copy!

#BookClubFavorites #SimonandSchuster #JessicaKnoll #BrightYoungWomen

3.75 stars, rounded up to 4.*

I read Jessica Knoll's first two books, and enjoyed them. I would say I had hesitations about both but for different reasons. That said, when I saw she had a new book, based on the Ted Bundy FSU sorority murders, I was all in.

I enjoyed the format of this book-expounding on the imagined lived experiences of various women who were a part of the tumult surrounding a serial killer's wake. This book tells an imagined version of the story of the president of the sorority where Bundy maimed, assaulted & murdered 4 co=eds; the partner of one of his victims' and one of the victims themselves.

Something big was missing here, though. I can't say exactly what. But I was left feeling wanting.

*with thanks to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

"I want you to remember, every time I say The Defendant, is not him but the seventy-one-year-old court reporter in cat-eye glasses who refused to participate in the outright lie of him."

"Law enforcement would rather we remember a dull man as brilliant than take a good hard look at the role they played in this absolute horror show, and I am sick to death of watching them in their pressed shirts and cowboy boots, in their comfortable leather interview chairs, in hugely successful and critically acclaimed crime documentaries, talking about the intelligence and charm and wiliness of an ordinary misogynist. This story is not that. This story is not that."

This is a fantastic book, a completely unique take on the subject.

I agree with the above. His name has been mentioned too many times, his notoriety has grown to mythical proportions. The accepted narrative is not the one that the author wants to tell. When it comes right down to it, it is the women who deserve that spotlight. The women who deserve to be lauded, remembered, and praised for their survival instinct. That is what Jessica Knoll has done with this novel. She has brought to light all that the women did to make sure that this man did not survive any longer than necessary, and that he was just a man. Just an ordinary, albeit evil man of mediocre intelligence.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where The Defendant started his reign of terror in the 1970s. Although I was a child when all of this happened, I grew up with it as part of the folklore of life in the 70s and 80s, with serial killers around every corner.

This book is inspired by true events follows two narrators and two timelines. The first is Pamela, the president of the Florida State University sorority house where the two murders and two additional attacks took place that led to his death sentence. The book starts with those attacks and moves forward. The second is with Ruth, a woman in Washington state who is friends with Tina, who ends up meeting Pamela and ties the two narratives together.

This book made me experience the gamut of emotions: anger, sorrow, frustration, irritation, futility, and such deep respect for any woman who encountered The Defendant. The misogyny of the 1970s were truly what allowed this man to get away with what he was doing for so long. Knoll's narrative makes it clear that it wasn't his "intelligence" that helped him, but rather the ineptitude of law enforcement and a series of very "lucky" circumstances.

For those who are interested in true crime and looking at true crime from a different perspective, then definitely pick this one up. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrators were fantastic and gave an "out loud" voice to the women that Knoll so respectfully depicts in her story.

This one is so interesting, because you get the entire story from the start - there's no "whodunnit" vibe, but the thrill and the suspense is still there. I imagine that must be really hard to nail in writing, so props to the author for doing this in a way that gives you all the answers but still keeps you very engaged throughout!

Bright Young Women is a thriller where you know the killer, the motive, and the ending from the very beginning, yet it is injected with such thrill, despair, and grief that I had a hard time putting it down. Pamela is an average university student who is catapulted into a nightmare when a predator falls upon her sorority house, murdering her best friend, and leaving her as the sole eyewitness to his grisly crime. Soon after, in the midst of dealing with her own grief, she is thrown into the media circus surrounding the serial killer, and meets Tina, who claims to know who the killer is, as years ago he murdered Ruth, the woman she loved. And thus the stage is set for the telling of the stories of two women who had their lives irreversibly changed by The Defendant.

The Defendant is Ted Bundy, although, as Pamela constantly reminds the reader, he is not the main character of this novel and shouldn’t be regarded with anything other than disdain and ridicule. What I loved so much about this story is that it was the stories of the women who were affected by this renowned killer, not another idol worship-esque recounting of his suaveness and killer charm. Pamela is a tour de force of a protagonist as she forces herself to become comfortable being brazen enough to fight for justice for her friend. I was struck in the chest multiple times with the stark portrayal of grief, and the likening of Denise to being eternally frozen in Pamela’s memory as we follow her pre-, during, and post-murder. The way Knoll plays with the concept of time to write the various timelines is as captivating as it is horrifying, and made for a striking examination of grief and moving on. This book had me holding my breath from the very first page, and I don’t think I’ve read anything like it before.

I wish I had a lot to say to explain how I felt about this. Unfortunately, it just rubbed me the wrong way really early on. The way the main character constantly refers to her figure and has a sort of ‘not like other girls vibe’ combined with not even vaguely veiled retelling of an actual murder. It’s just personally not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for gifting me a copy of Bright Young Women By Jessica Knoll for an honest review. This is a work of fiction but based off the Ted Bundy serial killings. Instead of hearing how charismatic, clever and handsome he was, we are hearing how he wasn’t all that smart, he was awkward when talking to women, and how he wasn’t handsome at all. This book is told from the perspective of two women, We hear from Pamela, who was in the sorority house and saw “the defendant” leave after brutally hurting 3 young women, 2 of them not making it to the hospital. We also hear from Ruth, who will end up being one of “the defendants” victims.
This book gave me chills, thinking about how it was so easy for this man to break into the sorority house and cause so much harm. I think the most chilling part, was how much wasn’t done in the days after the attack on the sorority. The way these women were treated and how their feelings were pushed aside was cruel. The fear they had moving back into their sorority house, even after the guy was not caught.
If you are interested in true crime like books, this is for you! Jessica Knoll did an amazing job giving two different perspectives from young women who were or would eventually be affected by the cruelty of this man. Even though there is little justice, we know what happened, there are a million documentaries and movie dramatizations respecting “what happened.” This is a new, fresh take. 5 stars

It was hard for me to put down Bright Young Women, a fictionalized account of the actual crimes of Ted Bundy, known in the book only as the Defendant. Jessica Knoll expertly tells the horrifying story through the viewpoints of two main characters, Pamela and Tina, who are reportedly based on genuine people in history. I felt as though I was experiencing the horror of a murder in the sorority house when Knoll recounted the events in Tallahassee. This book evoked the emotions of sorrow, fear, and anger as I read, which is a credit to Knoll's writing. If you know the story of Ted Bundy, I highly recommend this read. Even though it is fiction, it is sprinkled with facts Knoll gathered from various sources affiliated with the case. The book also sets straight the perception of Ted Bundy as a good-looking and intelligent law student. The facts prove otherwise, and I was satisfied to learn that.

this was a great take on the serial killer novel. I loved how Jessica Knoll never gives the killer a name and focuses on the victims and their families instead. I could see the that the author used the Ted Bundy case as the framework for the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll.

This title was originally shared with me through the publishers via Net Galley.(Apologies for the delay I had some technical issues) I thought it was engaging and well written. I enjoyed the split perspectives. I was interested in this title because I like to watch and listen to true crime shows. I loved that it focused on the women survivors and the lives lost rather than solely on the criminal like the press had done. There was a lot of growth and healing. I also liked how his name was never stated in the story but it was still clear who they were talking about. Pamela was a strong character and she had a great development. Ruth did too. Overall I really liked the book. Thanks for sharing!

This is a well-written novel. The problem I had with it was that it's a novel, not true crime. I respect the noble premise of taking the star power away from the killer — in this case, Ted Bundy, whose name is never mentioned, and focusing on the victims. But all I could think about while reading this was how the author was going to talk about him without mentioning him. Valiant effort, but it felt more like a writer's "what if" challenge than a legit novel.

This was a fictional retelling of the last murders that Ted Bundy committed at Florida State University in 1978. What I liked most was that it put the focus on the victims and the people who knew them. The author never once mentioned Bundy's name in this book. He is known only as "the defendant."

While hard to read at times, I think it helped to understand the grief and fear that the in real life girls at the Chi Omega sorority house experienced on the night of the murder and days to come.

The author did a great job researching this book. There were some facts that I had to look up as I had not heard of them before. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

4.5 stars rounded

I loved this book! Now my favorite by Jessica Knoll. A great true crime read. The switches in timelines kept me fully interested. I can't wait to see if this one gets an adaptation for series or movie!

As a fan of Jessica Knoll and true crime, this was a great book. I enjoyed getting to hear the story from the point of view of some of the women. I completely understand why she never said the name of the character based off Ted Bundy but after a while I got a bit repetitive hearing him called the defendant. That didn't make me love the book any less, just a heads up for future readers.