I really don’t get the hype around this book. I found the narrative points of view to be very jumpy, and the dialogue and other narration to be very clunky. It didn’t flow, and I found myself confused several times.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I found this book to be very well written and I really enjoyed how this book alternated between the girls different timelines.

A fictional account of the Ted Bundy story that focuses solely on the victims, the women whose lives were taken and the people they left behind. This is a heavy book, but it was really, really good.

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.

Interesting story although the pacing was slower than I hoped which led me to losing focus. Overall intriguing and compelling! I enjoyed the audio and appreciated that Sutton Foster narrated it.

Jessica Knoll has been a mixed bag for me. I really liked one of the books I read of hers and really disliked another one. So Bright Young Women was the third novel I have read by the author and am happy to say it falls into the "really liked" category. After my bad experience, I had been tempted to just pass on her future works, but I did stop to read the description, and immediately knew I was interested enough to give the author another go. Bright Young Women is a loose telling of Ted Bundy's victimization. The difference between it and other accounts is that this novel focuses more on the victims and their relationships rather than making him the star of the story. I have no idea if the two characters that received the most attention in the book were fully fictional or if they drew from real victims' stories, but they were engrossing to read about. I loved the story of Ruth and her mother was very realistic and I think a lot of young women are going to relate to that kind of relationship, even if not the sexuality of Ruth. Pamela, the goody two shoes character that lives in shame for her role in her sorority house's murders was also a fascinating, relatable character, who may or may not be on the autism spectrum. The author never came out and said it, but some of the descriptions of what drove Pamela made me think that, though it wouldn't have been diagnosed in 1978.

Anyway, I always wonder how writers can make something new out of a story that has been told and retold and yet here is another example of one successfully doing just that. Really liked it.

I wanted to love this book but it fell a little flat for me. Because I know the Ted Bundy story, I found there wasn’t much build up and the story it was telling wasn’t able to make up for that. It was okay, but nothing particularly memorable. Full review on TikTok.

Bright Young Women is a riveting read, told from the perspective of the survivors of a serial killer. I especially liked how the serial killer is never called by name, rather called The Defendant. This is because we never remember the victims of these crimes, just the names of the murderers. I was concerned this book would be gruesome, but it spends more time on the lives of the women that were cut short by The Defendant, rather then gory details. It also highlights how women are victimized, blamed for it, and ignored by the patriarchy when they try to speak out.

This book was really difficult to get into. A re telling of a real life story of a sorority serial killer. Just couldn’t get into the story. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little behind with some of my reviews but have been working hard to get caught up. This book was everything I was hoping for! The characters and story itself were complex and definitely kept me guessing! It was very well written and jumps around constantly, between two main female characters and a variety of time periods. I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes mysteries, thrillers, and stories set up like they could be true crime books!

Jessica Knoll's most recent book, Bright Young Women, is loosely-based on/inspired by the crimes of Ted Bundy--specifically his crimes on the campus of Florida State University. I really liked how Knoll focused more on the story of the women rather than on the perpetrator. A truly excellent book from a wonderful author! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

THIS is what I will be looking for in the future with books that are inspired by a true crime event. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element/Marysue Rucci Books for an advanced copy for review.

This was a stunning depiction of the real life Ted Bundy murders: The focal point being the “bright young women” affected, one being a witness and the other being a victim.

I love how this flips the narrative on its head, dehumanizing Ted Bundy to the point where his name is NEVER used, and focusing on the women’s stories and lives. So many of the documentaries and previous narratives sensationalize him rather than giving any attention to the women in his wake.

This is an extraordinary work of fiction that rings as true as any documentary could.

Thank you to the Team at Simon Element/Marysue Rucci Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I loved the purpose of the story - that the defendant is never glamorized or named, and that it is truly the victims that were the bright stars whose lives were stolen from them. It is mindblowing that in the year 2023, it is an anomaly for an author to stand up against both subtle and painfully obvious sexism in true crime and highlight the victims instead of the murderer. The author skillfully navigates the unfair world in which victimized women are expected to flourish in spite of how one-sided it is, as well as the lingering effects of trauma once the media circus inevitably moves on to the next big story.

However, the execution was slightly off for me which kept me from giving this book five stars. I felt disconnected from the main characters (I was most interested in the storylines of the women who were murdered), and the back-and-forth plotline threw me off and kept me from staying engaged throughout the long novel.

Overall, I still recommend this read and hope it paves a way forward in reframing the way female victims are thought about and treated. It's definitely a book that will stick with me.

I just reviewed Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. #BrightYoungWomen #NetGalley

This book was a little darker than I usually read, but I would read the phone book if Jessica Knoll was the author. I ended up really liking it. it was dark like I though, but complex and perfect for creepy season. I haven't gotten to deep into how much its based on a true story because I scare easily, but the whole thing seems like a true account. It had everything you expect from true crime, but with a deeper dive into the complex relationships formed in the wake. I definitely recommend this book.

I appreciated the look at the women's lives that were impacted by a serial killer (thinly veiled Ted Bundy). I thought the writing was propulsive and an interesting take on a popular crime story.

Bright Young Women, definitely captures your attention from the very beginning, with a gruesome event that altered a lot of lives. While the beginning was super interesting and captured my attention, the middle fell very flat and just felt overall boring with not much going on. There was a lot of back and forth on timelines and with different characters, and a lot of it felt a little unnecessary. Towards the end it did pick back up a bit, but of course once it got interesting it was over before vou know it and the book ended. I wish there was more time spent on the ending of the book than what was going on in the middle. Overall it was a decent read and was good, it was just wasn't GREAT for me! However if you're into true crime and the story of Ted Bundy, this might be the book for you!

This is my second Jessica Knoll book. I was a bit underwhelmed with Luckiest Girl Alive when I read it, I think mainly because I did not like the MC and it took me to long to really get into it, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.
BYW started out slow for me, and I wasn't sure about it at first, but a third of the way into the book I started to become more invested in the storytelling. I guess I would classify this book as a literary crime, or maybe true crime fiction? I hesitate to call it a thriller or mystery since I didn't really find it thrilling or suspenseful, It read more like a true crime novel (which I didn't know that it was inspired by the murders of Ted Bundy going into it), but it is a fictional story. This combination of a true crime story and fictional characters was an interesting choice, and I think I would have preferred one or the other. I would have loved to have had an author's note at the end explaining her process, inspiration and research.
The story alternates between POV's and timelines, which I am usually not a huge fan of, but after a while I got used to it and I was interested in the stories of the two women's lives and their emotional backstories, especially with dealing with the social norms of women in the 1970s. I like that Knoll never names "The Defendant" and makes the story more about the women than of him.
Overall I liked this better than Luckiest Girl Alive and think true crime readers will enjoy it.

This book was tough to read. It was uncomfortable, graphic, and intense. But wow, was it written brilliantly. The script flip on America’s obsession with true crime and serial killers was genius. I loved the way the defendant never got his name mentioned and that it broke down the narrative showing the reality of the defendant. The spotlight on the victims and the woman surrounding the crime made for a very interesting and important narrative.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I love true crime stories and this one did not disappoint!