I initially DNFd this when I read the arc but got hooked instantly when I listened to the audiobook. I didn’t read the synopsis so I didn’t realize that this was based on the infamous serial killer which I will take a page from the author and will not name him. I appreciated that the author chose to focus on the victims and the families and friends that were left behind instead of giving the spotlight to the killer. Jessica Knoll gave voices to these invisible women, and made their stories known through the fictionalized accounts of Pamela, Tina and Ruth. The story was so well written and I can really feel the disgust of the author to the defendant, the judge and the media that sensationalized him. My only complaint is that with the jumping multiple timelines, I got confused several times and the last few chapters also weren’t too clear. I am unsure how they theorized where Ruth’s body was supposed to be. Nevertheless, this was a great book to read even if you are unfamiliar with the defendant’s story. I’d suggest picking up the audiobook as the narrators did a great job making the story come alive.

An intriguing mixture of historical fiction, true crime, and thriller that aims to centre victims and those who loved them. I would have loved a section indicating what was fabricated for the narrative, but overall appreciate this approach.

This was such an interesting book to read!

I liked how it followed two victims and their timelines. One who didn’t survive, and one who helped in his prosecution. And it was so wild that even though it was never said who the criminal was, I knew exactly who the author was talking about.

And there were moments that were SO frustrating not only as a reader, but also as a woman. How they were disregarded, outright ignored, or had to follow the social constructs at the time to be taken somewhat seriously.

A really well done look at women in that time period and how things have changed (or we like to think they have).

I really enjoyed this book. My only issue was the bouncing between timelines and characters that got confusing at certain places.

I was enthralled from the start of the book. I found this heart pumping and kept me engaged the entire way through.

I'm sorry that it took me so long to read this book because now that I've finished it, it will stay with me for a long time. Before this book I didn't really know much about the killer or crimes that he committed that this book is based on. I'm not a true crime person, and I avoided all of the Netflix shows about him. I'm glad that I did because it allowed me to really connect with the women in this story and I was not distracted by the Defendant like so much of society was and seemingly still is to this day.
I couldn't put this book down, and read way past my bedtime to finish it. I was so glad to find out that Ruth's body was close to being found to give her loved one closure.

Read the first half of this back in august when I got it as an arc and loved it but for some reason didn’t finish until now! Idk why I waited so long this was really good! I really liked the characters and how the timeline changed! It was really well written and I’ll be recommending it to others!

This book was incredible. It has been over a week since I finished it and I am still thinking about the main characters.

This book follows a few different timelines. Pamela, Ruth, and current day.

I don't know that I had a favorite character throughout the novel but I think Tina was a winner for me. I have read many novels about this serial killer before and am aware of the story. This was very interesting to see from this point of view. To see all the mistakes and all the times they could have stopped him if this hadn't been a men''s club!

This book was a game changer and I hope the younger generations reads this and see this serial killer for what he was. A loser who talked too much but never said anything of importance.

10/10 would absolutely recommend.

This story is a fictionalized account of the Ted Bundy case, but instead focuses on the lives of his victims and their loved ones. I didn’t know anything about Ted Bundy before reading it, and I thought it was good that I didn’t have that background so I could pay more attention to the characters themselves and the impact violence has on the people left behind.

A big strength of this novel were the dual POVs, and I think that fans of true crime will really appreciate this one. As someone who’s just gotten into true crime this year, it does give off a similar vibe to the podcasts I listen to. But it’s important to note that this book is based on real events and reflect on what that might mean for the victims, survivors and those in their lives.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for a gifted digital copy of this book.

I was a little late to pick this one up, and I didn't get into it immediately. But once I did, I could not put it down. Really really incredible work. I can't wait to see what Jessica Knoll does next.

“𝐈’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭.”

Hearing my friend Gare rave about this book, I knew I had to pick it up; shoutout to NotYourMamasBookClub for letting me participate in a buddy read (even if I majorly didn’t finish on time!)

I will admit I struggled to get into the story until I decided to listen to it on audio. Sutton Foster’s and Imani Jade Powers’ performances as Pamela and Ruth had me pulled in (partly because I would listen to Sutton Foster do anything!). Once I realized that this wasn’t a suspense or thriller story (as it was marketed), but rather a character-driven story revolving around two females who are both victim and survivor of a serial killer, I started to appreciate it more. Jessica Knoll critiques the true crime genre, both in the media frenzy that happens but also how stories tend to be centred more on the perpetrator rather than the victims and those left behind. As such, I appreciated that, although Knoll talks about the perpetrator in vague terms, she never gives him a name, as he isn’t the important one in this story. The other men in the story are also pretty terrible - Pamela’s boyfriend Brian is pompous and incredibly uncaring that his fiancé found her best friend dead, and reporter Carl, who seemed kind, turned out to be such a hypocrite, which very much disappointed me. Perhaps that was part the point that Knoll was trying to make in terms of misogyny. I did want more action - at times parts seem to plod on without much happening, and also hoped for less recounting and a bit more creativity surrounding the emotional aftermath this real-life topic.

Bright Young Women is a story of sisterhood, family dynamics, loss, impossible grief, and determination. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book has received very mixed reviews. I know it is fictionalized true crime, but I decided to treat it as pure fiction. I stopped myself from looking anything up while I was reading and just went along for the story.

The prose was clear and vivid, easy to read. I felt connected to the characters and the story – I was invested in the outcome. The novel made me feel anger, which I think was the intent, and kept me reading past my bedtime. As someone who doesn’t like to get close and personal with traumatic events, Pamela was a perfect narrator. She was able to narrate the story in a way that exposed all of the misogyny in the legal system, and society in general, especially in the 70s, without giving me too many gory details. The novel did open with quite a disturbing, bloody scene, but the rest of the novel was more about building the characters and showing the impact of the deaths on family and friends of the victims.

If you’re looking for a novel with thrills and twists, you won’t find it here. Murder is not entertainment, killers aren’t meant to be celebrities.

Any lover of true crime will love this story and will remind you of current cases. The story had twists galore and I was never sure who was trustworthy or where this story was going. Flipping back and forth in time between two different women successfully this is an enjoyable, gripping, quick read. Perfect when you need a light read.

This book is based on a sorority that was targeted in 1978 by a now famous serial killer. The author doesn’t name the serial killer in the book and only refers to him as The Defendant. You can look it up to see his name if you want. I appreciated that the premise of the book is not on the killer but on the victims. This book was well written and deals with many societal issues that were in place at the time and many are still happening now. The main characters are strong and independent women and it was powerful to watch their journey toward finding justice for the deceased women. Definitely a must read.

this was very hard to read but the effort that went into the research for this and the constant decision to never name the ‘Defendant’ was insanely wonderful and heartbreaking and definitely struck a chord with me

Bright Young Women is told from two perspectives: Pamela, the president of her sorority whose world is turned upside down when an intruder murders and assaults multiple members of her sorority in the 1970s; and Ruth, a lonely and unhappy woman who is beginning to find herself a few years earlier. I’m finding it really hard to write too much about it because I don’t want to give anything away or mention the inspiration for The Defendant.

Here’s what I loved about it:
♥️ The focus was on the women who survived and died vs the perpetrator
♥️ The female friendships across generations
♥️ Ruth’s blossoming
♥️ The reframing of the “Bright Young Man” narrative of The Defendant in the 70s when the case is brought back into the public sphere in the modern day.

Thank you @NetGalley and @SimonSchusterCA for this ebook in exchange for a review.

2000/10 this was poignant, horrifying and overall excellent. This is a thriller done in a way that I’ve never seen before and had me so damn scared and angry. Read this.

This book left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I want to just make gagging noises but I’ll try to be more diplomatic and eloquent than that.

For a book that purports to be about reclaiming victims’ narratives and undercutting the power and admiration feeding “The Defendant” through media and true crime fascination it’s still, above all, marketing itself on the fame of Ted Bundy and profiting from it. It’s feeding into that same frenzy, purposefully, and is probably going to make a lot of money from it too. Not naming him, but making it clear who it’s meant to be, and making fun of him/revealing him for the incel he is, isn’t enough to cancel that out. So, it was kinda gross to have the main POV go on and on about the ethics of this, knowing the author is doing the same damn thing.

Bright Young Women is about Pamela, a sorority sister that witnesses the man responsible for horrific assaults and murders leave her house—a key witness in the case, she attempts to find justice despite a bumbling police force. It’s also told through the POV of Ruth, a woman who becomes a victim of his as well—and her wife Tina who tirelessly searches for answers.

It should have been easy, in a story like this, to make me feel, and keep me turning pages. But I found this just incredibly boring. I thought I would love this book but I hated it. I found the characters so hollow, so tedious, and I kept plodding along thinking something might make it worth it for over 370 pages?! It was painful, to pick this book up, I so badly wanted to DNF but I knew I had to review this—I’ve only seen good reviews so far—and I can’t write a negative review unless I suffer through the whole thing.

The writing was good, that’s the crazy thing. But everything else was not. I don’t know what Jessica Knoll was trying to do with this novel and honestly it feels like her publishing team didn’t care either, they knew it would sell.

This might end up being my least favourite read of the year, which is wild.

If you loved this book I’m sorry, don’t hate me. 😂

such a fan of jessica as both an author and a person - this book was so wonderful; cant wait to see what she does next - both in the tv/film space and literary space!

I was so back and forth on how I wanted to rate this book. It took me forever to read, partly because it wasn’t really jiving with me and partly because I was insanely busy and couldn’t read as much. So I don’t know if maybe the lengthy time it took me to read this is part of why I didn’t love it.

I have heard wonderful things about this one, so I was really looking forward to reading it. I did like some parts of it, but something about this book wasn’t working out for me.

The writing was well done, and I love the concept of basing it off of a famous serial killer but choosing to focus on the women and families that were affected by his atrocious actions. That kept me relatively invested.

I really can’t say what I didn’t like because I don’t think I even know. Not very helpful, huh? I think it felt very dragged out and dry in some points, and that made the reading experience less enjoyable. I never felt that urge to keep reading, and it was easy for me to put the book down and not read it again for days.

Anyway, this review is useless but there you go. I recommend that you still check it out because it seems to be a winner for many people!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my gifted copy!

This was an absolutely fascinating read, a novel based on the real life murders of two Florida State sorority members by Ted Bundy that occurred in 1978. It was horrifying to put myself inside the mind of Pamela Schumacher, the president of the sorority, as she lives the night that changed her life forever and as she goes on through the investigation and court case years later. The heinous crimes that Ted Bundy committed are just unfathomable, the suffering he caused, but I like the way the author if this book chose to show the resilience of the women who survived and how they were able to grow with courage as survivors. This wasn't a light read, but it was very powerful and important and incredibly well written.