Bright Young Women: A Novel Paperback – August 6, 2024

The '70s have been coined the decade of serial killers. In 1978, a man escapes prison and descends on a Floridian sorority house with deadly results. Key witness and chapter president Pam Schumacher is permanently altered. Across the county, Tina Cannon is convinced the murders result from the All-American Sex Killer who claimed the life of her missing best friend. When Tina makes her way to Florida, she joins forces with Pam to get justice for those they love.Review:We will go in reverse order and begin with my complaints, of which there is only one. My sole complaint is that some metaphors and comparisons are a little off-putting. Describing the grown murderer as a "booger-eater" feels strange. While that may have been the point - to emasculate The Defendant, there are other odd comparisons. My complaint is undoubtedly tiny, insignificant, and doesn't affect my rating; it was weird enough to notice.Now, let's move on to what I enjoyed in the novel.Much like Luckiest Girl Alive, Knoll writes with a break-neck pace. The novel opens with The Defendent's attack on the sorority house, and that chapter is intense. You feel like you are Pamela, traipsing through the house, setting her friends' pain and death, and identifying the perpetrator. When I read the opening chapter, I held my breath and ran through the house with Pam. Knoll's writing pace is exceptional; the book never lulls or feels inconsequential. Every chapter is thoroughly thought-out and fits into the overall novel perfectly. As readers, we are aligned with Pam and Tina and feel their emotions as if they were our own. I believe Knoll's writing style sets her apart from other writers. She takes a genuine crime case and gives it the proper care and handling it deserves.According to Psychology Today, society is obsessed with serial killers because it helps us identify potential threats. If we know and understand the motivations of some killers, we are more likely to look for and actively avoid these potentially dangerous situations. While such an assertion is valid, with the obsession comes a forgetting of the victims, those who were taken without thought or concern. Herein lies Knoll's belief. We give so much thought and attention to the killers that their victims are tossed to the wayside. There are countless documentaries, movies, and books about serial killers, but not enough about their victims. Knoll draws the line here. While the book refers to Ted Bundy, and there is an author's note at the beginning that says as much, his name is never mentioned in the book. He is consistently referred to as The Defendant. Pam argues that people always make him more than he is, a serial rapist and killer. However, so much attention was given to his law school experience during the trials, even though he never graduated. Women align themselves with his story because he is a good-looking man. Still, according to Pam, he is only handsome because it's unusual for someone relatively attractive to commit such heinous acts. She argues that there is not much difference between him and any other man on the street. Knoll focuses on the victims and survivors rather than giving credence to his failed degree. She makes them human, something many true crime series do not do. She never names Bundy; instead, she devotes her time to getting to know the victims.As an outspoken survivor of sexual assault, Knoll handles the women's case with respect and honor. In her previously published essay, she writes about the gang rape she was subjected to and how people believed it to be her fault. In a tragic and triggering moment in the book, a character is raped, and she rationalizes and minimizes the experience by explaining that, in the grand scheme of life, being raped isn't so bad because so many women experience the same thing, yet they live on. While reading her inner thoughts, readers are struck by her shockingly disturbing rationalization, but this is precisely what happens with survivors. So many of us do not come forward because we fear what others will say about our stories. We fear that we will be blamed for the assault on OUR bodies. We minimize what happened to us because, unfortunately, it has become the norm. With a sexual assault occurring every 68 seconds, it becomes a regular part of life. As a survivor, I felt seen and recognized in the novel, which is Knoll's goal. Knoll takes her violent and life-altering experience and provides other survivors with safety and recognition; she takes back her story and becomes its author.I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading Knoll's third novel. Similar to Luckiest Girl Alive, Bright Young Women is fast-paced and vital. If you like thrillers or true crime, you will enjoy the book. I give Knoll's novel five out of five stars and highly recommend it.

This was a like not love for me, but I am glad I read it!This a true crime fiction, not a page turning thriller, so if you are a fan of true crime and go in expecting that, you'll appreciate this book more. I respect how Knoll wrote this book. She never mentions the serial killer by name, but we all know who she is referring to when mentioning "The Defendant". Most of the time (every time) the name of the murderer is well known and glamourized, but the victims rarely are. This book is an ode to them and the women whose lives were tragically cut short and I respect and appreciate this approach.My issues and where my rating comes into play is the pacing and not the content, because many times I would get a gut wrenching, visceral response to what I was reading which deserved five stars. However, there were times were it wasn't consistently attention grabbing or page-turning enough for me not to set the book down for periods at a time before coming back to it, which caused me to drop my rating.Also, we have alternate POV with this book, Pamela, the sorority sister at Florida State, who was the eyewitness, and Ruth, who was one of Bundy's vicitms in Washington. I'm always a fan of alternating or multiple POVs. However, this one was sometimes confusing with the timeline specifically and difficult to keep straight at times. But I enjoyed both characters so that definitely helped my reading experience.If you are familiar with Bundy (watched the Netflix show or read previous books about him), I think you will enjoy this perspective and it reminded me of how the Netflix show, Dahmer, shows how the investigation and police work that unfortunately led Dahmer to being able to murder more people by ignoring the eyewitnesses' testimonies, and the victims' friends and family. This aspect was very harrowing and hard to stomach at times for me while reading this book. There were times it would make me very angry how the women were treated in this book.I would love to know how much of this book is truth and fiction. The author mentions in the acknowledgements she interviewed the real eyewitness, Kathy Kleiner, but she failed to mention the details she was able to provide and what was the author's own creation.This book would be a great book club pick. You will not lack for dialogue when it comes to the details of the trial and how these women were treated during the process.All in all, like I mentioned at the beginning, I liked this book and would encourage anyone interested in true crime to check it out. I was hesitant to pick this book up initially, because my past experience with this author's previous book (Luckiest Girl Alive) was a huge miss for me. I'm glad I gave this author a second chance and happy to say she has redeemed herself in my eyes and I'm excited to see what she brings us next.

This book posed a real conundrum for me. It is really well written, the story is very compelling and so many of the elements are introduced in genuine murder mystery fashion. I tore through the book in two sessions. And I was engrossed in every single page. I confess, I am a big fan of truer crime stories, have read a great deal over the years about Ted Bundy and the horror of his murder victims. And I did appreciate the fact that the author declined to identify him by name (although it was crystal clear who the perp in this story was) and focus more on the unfulfilled lives of the girls he murdered but therein lies my initial confusion and ultimate dissatisfaction. In fictionalizing the two sorority house victims, (who in reality were Lisa Levy, 20 and Margaret Bowman, 21 and one of the Lake Samamish victims (in reality Denise Naslund or Janice Ott) in creating entirely new entirely made up personas, (and not just changing their names thus creating a true Roman a Clef,) but everything about them. Their history, their interests, their families, I felt these "bright young women" were erased once again. Bundy is portrayed as the monster he truly was but his victims were completely invented. Yet so many other elements of the story are genuine and true. Even his very last victim, twelve year old Kimberly Leach is correctly identified, but the bulk of this novel, the main driving narrative, centers on three completely fictionalized characters. I know the author profusely thanks one of the surviving sorority sisters, Kathy Kleiner for her contributions to the story. I just can't help but wonder if she was satisfied with the final product. I know I ultimately wasn't.