Book Review: Bright Young Women

I read Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women over the course of two days, which is pretty impressive given the fact that I have a toddler. It was so cute: When I got to the last few pages and was reading in front of C.N., she grabbed the book and said “Read book to babies.” And I was like, maybe not, baby girl, because despite the adorable pink and yellow cover, Bright Young Women is not appropriate for children.

Bright Young Women is a fictionalized take on serial killer Ted Bundy that recenters the story on the victims instead of the killer. It’s narrated by two women—one who survived him, and one who didn’t. Pamela is the president of the Florida sorority that “The Defendant” (Knoll never refers to him by name) ambushed one night in 1978. She was the only one who saw his face, and therefore is the only one who can place him at the scene of the crime. Ruth’s story takes place four years earlier and across the country in Washington state; she’s navigating a difficult relationship with the family that cannot accept her for who she is when she crosses paths with Bundy.

I was very engaged with the book and, like I said, gulped it down in about two days. I even gave up my writing time while C.N. was at preschool to read more, so you know it’s intense. Like other reviewers, I appreciated the fact that the book is one long excuse to shit on Bundy and on the men who built him up to be some mastermind in order to cover up their own incompetence. As Pamela points out repeatedly, Bundy was only smart for a serial killer, or handsome for a serial killer…and so on and so forth. He was only able to to do what he did for so long because the men in charge constantly stepped on their own dicks.

I don’t really have a criticism of the book, other than the fact that while I definitely enjoyed it, it didn’t exactly wow me; I can’t really put my finger on why, which annoys me to no end. The only thing I can say that I actively disliked was the fact that Knoll seemed to go out of her way to make certain things about Ruth gross and unpleasant, I guess to make her more human? As far as I can tell, Knoll invented the characters we spend the most time with, so it’s not like she was ascribing bad behavior to a real person, but it still made me uneasy. Your mileage may vary, though.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book to any true crime fan who is tired of the glorification of monsters. It might also appeal to mystery readers, although the central mystery is very mild. I’d give it a solid 4/5.