Kelly • Kell of a Read's Reviews > Bright Young Women

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️“Why do we know the names of the notorious serial killers and not the names of the victims whose lives were cut short?”

Billed as “an antidote to ‘Dahmer’”, Bright Young Women tells the story of two women whose lives are changed forever by America’s first celebrity serial killer.

This is a slower paced novel that I would classify as literary crime fiction (aka not a thriller) and it will surely be a longtime favorite of mine.

The thing I loved most about this book is that while real names of actual victims are used throughout, Knoll never once calls the serial killer by name👏🏼.

We all know who this “handsome”, “charming”, “charismatic” man is… he doesn’t deserve any more attention or notoriety. This book is about the women. It’s about victimhood and sisterhood. It’s about realizing that in paying so much attention to this evil person (described by the New York Times as “terrific-looking” and called a “bright young man” by the judge in Florida) we have glossed over the women affected by him. We can’t name any of the victims, but we know the color of this guy’s eyes?

Bright Young Women proposes that this man was incredibly average and not, in fact, a diabolical genius. He was a “run-of-the-mill incel”, whose grades were in the bottom 5th percentile, and was caught picking his nose in the courtroom multiple times. It’s the women in this story who are the impressive, smart, exceptional ones. And it’s the women whose lives were cut short.

Some other things I loved/stood out to me:

•This is obviously a dark story due to the subject matter, but I appreciated that it wasn’t terribly graphic. It is emotional and touches on a lot of heavy themes, but it doesn’t go into too much gory detail about the killer’s crimes.

•There is some really interesting discourse surrounding “complex grief”. This is a personal one for me - you can hold two things at the same time; you can be grieving AND angry. I truly love Knoll’s characters. They might not always be the most “likable”, but these are three-dimensional women with complicated relationships and emotions. (That being said, I more than liked all three characters in BYW).

•The scene where The Defendant is questioning the president of the sorority about his crimes had me feeling physically ill. Pamela was such an incredible character (who ironically reminded me a lot of the president of my own sorority) and I felt like I was in the courtroom with her throughout that line of questioning. I was so proud of her confidence and poise.

•The story is set in the 1970s, which was clearly a complicated time to be a woman. It was so frustrating to read about how much effort these VICTIMS put in to making sure they didn’t come across as “complainers”. The girls could be upset about the events, but god forbid they get “too emotional”. They had to be smart, but not smarter than their boyfriends. They couldn’t have too many “relationships” or be too “friendly” with men. I wish I could say we’ve come a long way, but looking at SA cases from recent years would sadly suggest otherwise.

•I liked the conversation about the young women who showed up at the trial to ogle the defendant. Sure, the guy wasn’t ugly but it clearly isn’t normal to treat him like Harry Styles and I had a lot of appreciation for the discussion about why some women might be inclined to glamorize him.

Overall, the writing was great. In all honesty, the pacing and the timeline jumps probably earned this one four stars, but my visceral reaction to the plot and storytelling has me bumping it up to five. This is very different from Knoll’s previous work and it left such an impact on me.

I think if you read or watch true crime you need to give this a chance. It would be a great book club pick because I guarantee no matter how you feel about it, you’ll want to discuss it with those close to you.

🎧Sutton Foster is one of the narrators and she is obviously fabulous. I loved the audiobook but I will say there are some parts that were a little hard to keep up with, specifically the timeline jumps. Occasionally the characters will be in the present moment and say something like “I would soon learn…” or “it wasn’t until I had my own daughter…” and it threw me a bit. Likely just a me issue, but I was glad to have a physical copy to read while I listened.

📱I know I said Knoll never calls the killer by his name, but around 90% in the eARC she does twice. It wasn’t used in the audiobook so I’m assuming the finished copy will have it removed as well.