Bright Young Women

Happy Easter! I had a great reading month this March. I’m up to 10 books read so far this year, so I’m happy that I made up for my slow reading month in February. This month’s book of the month I actually read in January for my friend group’s book club! But I wanted to do this one for the blog and am just finally getting around to it. So, this month I’m reviewing Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. And to accompany this month’s review, I made a Young Man (Young Woman) cocktail.

Young (Wo)Man Recipe

1.5oz Cognac or Brandy

0.5oz Sweet Vermouth

0.25oz Orange Liqueur

0.25oz Pickle Juice*

2 dashes Bitters

1 Pickle*

*These are optional ingredients.

In a mixing glass with ice, stir all ingredients. Then, strain into a chilled coupe glass, garnish, and enjoy.

I’ll admit right out the gate, I took some liberties with this cocktail. I didn’t want to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff, so I modified. Instead of cognac, I used brandy. And just like squares and rectangles, all cognac is brandy but not all brandy is cognac (basically, brandy is made with any fruit juice and cognac is specifically white grape juice). So, essentially I’m just using a slightly less good option. In a similar vein, I opted to use blue curaçao for my orange liqueur (sorry for this horrific colour). Mainly because that’s what I had and it makes no sense to buy something that tastes the same but is actually orange in colour. Anyway, there’s some fun facts for everyone in case you didn’t know the difference between brandy and cognac and didn’t know that blue curaçao is orange liqueur.

Beyond those choices, my special ingredient this month is pickle juice. And I also changed the garnish from a maraschino cherry to a pickle for fun. I actually hate pickles, so I kind of knew immediately that this drink would not be for me. But I honestly couldn’t think of any other ingredient that worked. Even pickle is just because a detective in the novel is named Pickell. But in regard to taste, this was not good. The pickle juice overpowers everything else and was disgusting. If you like pickles then maybe you’d like this, but it’s a big no for me. Sorry!

Bright Young Women Synopsis

(from book cover)

The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed. Across the country, Tina Cannon is convinced her missing friend was targeted by the man papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer—and that he’s struck again. Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation.

Review

“It was comforting to think that the earth always found a place for us.”

If you’re a regular reader of my reviews, then you’ll know that I am a big true crime fan. So, when I learned about Bright Young Women and that it tells the story of Ted Bundy’s killings through the perspective of the women he victimized, I immediately went to buy it and told my friends we were doing it for book club. And I’m glad I did! I really enjoyed this book. It’s compelling, informative, and a quick read. But it wasn’t perfect, so let’s get into it.

I have been loving first-person narratives lately. It has been such a breath of fresh air after third-person narratives being the trend for the last few years. So, it’s been really nice getting some more of this lately. And I thought Knoll did a pretty good job with this narrative style. During Pamela’s chapters, the first-person perspective worked well and kept me gripped. However, during Ruth’s chapters I didn’t love it. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel like it worked as well. Based on the acknowledgements (again if you aren’t reading them in every book what are you doing), I think this is largely because Pamela is based on someone Knoll spoke to and got this first-hand experience from, while Ruth is not. So, Ruth’s chapters feel less impactful and concrete.

But overall, I thought the writing style fit the narrative well. The first-person perspective adds depth and an extra layer of eeriness and understanding to the victims. And I understand why Knoll chose to have Ruth also be first-person, but again it just didn’t have the same feeling. Regardless, this writing style worked well to keep the story compelling and made it a pretty quick and easy read. However, despite being a fast read there were a few parts where the story felt a little slow. But I think this was intentional. I feel like Knoll was really trying to show us the aftermath and the feelings and actions that happen after something like this. Because at the end of the day, this wasn’t a mystery story it was a fictionalized account of real events that happen to involve a murder.

On a similar note, I found it interesting seeing into the mind of a victim in this way. For those of us who have never been involved in the horrors discussed in the book, we would never know these types of thoughts and feelings. Like how Pamela recalls the little details and odd things that stuck out to her and stayed with her despite their lack of importance. These insights fostered a strong connection to the main character, but also anchored this story in reality. So while it didn’t add to the suspense or drama of the novel, I didn’t hate it.

But, unfortunately, there were things I didn’t like in Bright Young Women. First, the continuous references to Cosmo magazine. I understand that Knoll works for Cosmo, but does she need to mention it in an unrelated novel constantly? It just felt cheap to slide that in there, especially given the nature of the novel. This is a pretty small complaint, but it did drop this book down in my rating.

A larger complaint I have is with Tina. I did not like this character. She seemed weird and creepy and not overly believable. I found her dialogue and personality a bit annoying and, again, not genuine. She’s definitely not the worst character ever, but I don’t think I felt for her the way the author intended readers to. And going off of this, I didn’t think the relationship between Tina and Ruth worked. It was fine, but again I don’t think it had the intended impact on me. It felt rushed, awkward, and not believable. I couldn’t picture their characters working together long term and their relationship didn’t have an interesting or convincing dynamic. So, this area of the novel was quite disappointing for me.

Something that was believable to me in the novel, however, was the depiction of misogyny. I think Knoll was absolutely spot on with this aspect. Misogyny is a huge theme in Bright Young Women and every time Pamela was talked down to it felt real. I don’t know any women who haven’t been mansplained to or treated like a child by some arrogant man. And the way Knoll wrote these interactions and Pamela’s feelings and thoughts about them were perfect. I also thought she did a fantastic job of picking apart all the little things around Bundy’s case that were steeped in misogyny and then turning them on their head to highlight the women. I mean the title alone plays on the infamous “bright young man” praise Bundy received after the things he did and reminds us that his victims should’ve been remembered this way instead.

All in all, I liked Bright Young Women. It was interesting, gripping, and quick. It tackled some dark, heavy topics but didn’t feel like a heavy read. But it wasn’t perfect and had some big enough negatives that it doesn’t get the highest star rating ever. However, my entire book club gave it the same rating, so that’s a pretty good sign because we are all very different people! So, I would definitely recommend this one if you’re into true crime and want a fast read. As for the cocktail, I do not recommend trying it unless you love pickles. Instead, I’ll just re-recommend last month’s amazing cocktail the Cold Comfort!

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and Finlay Donovan is Killing It if you liked this one!

Teghann

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