By Cherise T.

The eyes. The hot pink. The electric yellow. The cover of Bright Young Women demands attention and so does its story. Attempting to avoid bias, I tend to barely scan flyleaves and reviews. I don’t want to know before I find out for myself. I read just enough words to get a hint of the plot. For this book, “serial killer” was all I needed to see for me to put the book back on the shelf. Although I’m a big Dexter fan, I did not want to volunteer for more sleep-disturbed nights and uneasy days. But then a coworker recommended it, so I took the plunge. 

The idea of writing about a serial killer from the perspective of an attack survivor is not innovative in and of itself. However, author Jessica Knoll has written a unique feminist perspective on the Ted Bundy story. The murdered and assaulted are bright young women living in the academically highest-achieving sorority governed by its formidable president, Pamela Schumacher. Pamela expertly controls all aspects of her sisters’ lives, from maintenance of the sorority house to fashion advice. On the fatal night when her closest friend is murdered, Pamela crosses paths with the killer (referred to only as “the Defendant”), becoming the only reliable eyewitness.  

Forty-five years later, Pamela, now an attorney, is notified that there is additional information on the crime, and so begins the reader’s journey between past and present. We follow the events of that 1978 night at Florida State University. We meet Tina Cannon who travels to Florida in 1978 to meet Pamela. Tina hopes to link the 1978 atrocities to the 1974 disappearance of her friend in Washington state. The detectives resist connecting the two events, and the many murders and attacks in between, to one killer. 

The triumphs of this novel emerge in Pamela’s and Tina’s narratives. While researching Ted Bundy after I finished this book, I learned even more about the significance of the decisions Knoll has made in crafting this historical fiction. She intentionally addresses how the police and university behaved in the wake of the murders. Knoll takes on the cavalier treatment of the students after the trauma and how they were expected to return to school without additional security or support. She describes the often absurd content of the trials and the cases’ news coverage. She includes the public’s ongoing fascination with the mysterious man who evaded capture and was eagerly embraced as intelligent and attractive despite factual evidence to the contrary. 

The concept of media manipulation of readers and viewers has contemporary resonance. This novel skillfully develops each character’s perspective without losing track of the timeline of evidence. Bright Young Women simultaneously exposes how far society has come and how far it has yet to go in addressing the ways facts are researched and presented.

Bright Young Women is available from HCLS in print and in e-book and e-audiobook formats.

Cherise Tasker is an Adult Instructor and Research Specialist at the Central Branch. When not immersed in literary fiction, Cherise can be found singing along to musical theater soundtracks.