Breakaway Books

Authored by Jessica Knoll; Published September 2023; Thriller/Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

In some ways, Bright Young Women reminded me of the Barbie movie. As pink and fun as it appeared, what shone through when I watched it was the generation of women older than mine coming to terms with the impossible being asked of them. Similarly, Bright Young Women sends its readers back and forth between today and the 1970s, and subsequently even further, as the heroines struggle against a justice system that seems stacked against them. It occasionally made me gasp in horror, not just at gruesome murders, but at the slightly less than human way women were treated.

The novel plunges you right in with a murder in a sorority house, and instantly, the heroine and narrator, Pamela, starts her ultimately disappointing search for justice. Pamela’s courage is splashed all over every page. As she becomes more and more cognizant of the inadequacies of the justice system, she doesn’t give up or wallow in self-pity, but becomes more and more determined to change the world that allowed itself to be this way. The reader has a front-row view to her realizations that society is consistently demanding that she meet ridiculously high expectations, that she read the minds and meet the desires of the men around her.

 The plot was frustratingly realistic–female witnesses not being believed, gay women constantly cast aside as criminal. But, it was also exceedingly well-paced: this was a tough book to put down. I wouldn’t say there’s a ton of mystery in terms of the “who-done-it” aspect, and yet, somehow the author still managed to make it so very suspenseful. She masterfully wove together the stories of the evolution of three separate women, all very different, into a satisfying compilation. 

This isn’t necessarily a light-hearted book that I’d pick up for the beach. If you’re already down in the dumps about the state of women in American society, I’d definitely skip this one. But if you love true crime, and you feel ready for a fight, Bright Young Women is a great novel to pick up.