Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

An extraordinary novel inspired by the real-life sorority targeted by America's first celebrity serial killer in his final murderous spree.

January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades.

On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years of hardship. A chance encounter brings twenty-five-year-old Ruth Wachowsky into her life, a young woman with painful secrets of her own, and the two form an instant connection. When Ruth goes missing from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of beachgoers on a beautiful summer day, Tina devotes herself to finding out what happened to her. When she hears about the tragedy in Tallahassee, she knows it’s the man the papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer. Determined to make him answer for what he did to Ruth, she travels to Florida on a collision course with Pamela—and one last impending tragedy.

Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and primetime specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.

Genre: Historical Fiction; Mystery Thriller

Publication Date: September 19, 2023

My Thoughts: This book is a dual point of view and shifts time and place as well. I don't generally mind this but I like the two viewpoints to be balanced. This time I did not feel like I got that. On the one hand we have Pamela who has a type A personality, but she owns it and honestly it made her character charming and likeable for me -- although that could be because I'm pretty type A myself. On the other hand, we have Ruth. She is one of the earlier victims and while I appreciate look at the homophobia – and absolutely awful mothers – in the 70s, these chapters were the weak point for me. I never felt connected to Ruth. Partly I think because we already know her fate through meeting Tina, but also because Tina herself is a lot more interesting in her life both before and after Ruth! Her chapters were an annoyance to me honestly, I always wanted to get back to Pamela.

The premise of this story based on the serial killer Ted Bundy irritated me and I'm glad the author took it on. The myth of Bundy being some kind of charismatic genuis seems to be born of the police conjuring excuses for why they failed to catch him, and when they did… repeatedly allowed him to escape. His crimes were sloppy, and he did repeatedly caught on his visits to different states! It was luck more than brains that kept him free for as long as he was. He was also not all that charming. There is anecdotal evidence out there of women he’d approached that found him creepy and turned him down. Most of his victims he attacked when they were defenceless in their sleep! The people he really charmed were the men in the media just out to sell a good story and we can thank the chauvinism of the 70's for that. Ultimately, I wanted to be more invested in this story than I was. I gave this one 3.5 stars.