by: Jessica Knoll
Goodreads description:
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.
Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓 3/4
This was a fictional retelling of Ted Bundy’s murderous attacks on a sorority house at FSU in the late 70’s. The beginning was very scary and instantly sucked me in…however, this book is DARK and definitely not for everyone. I liked it less and less as I kept reading just because it started to drag. It really picked up in the end though with the trial and the vindication of his electric chair sentencing. Do yourself a favor and wait to google Ted Bundy until after you have finished the book. I knew a bit about him, but wanted to go blindly into the book and it better kept my attention that way.
Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓3/4
This book started out GREAT! Then it deviated and became a little hard to follow (maybe because I got a little confused and lost some interest?). Instead of focusing on Ted Bundy, this book calls him out for what he was, a psychopathic serial killer, not so handsome, and not so smart, and focuses on the women who survived and did not survive his attacks. I was completely hooked for half of the book, then disconnection set in. This one is for some, but not for all. I would like to read her other book, Luckiest Girl Alive. This book would make a great movie – it seems like it may have been written for that.
Helen and Holly Hit the Books 