Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Bright Young Women

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

159 reviews

sleepywhippetbookclub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Bright Young Women follows the story of Pamela. When multiple girls are killed or injured by a serial killer, Pamela is the only person who sees him leave. The story follows her experience as witness and president of her sorority whilst the focus of a media frenzy. As the police muck up the investigation, choosing to ignore her testimony despite her credibility, the police craft their own narrative. Then Pamela meets Tina. An older woman whose girlfriend was killed by the same man.

It's not necessarily a fun read but a good book so ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. It can be very unsettling at times and covers a lot of the female experience of the time. I hadn't realised when reading it that it was based upon a true story. The fact that it was, makes an uneasy read even more so. The book laid everything out so there wasn't much mystery to it but perhaps that was the reason for it.

Knoll does an amazing job at keeping all the focus away from the killer which is unusual for this genre, yet exactly what is needed. I generally avoid true crime as so much of it is distasteful and disrespectful, so I'm glad that this wasn't.

It's a little disjointed at times with the jumps between different characters and timelines. It was easy to get lost whilst listening to it on audiobook so I had to switch to the ereader for parts. I found myself mixing up characters because of these jumps which was confusing.

I wouldn't read it again.

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catie_vl's review

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really loved this book, I found it so thought provoking and important. I am someone who enjoys true crime and had an interest in The Defendant, so getting to hear that story from the women’s perspective was so eye opening. I thought that there were some problems with the plot in the sense that the author had too many good ideas and it got a bit jumbled, but I really I thought it was an important read and have already recommended it to a lot of people.

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molliegadd's review

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dark emotional

4.75

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linalmac's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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immabehazzie's review

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I can’t believe that I put reading this book off for so long. I wasn’t sure what I expected, perhaps something like a podcast recounting the events described, but it wasn’t anything like that at all.

I felt disturbed, sad, angry, and so many other emotions while reading this novel. Honestly, that’s exactly how you should feel reading a book like this or hearing about crimes like the ones depicted in this story. Even though this story leads you to believe this is true crime adjacent, this novel does one things those other books, podcasts, and shows don’t do, and that’s focus on the victims and the people who love them and have to grieve them.

This story makes a point of not paying attention to the man who committed the crimes but to the women who were impacted and that is what makes it so good.

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rach_goldman's review against another edition

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challenging tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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journeywithmeow's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was an interesting and gripping read. I enjoyed the vocabulary and overall message/theme. I didn't enjoy the time/character jumping (hard to keep track of what was going on), and the ending felt somewhat rushed towards and abrupt.

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