Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

49 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder, Medical content, and Car accident

paeten_'s review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love that this book never shares The Defendant's name. So often, books are written almost worshipping serial killers. Making them out to be much more intelligent, good looking, cunning, etc. than they really are while their victims are made out to be weak and unable to protect themselves. It's very refreshing to read a book that does the opposite! He's not that smart, not that handsome, and not that charismatic. He was just a bad man who made it his life purpose to hurt women and girls.

That being said, I wish the survivors and families of the victims had been given a voice, rather than fictionalized versions of them. Would be 5 stars if they had been included!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Stalking

Minor: Eating disorder, Pedophilia, and Kidnapping

_meganrose's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Men and their fragile egos are an absolute disgrace. The actions. The inactions. The manipulation. The willingness to be manipulated. An absolute disgrace and I hope that everyone who played a role in the holes that enabled such a horrible human to do what he did live/lived the rest of their lives with a never-ending pit of shame consuming them. That, of course, would take having enough emotional intelligence and humility to recognize their mistakes. But I digress.

I respect that the author refused to use his name. Because quite frankly, it has always bothered me how he has been romanticized and portrayed in media. Only recently have I started to hear criticism on this, which means we are at least moving in the forward direction as a society (I hope).

4 stars because the perspective was refreshing, the belittlement of such a despicable human being was well overdue being warranted, and I couldn’t put it down.

That being said, it wasn’t an enjoyable reading experience so I don’t feel right giving 5 stars. This is no fault to the author. The darkness of this book was heavy and will haunt me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual assault, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

livbell's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

The description of the night of the event is very graphic.

hardcover_hazel's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a powerful book. We follow the true crime story of serial killer Ted Bundy but told from a fictional perspective. Pamela survives the onslaught left behind in her sorority dorm when he murders and maims two sorority sisters.

We follow a lot of his true crime story here, and see how much praise and credit he got from the press which was definitely not deserved. 

I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the feminine take on how things were in the world at this time. I listened to this as an audiobook and the details of the law proceedings and admin details read by this reader was just not for me 😩 I might have enjoyed it more as a physical copy. The reader was perfect though, giving a wonderful voice to Pamela.

The rest of the story was incredible. Pick it up if you:
- love true crime
- want more victim focus than praising the serial killer focus
- are a feminist 
- support woman’s rights (and wrongs - not that there are many in the book)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol

uniquelymace's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Confinement and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror, Eating disorder, Blood, and Medical content

themis_biblos's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

 I have such mixed feelings about this. The idea, the writing, the discussions it provokes should all be five stars. However:
1. In the acknowledgements Knoll thanks Kathy Kleiner Rubin, giving the impression that Knoll spoke to her and had her permission to tell this, albeit fictional, story. I've since seen people allegedly close to Kathy saying that that never happened. I'm sceptical - if that's true, Rubin's name surely wouldn't have made it into the acknowledgements? I don't know.
2. I loved, loved, loved the way Knoll discusses what a pathetic man The Defendant in reality was - contrary to how he was and continues to be portrayed, what the women (both those who survived and those who didn't) went through - not just on the night it happened, but after in the news, in the courtroom, in the public. How they were judged, written and gossipped about without their consent or input. However - why then did Knoll choose to write about them yet again, even if in this case the focus was on the women? She could have made it entirely fictional and it still would have hit.
3. A minor detail: It drove me up the wall how Knoll had the characters speak through their body language, but then always explained what gestures meant in italics right after!

But all that said, I was still impressed and moved and sad. 

 "They just don't want her to get hysterical," I said in the family's defense. Tina scoffed. "And so? What's wrong with being hysterical? It's a hysterical thing that happened." 

 I'd been asked to go over it so many times already that I was starting to feel like certain aspects of my story were more hindrance than help, that I ought to simplify it. No one tells you that the truest stories are the messy, unwieldy ones, that you will be tempted to trim in the places that make people scratch their heads. It takes fortitude to remain a true and constant witness, and I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

betag1013's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail