Scan barcode
A review by sarah2438
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
4.0
I think I need some time to digest this and then come back. I read this VERY quickly because I was so caught up in it. The writing is so well done! I'm glad I decided early on to annotate because I was constantly underlining sentences. Opening to a random page for example, I underlined "He wants to extinguish us-- we are the ones who remind him that he's not that smart, not that good-looking, that there's nothing particularly special about him." Another: "For weeks, I'd been a wave cresting, searching for a shore on which to break. I immediately dissolved into my mother's arms." These are just a couple of random quotes but they get to the heart of this novel. It's so much bigger than a murder mystery.
And, I have to say that at times that was to it's disadvantage. I think what holds me back here is that the book tried to tackle too much. It was destined to be more than a murder mystery, I wholeheartedly agree with that. But there were so many topics the author wanted to cover all at the same time, that I think it did a disservice to them. These topics include: familial homophobia, victim compensation in legal cases, unethical prosecutorial/investigative practices, buried trauma, internalized homophobia, and more. These are explored through several different perspectives that also take place at different times, to the point that I started to get confused which character was narrating-- "is this Ruth in 1974 reflecting on her relationship with her mother, or is it Pamela in 2021? Was it Pamela's dad that died or was it Tina's or Ruth's?" It's ambitious to try to pull off such well rounded characters over several decades with alternating chapters, and I think it just didn't quite work as well as I wanted it to. Still, I think this was a phenomenal read and I'm looking forward to a re-read after some distance. Highly recommend.
And, I have to say that at times that was to it's disadvantage. I think what holds me back here is that the book tried to tackle too much. It was destined to be more than a murder mystery, I wholeheartedly agree with that. But there were so many topics the author wanted to cover all at the same time, that I think it did a disservice to them. These topics include: familial homophobia, victim compensation in legal cases, unethical prosecutorial/investigative practices, buried trauma, internalized homophobia, and more. These are explored through several different perspectives that also take place at different times, to the point that I started to get confused which character was narrating-- "is this Ruth in 1974 reflecting on her relationship with her mother, or is it Pamela in 2021? Was it Pamela's dad that died or was it Tina's or Ruth's?" It's ambitious to try to pull off such well rounded characters over several decades with alternating chapters, and I think it just didn't quite work as well as I wanted it to. Still, I think this was a phenomenal read and I'm looking forward to a re-read after some distance. Highly recommend.