A review by poojag
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

She perched on the edge of the bed, delicately, so counter to the coarse physicality we showed each other at The House that I discovered a new loss to mourn.

Women generally had more troubles than men, and it was the men, generally, who were trained to treat them.

In-fan-til-iz-ing?”
“It’s when people treat perfectly capable adults like children,” she said, “and they tend to do it to young women.”

“They will call you hysterical no matter how much dignity you have. So you might as well do whatever the hell you want.”

It was indigestible, all the methods humans had devised to inflict more suffering.

“I’d like to propose that anger in women is treated as a character disorder, as a problem to be solved, when oftentimes it is entirely appropriate, given the circumstances that trigger it.”

Women got that feeling about him, that funny one we all get when we know something isn’t right, but we don’t know how to politely extricate ourselves from the situation without escalating the threat of violence or harassment. That is not a skill women are taught, the same way men are not taught that it is okay to leave a woman alone if what she wants is to be left alone.

—nature is the very best example of integration. Things grow differently when they’re damaged, showing us how to occupy strange new ground to bloom red instead of green. We can be found, brighter than before.
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