A review by uhnaisja
When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

• admirable handling of a difficult subject matter, littered with the nuance and moral dubiousness that many approach the matter of sexual assault with:  the baggage people bring with them in discussing potential victims, abusers, and the people who find themselves compelled to support either or.
• tackles the immense failures of the justice system w/r/t its handling of sexual misconduct, how trauma and violence is made into a spectacle, a debate,  narrativized and reduced to “he-said, she-said.”
• the prose muddied the storytelling, making the narrative and character arc difficult to follow at times. while i’m sure this was purposeful, meant to exemplify the complexities of processing trauma and coming to terms with one’s victimhood, it didn’t work for me. the dialogue was non-linear and at times bizarre: character responses seemed disproportionate to the lines that preceded them, and the clear-eyed, self-aware, logical  persona of the main character did not make match in the context of what was actually displayed to readers. again: i am sure this was an intentional narrative choice, but the characterization of each member of the Quinn family—particularly Cassie—could have been tighter, less “purple,” more observable to readers and less reliant on explanation.
• additionally, some of the language leaned too heavily into real-world phrases and specific movements, at the expense of letting the narrative  unfold organically and its message to stand on its own, leaving the book vulnerable to being contained to a particular audience who might already have an understanding or awareness of what the author hoped to convey through Cassie’s lens on her brother’s trial. although not inherently problematic, given the way subtleties have been wielded throughout this book, in a way i argue limits the story and its moral—through its grayness—i think it does not best serve the author’s intentions.
• a raw, valuable read that was at times difficult to bear, but ultimately too self-aware to hit on the grittiness implied by its plot and subject.