Bright Young Women: A Novel

So good!! I didn’t know until reading further that this was modeled after the Ted Bundy story. What a fascinating, powerful take about the strength of women and what we are capable of especially when trauma occurs!

Terrifying! The pace was thrilling and the story was dramatically accurate. I was drawn back to listening even though I was terrified of the inevitable outcome.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster/Mary Sue Rucci Books for this book in exchange for my honest review.

What I loved about this book was the author’s ability to dive deep into the characters. I had an innate need to find out how they were and what happened to them. Also, I’m a true crime fan, so this was a well-known story for me, and I think the author told the story quite well.

However, there were quite a few grammatical mistakes in this pre-published book. Also, the author said all of the characters and situations were fictional, but she mentioned several of Ted Bundy’s real victims and their true crime situations.

I do like how the author set up the ending, though. She did complete the story quite well.

I was in a sorority in the early seventies. Pretty close to the timeframe of the Ted Bundy terrorization of the FSU Chi Omega house, upon which this story was based. I don’t remember too much about it. Was not on my radar, but I graduated in 1977 and for some reason, I missed it when it happened. But I sure did a lot of googling about it to learn more, as I was reading this book. Pamela Schumacher, the sorority President, was a serious-minded young women who really cared about getting justice for her friends. The stories were heart-breaking. Makes you think about the monsters out there, and learning lessons from the victims who will not die in vain. The past and present were very well-integrated to reveal the killer’s comeuppance, and the victims’ vindication. Although it was late in coming.

I have weird feelings about the mixing of fact with fiction in this book since it gives a bit of an odd tone. It also feels a touch on the long side for a story where the outcome is known, but it gets points for portraying Bundy as a rather dumb and insecure criminal in a system wrought with failure rather than the mastermind he’s glamorized as in popular media.