Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

recommendation from aileen!

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

by Leave a Comment

Recommendation from Aileen! I suppose some mild spoiler alerts for what this book apparently is–thinly veiled shade towards Ted Bundy, who was once called by a judge a “bright young man,” in the vein of all the usual misogyny that we’re used to seeing in the judicial system when faced with the fact that yet another (male) murderer who seemed so normal has gone off the rails. I didn’t really know this part, and honestly I couldn’t really tell you much about Ted Bundy so […]

Changing the Narrative

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

by 1 Comment

To start with, I want to acknowledge that this novel is attempting something noble. Taking the Ted Bundy case for inspiration, author Jessica Knoll seeks to de-sensationalize the serial killer narrative we are all so familiar with. For one thing, her main protagonist, Pamela Schumacher, refuses to use Bundy’s name, instead referring to him solely as “The Defendant.” Through Pamela, Knoll also tries to counteract the narrative that was constructed around him, that he was a handsome, charming, intelligent man who preyed on gullible women. […]

Bright Young Women- suck it Ted Bundy, ya basic.

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

by Leave a Comment

January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds […]

Nevertheless, they persisted

Bright Young Women: A Novel by Jessica Knoll

by 2 Comments

From Harper’s Bazaar, Best Books of 2023: Don’t miss this “breakneck thriller based on Ted Bundy’s heinous crimes [following] two women with connections to the murders and their search for justice…a sharp examination of our culture’s obsession with serial killers and true crime” I was unaware while reading Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women: A Novel that the story was inspired by Ted Bundy’s murders of two sorority girls at Florida State University in 1978. The novel recounts the events and more importantly the aftermath of […]

Bright Young Women

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

by Leave a Comment

I was hesitant to pick up the new novel from Jessica Knoll as I really didn’t care for Luckiest Girl Alive, one of her previous published works which was turned into a Netflix film starring Mila Kunis. But I was pleasantly surpised by Bright Young Women, as it was a refreshing take on the oft cliched true crime drama narrative. Rather than focusing on the perpetrator, Knoll brings attention and humanity to the victims, their friends and their families. The book follows two women across two different […]

Two Star Reviews

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

White Houses by Amy Bloom

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

The Widow by Fiona Barton

by 5 Comments

Tonight’s reviews will focus on books that were a little … disappointing because I have to write those reviews at some point and now is as good a time as any. At least my first lackluster books checks off a few Bingo boxes! CBR Bingo: Reading TBR Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty I put Nine Perfect Strangers on my TBR two months before its release and bought a copy within a week of its debut yet somehow it took me seven months to pick it […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo