The truth is something people will go to great lengths to keep for themselves. It shouldn't feel like a gift when you get it, but it is.
Bright Young Women
by Jessica Knoll
Genre: Historical Fiction / Thriller
About: After a horrific attack takes place at a sorority house, Pamela is determined to get justice. She's the only eye witness who can identify the attacker, but she's soon to learn that it doesn't matter how unimpeachable her testimony is, or how innocent the victim, there can be two versions of the same event - and it's the man's version the world is waiting with bated breath to hear.
Thoughts
This book. I'm sure essays could be written about the criminal justice system and its failure to women, highlighting this book as the way we should frame these crimes: from the POV of the victims and not glorifying the perpetrators. This is how you listen to women. While this is a fictionalised account of a famous serial killer's spree, it feels far too real. The writing is gripping, the failures of the police and press are absolutely infuriating, and the portrayal of the women give this novel not only its voice, but its heart.
I could not stop turning the pages, I cared so much about the characters and more than it being entertaining (which it is), it really made me think. The men who commit these violent crimes against women are not masterminds but they are able to exploit our society that would rather women keep dying than bruise a man's pride.
I've recommended this book to a bunch of my friends and family. This was a book with a brilliant concept, executed to perfection. It was simply Pam Perfect.
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