Bright Young Women

“I have since come to loathe the day most people look forward to all week, its false sense of security, its disingenuous promise of freedom and fun.”

Pamela thinks about her lingering dislike of Saturdays, the day on which the murders took place. Her thoughts shows how she never felt innocent or fun-loving after the attack, because she could never truly feel safe again. Pamela was a young woman when the murders occurred, but she lost her sense of youthful innocence and joy.

“I thought we needed to start cleaning up the bloodstains Jill had left on the carpet before they set, and this made absolute sense to me at the time.”

This quotation describes Pamela’s immediate reaction after seeing her friends’ gruesome injuries. She’s in shock and unable to process the situation, which conveys how traumatic it is. In her state of shock, she defaults to competence and order, which shows what she values and what she thinks is expected of her. Pamela’s stunned reaction of fixating on cleaning the house shows both the social conditioning of young women into domestic norms and her instinct to try to resolve problems and restore order.

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

Tina says this to Pamela shortly after the murders, cautioning the younger woman not to fixate on good behavior. At first, Pamela has faith in authorities and systems, and she thinks that playing by the rules will ensure a good outcome. Tina is more cynical and pragmatic because she has seen what happened after Ruth disappeared. She uses the term “hysterical,” a word used to malign women for being “irrational” to convey that as a young woman, Pamela won’t be taken seriously no matter what she tries to do.

“I read his rather prosaic-sounding name for the first time in that moment, but some years ago I vowed to stop using it.”

Throughout the novel, Pamela only refers to the man who murdered her friends as The Defendant and never uses his name. This comment reveals her decision not to do so. The reason for her choice is that she doesn’t ever want to contribute to valorizing a man whom she portrays as mediocre. In addition, she wants him to be remembered as a nameless entity who was eventually caught and executed, not as any sort of criminal genius identifiable by name.

“Law enforcement would rather we remember a dull man as brilliant than take a good hard look at the role they played in this absolute sideshow.”

This quote reveals Pamela’s consistent disgust and disdain toward police and the legal system because of how they consistently mishandle The Defendant’s case. While Pamela is angry with the violent man who killed and hurt her friends, she’s equally furious with the people who failed to stop him from committing his terrible crimes. Her view undermines the myth that Ted Bundy was a sophisticated genius and argues instead that law enforcement was too incompetent to stop him from preying on women.

“I’d advise you not to spend time alone with the woman, Pamela. I’d advise you not to spend any time with her at all, for your own safety.”

The Florida sheriff investigating the sorority attack says this to Pamela, warning her to stay away from Tina. Law enforcement sees Tina as an irrational and potentially dangerous woman who could disrupt their investigation; they also distrust Tina because she’s assertive and because they know she was in a romantic relationship with Ruth. The quote is ironic because Tina is the only person working effectively to keep Pamela and others safe; she correctly intuits that The Defendant is the true threat and that no one is safe until he’s recaptured.

“You heard his footsteps overheard, and you pursued him. That takes a set of steel, Pamela. Everyone should be calling you a hero.”

In this quote, Tina praises Pamela’s courage. As the investigation drags on and the suspect isn’t caught, Pamela begins to doubt herself and feel incompetent. Tina helps rebuild Pamela’s confidence, showing that she’s a strong source of mentorship and support to the younger woman.

“Though it would be a service to the women of Tallahassee to put him away for life, a felony charge was sure to only bolster the police theory that this was their guy.”

Pamela voices why she feels conflicted about pressing charges against Roger. She knows that Roger is violent and dangerous, but she also knows that he wasn’t the man who killed Denise and Roberta. As Pamela sees increasing examples of police incompetence, she grows increasingly afraid that The Defendant will go free if they find someone else to blame.

“There is substantive evidence that points to no plan at all, points to nothing but ego as his predominant guiding force.”

Pamela reflects on how The Defendant has been valorized and celebrated as some kind of criminal genius. Pamela considers this story false and connects it to a larger pattern of celebrating masculine mediocrity while neglecting women’s ambitions. Pamela instead portrays The Defendant as irrational and reactive, making poorly thought-out decisions that only work because police and the law are likewise incompetent.

“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.”

Tina says this when she conducts a mock therapy session onstage at an academic conference, with Ruth in the audience. The patient Tina is working with is expressing anger while trapped in a traditional domestic role that she feels frustrated by, and Tina takes an unconventional approach by validating that anger. The quotation shows Tina’s keen observation of social and gender norms and how they often invalidate women’s experiences.

“Your fiancé wasn’t Ivy material. So you’re going to the school you both got into, the one with a goofy name that is criminally beneath you.”

Tina says this to Pamela during an argument, rebuking Pamela for not striving to follow her ambitions. Pamela was accepted to Columbia Law School but she plans to attend a much less prestigious school so that she can be with her fiancé. Tina challenges Pamela to rethink this plan and consider what her desires and ambitions truly are.

“He wants to extinguish us—we are the ones who remind him that he’s not that smart, not that good-looking, that there’s nothing particularly special about him.”

Tina says this as she muses on why the women The Defendant kills represent an unusual choice. They aren’t anonymous or vulnerable. Instead, he seems to target women who have high potential. Tina shares her theory that The Defendant hates women who remind him of his own mediocrity.

“Rising from the couch, hand extended in Deb’s direction, she punched out.”

This quote describes the moment when, after her wealthy husband dies, Tina decides to accept the portion of his fortune that has been willed to her and not fight for more. Her stepchildren have always disliked and distrusted her, and Tina wants to simply be free from the unhappiness of her marriage. The metaphor of “punching out” alludes to how Tina’s mother compared marrying a wealthy and much older man to taking on a job with a good retirement plan. It shows that Tina didn’t see her marriage as based on love or connection but as a task to secure her financial future.

“So he did what all politicians do when they need to rehabilitate their image—he found a straw man. For Tucker, The Defendant was a godsend.”

This quote reveals one aspect of the mistakes and misconduct that led to The Defendant being at large when the sorority attacks occurred. The Colorado District Attorney was facing a scandal prior to re-election, so he rushed preparations to extradite The Defendant to Colorado to face a murder trial. Because of the haste and carelessness, a chain of events led to The Defendant being able to escape twice in Colorado. He was recaptured the first time, but after the second escape, he traveled to Florida and committed further crimes.

“After a boom of buzzy, media-driven notoriety […] there was enough awareness around the idea that a deranged killer could be masquerading as the friendly usher at your church that anyone imprinted with that dark pathology was forced to tap into a different victim pool in order to keep hunting.”

In this passage, Pamela describes the history of serial killers in the US and how the type of victims they tended to target gradually changed. The murders committed by Bundy and other serial killers in the 1970s tended to involve fairly ordinary people whose deaths or disappearances would quickly be noticed; Pamela describes how, over time, serial killers tended to target individuals like sex workers or unhoused individuals, whose disappearances raised less attention.

“Kimberly and I were at last in sync with our experience of time. Feeling like there wasn’t nearly enough for all the things we had to do.”

Pamela reflects on how The Defendant killed his final victim while she unknowingly went about an ordinary day on campus. She grimly reflects on how terrible it was that The Defendant killed a 12-year-old girl and highlights how Kimberley’s life was cut short even though she would have had hopes and aspirations for her future.

“I may never know exactly what I endured those four days my mother thought I was dead, but I knew I had suffered, and that wasn’t for nothing. It returned a modicum of control, a sense of agency over my choices in life.”

Pamela learns a secret that her mother has hidden throughout her life: When she was a toddler, she was abducted and was missing for several days before being found. Learning this information gives Pamela peace and allows her to make sense of her life. While learning the truth doesn’t change the reality of Pamela’s history, it does help her feel better. The quotation shows the important role that truth can play in providing closure and the ability to move on.

“That weekend, in the house where I was once as much a stranger to myself as I was to the man I thought I thought I would marry, I got to know the one I did.”

Pamela reflects on an unusual coincidence that led to her meeting her husband. While she briefly met David in law school, she encountered him again because he was the great-nephew of the woman who took her in immediately after the attacks. Pamela contrasts two of her past selves: the confident and successful woman in her thirties, and the timid and compliant college student. She also contrasts her early relationship with Brian, which was an unhappy relationship, to her later, much happier partnership with David.

“Though any flashes of brilliance in that bleak room emanated directly from Veronica Ramira, no one wanted to remember it that way.”

Pamela is being deposed by an attorney named Veronica Ramira, who is part of The Defendant’s defense team. Pamela discredits the idea that The Defendant had a talented legal team and praises Ramira instead. She also points out the persistent pattern in which The Defendant is given more credit than he deserves.

“I know better than anyone that All-American Sex Killers are not born, that they come from broken and battered homes, human systems that fail them well before they reach the penal ones.”

Pamela eventually became interested in mediation and helped support women and children in abusive homes. While Pamela never shows sympathy for The Defendant, she does acknowledge that social problems lead to criminal behavior. She can’t go back and change what happened to her friends, but she can do her best to minimize the number of kids who will grow up to be violent criminals.

“I’d seen him and I’d gone with him anyway, because he’d asked for my help, and I’d already denied it to my mother that day. I’d have been a real bitch to tell someone no for the second time in twenty-four hours.”

Ruth thinks about why she willingly got into a car with The Defendant. She was suspicious of the strange man but went with him because, as a woman, she was socialized to be polite and compliant, especially toward men. Ironically, Ruth dies on the same day that she decisively stands up to her family; while this decision empowers her, it also leaves her vulnerable. Ruth is unable to set boundaries twice in the same day, so she falls prey to the manipulation of a dangerous man.

“You are a bright young man […] you’d have made a good lawyer, and I’d have loved to have you practice in front of me.”

In delivering the final verdict, the judge ruling on The Defendant’s trial speaks these words (which accurately reflect the judgment ruled against Ted Bundy). In the novel, Pamela hears these words when she encounters a group of women watching a recording of the verdict in a coffee shop decades later. The quotation shows how even the judge, who knew all the details of The Defendant’s heinous crimes, was sympathetic to him and focused on the criminal’s potential rather than on the lives of the women he killed.

“They should be irate that effort and money had gone into dusting off the story and telling it again for a new generation, only for the filmmaker to wear the same blinders as the men who wrote the headlines forty years ago.”

In this passage, Pamela alludes to the 2019 film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which stars Zac Efron as Ted Bundy. Pamela argues that the film still celebrates Bundy/The Defendant, presenting him as intelligent, calculated, and charismatic. The quote offers an implicit contrast between this film and the novel, suggesting that the novel is trying to describe these crimes from a genuinely different and subversive perspective.