“They will call you hysterical no matter how much dignity you have. So you might as well do whatever the hell you want.”
Looking for your next thrilling read? Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Women hooked readers everywhere, totally flipping the true-crime genre on its head. Rather than glorifying a charismatic killer, Knoll delivered a blistering, empathetic story rooted in the intelligence, courage, and resilience of the victims. Finding a book that matches that level of suspense, emotional depth, and biting social commentary is no small feat. If you’re craving a mystery that couples relentless pacing with powerful feminist themes and unforgettable female leads, you’re in the right place. From propulsive historical thrillers to complex psychological suspense centred on justice and female rage, we’ve curated the best books like Bright Young Women. Get your reading list ready – these page-turners will keep you up long past your bedtime and leave you thinking about them for weeks to come.
Bright Young Women Summary
Tallahassee, 1978. Sorority president Pamela Schumacher wakes to a shocking scene of implausible violence and death, and is drawn into a mystifying crime that grips the nation for decades. In Seattle, Tina Cannon connects her best friend’s disappearance to the Tallahassee tragedy, and is convinced that a single man is responsible.
Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation. Bright Young Women is an unflinching thriller based on Ted Bundy’s heinous crimes, as two women search for justice in the wake of his brutal murders.
Notes On An Execution – Danya Kukafka
First up on our list of books like Bright Young Women is Danya Kukafka’s chilling portrait of womanhood and the American justice system, Notes on an Execution. Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.
Through a kaleidoscope of women, we learn the story of Ansel’s life. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.
I Have Some Questions For You – Rebecca Makkai
A successful professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past – the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thaila’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated, Bodie prefers to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? As she falls down the rabbit hole she swore she would avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she in fact knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
On The Savage Side – Tiffany McDaniel
Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. Together, they create a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist’s dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping on the ground, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere.
But the two sisters can’t escape the generational chaos that grips their family. Growing up in the shadow of the town, the sisters cling to one another. As an adult, Arcade wrestles with these memories of her life, just as a local woman is discovered drowned in the river. Soon, more bodies are found. Similar to Bright Young Women, On the Savage Side is drawn from a true story and is a powerful literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere.
The Maidens – Alex Michaelides
Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this, Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike – especially by the members of a secret society of female students known as the Maidens.
Mariana, who was once a student herself at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationship. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything.
Check Out Our The Maidens Book Review
They Never Learn – Layne Fargo
Every year, Scarlett Clark searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing too much attention to herself – yet, as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Everything’s going according to plan, until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. All she wants to do is focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident, and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is attacked at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay, and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.
The Girls – Emma Cline
Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, and their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerising older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader.
Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run-down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged – a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realise she is careening toward unthinkable violence- and to that moment in every girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.
Check Out The Best Books Where The Main Character Spirals
Girl A – Abigail Dean
Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents – her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars.
But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings – and with the childhood they endured.
All Good People Here – Ashley Flowers
Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a dispatch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. In the twenty years since, Margot Davies has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.
Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. The deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, the colder January’s case feels. Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbours capable of when they think no one is watching?
More Than You’ll Ever Know – Katie Gutierrez
Lore Rivera was married to two men at once, until a baking-hot day in 1986, one of them found out and shot the other. A secret double life, a tragic murder. That’s the story the world knows. It’s not the story that fascinates Cassie Bowman. Carrying the weight of her own family tragedy, Cassie wants to know more about the mysterious woman at the centre of it all.
To her surprise, Cassie finds that Lore is willing to talk. To finally tell her heartbreaking story – about how a dance became an affair; how a marriage became murder. As the two women grow closer, Cassie finds she can’t help but confess her own darkest secrets. But when she slowly starts to realise that there might be more to the night of the murder than anyone has realised, can either woman face up to the thing they’ve been hiding from: the truth?
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
