"They will call you hysterical no matter how much dignity you have." This novel is historical fiction, but also so much of it was full of actual facts from a real case, so it felt familiar to me as someone who has read about the original case. I really liked that the killer was never named in this book, he has never deemed worthy of being treated as a person who has a name in the eyes of Pamela and Tina. I felt that the time setting was exemplified well with the constant sexism and misogyny present throughout the book, which I found to be very aggravating😡. It's hard to know exactly how realistic this is, but my gut says that it was quite realistic for 1978, and I think it was meant to enrage the contemporary reader. I think it was meant to show how there were expectations for Pamela despite her situation and devastating emotional state. There were judgments made about all of the characters: Ruth was a victim-- why, what did she do (victim blaming)? Pamela was a young female witness, could her perspective be trusted as evidence? It seems like the authorities were quick to dismiss or disparage her. The Defendant was male and well spoken and some thought good looking, so he was afforded many privileges and leeway despite the murder charges against him. I loved seeing Pamela's strength of character and sense of justice, her desire to help out her sorority sisters and do what was best for her dead best friend's memory. I found Ruth's point of view tough to read for a lot of pages, but it was nice to see her grow into herself and discover more about who she is and start her own life. I loved that this book shows the complex inner thoughts and feelings of both of our main two female characters, and especially Pamela who was also a victim in her own way. I liked that this focused more on characters we don't hear a ton about, neither an obsession with the perpetrator nor a glorification of angelic dead victims. One element that we see is how Tina has to behave and hold herself a certain way when she is working on getting her therapy education and is doing a demonstration in a room full of men. Then we see how Pamela must manage the emotions of everyone but especially the men around her instead of being the one taken care of. This really hit home for me and was quite impactful to read. The reporter Carl sucked, Ruth's life was pretty depressing. I felt that when the time jumped forward to more current years with Pamela that this was a relatively weaker plot line. I saw some complaints in the reviews that this book mixed true facts with fiction and that the whole thing would have worked better had it been all fiction, so as to not dismiss any true actual real life victims, but also to be something new and different for people who are already know the case. Some reviewers also felt that the time jumps and perspective jumps were too confusing. I also saw some commentary about how though the author discusses all of the media glorifying or constantly rehashing the real life killer, her critique was that this is not good, and her book focuses more on the victims over the killer. However some point out that essentially this book is still more media that is contributing to the overall oeuvre on this killer? 🤔 I like this quote that I read in a review: "Because the story truly is about the young women here who are the bright ones, finally recognizing their own worth and intelligence. But it's also a story about male incompetence; men wanting The Defendant to be smart to mask their own mistakes... Or to use as a stepping stone to his own fame and glory."

Was this the worst book I've ever read? No. Was it internally consistent or even, frankly, coherent? Again, no.