Eeee. This book was something. It was a well written story, with thought-out characters & complicated family dynamics, but I still somehow want to erase it from my brain. Many things in this book made me physically ill— one thing in particular is on my list of “no” subjects. So yeah, a brain scrub would be nice.

I feel this book was trying just a little too hard to be a metoo book. Me Too is mentioned several times, and all the drama with all the bad men just seemed like A Lot. Also, It tried too hard to point out all the inequities and the “life is just not fair”s- but it was all in passing like, yup this is the way it is, too bad, so sad. And bam, we’ve moved on to Cassie’s very important problems. ( )

What a ride! When her brother's ex accuses him of rape, Cassie knows it's not true. Her wealthy, somewhat dysfunctional family summons her home to present a united front. But the rape investigation forces Cassie to face some uncomfortable truths about her own past. Her affair with a much older married man may not be as innocent as she desperately tries to make it.

Much of this book centers on a night in March when Billy and Diana drunkenly leave a party. However, since the narrator, Cassie, was not present for most of the key events, the reader discovers the twists, turns and conflicting evidence about Diana and Billy's relationship through courtroom testimony.

The reader quickly discovers that Cassie's not the most truthful of narrators, fully comfortable with rewriting history to serve her narrative. As she breezily introduces the readers to the glitzy world of trust fund millionaires, and her sometimes contentious relationship with her adopted parents and brothers, the story beneath the story starts to peek through. Cassie's a complicated character, fierce yet vulnerable and damaged, manipulative yet loving, and a fighter for what she wants and perceives as truth. The more you get to know her, the more she tugs at your heartstrings.

A profound take on the Me Too movement set amidst a world of wealth and privilege. ( )

Cassie receives a call from her brother Nate that their younger brother, Billy, has been arrested for rape. Cassie knows that he is innocent. When Cassie returns home from her studies at Yale, she is asked to stand by her brother and family in the courtroom. Her parents, Lawrence and Eleanor, are extremely wealthy, and their wealth buys them the best lawyers.
But, as Billy stands trial, Det. Haggerty asks Cassie to tell her own story. As she does, some very disturbing truths about the family come to light.
This was a very difficult book for me to read because I struggled with the subject. It made me ill to think of what Cassie had been subjected to in her young life. I anguished over her and her feelings and how she was manipulated.

When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff is a highly recommended novel that is part domestic thriller and part courtroom drama.

The Quinn family is a uber-wealthy family living in Manhattan. Parents, Lawrence and Eleanor have two sons, Nate and Billy, and an unofficially adopted daughter, Cassie. When Billy Quinn is arrested for a sexually assaulting his girlfriend, Cassie and Nate both go home to support Billy and their parents. The Quins can afford the best attorney money can buy, but Billy's profile, a white, athletic, and privileged male will immediately prejudice the media and potentially a jury against him. Cassie wonders why Billy’s ex-girlfriend Diana would be so vindictive that she make these accusations against him.

The Quinns have secrets that they need to keep that way, but they all ban together to unflinchingly support Billy. As Cassie narrates the story, we learn about the preparations for Billy's defense but it is also revealed that Cassie had a sexual relationship as a teen with an older married man named Marcus. She claims the relationship was consensual, but that is in question as she now ponders how it’s affected her life.

Readers are presented a challenge immediately at the start of When We Were Bright and Beautiful. For many of us it is a challenge to love wealthy, entitled, condescending, obnoxious characters from NYC who always believe they can change things to suit them and whine when things don't go their way. And this family is very, very dysfunctional. Additionally, Cassie, who is the narrator, seems like an unreliable narrator. You will know that you probably aren't getting a complete picture of reality.

There is a lot of information that needs to be shared but Cassie, as mentioned, isn't reliable or succinctly sharing facts, so the information seems to trickle out. It felt slow moving at the beginning for me. But then, after the half way point, everything flips upside down and sideways, bringing more clarity to Cassie's unsteadiness and what I felt was odd behavior at times. The courtroom scenes reveal more than facts about Billy's case.

There is foreshadowed by Cassie slowly revealing information leading up to the trial which also changes your perception of her. It is at this point that you will recall previous hints at the dark secrets and what was happening in this family. The ending is volatile as the breadth of the deeply hidden and shocking secrets and trauma is exposed. This is a heartbreaking novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/06/when-we-were-bright-and-beautiful.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4802377702 ( )