An unflinching yet humorous perspective on modern campus life, from the highs of the non-stop party scene to the lows of prescription drug abuse, exploring issues of body dysmorphia and campus sexual assault. An alternating perspective between students Stella, a sorority member, and Penny, a campus loner. Perfect for fans of Mona Awad’s Bunny, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, with a nod to the campus literary tradition of Elif Batuman’s Either/Or.
THE GILDED BUTTERFLY EFFECT, the brilliant debut novel by award-winning author Heather Colley, provides a hilarious but unflinching look at today’s U.S. college campus experience, from the highs and lows of the non-stop party scene to the absurdities of modern psychiatric care, the implications of prescription drug abuse and campus sexual assault. The book alternates between chapters narrated by Stella, a sorority girl, and Penny, a loner who travels to Ann Arbor from her small liberal arts college, as they experience the start of the academic year.
Stella is dealing with the aftermath of a freshman-year relationship with Trip Swindle – the self-styled leader of a “top-tier” fraternity known as The Church – which culminated in a traumatic event that haunts Stella and causes her to manipulate her psychiatrist to obtain anti-depressants, “uppers,” and appetite suppressants. As Stella tries to sort out her romantic life, the fraternity brothers, led by Trip, begin their annual “Pig Roast” contest, competing to bed and photograph those they view as the most unattractive women on campus.
Stella and Penny become close friends, and eventually form an uncanny and obsessive relationship that makes them both feel as though they’re looking at alternative versions of themselves. They spiral downward simultaneously, all the while trying to maintain a façade of impossible beauty standards, non-stop partying, and campus elitism.
THE GILDED BUTTERFLY EFFECT: A Novelby Heather Colley
ISBN: 978-1-953103-62-8; $18; October 21, 2025; 274 pages;
Three Rooms Press; Trade Paper Original
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About the Author
Heather Colley is an award-winning writer and academic. Her short fiction has won widespread recognition, including The Oxford Review of Books Short Fiction Prize (2023), the Hopwood Award (2019), and was short-listed for the Desperate Literature short fiction award. Similarly, her academic work has received various awards including the prestigious DC Watt Prize from the Transatlantic Studies Association. She is a doctoral student in English Literature at the University of Oxford where she is also a postgraduate member of the Rothermere American Institute and a British Library Research Fellow. She currently splits her time between Oxford and New York.
