The Gilded Butterfly Effect - by Heather Colley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Fans of Mona Awad's Bunny and Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation rejoice--your newest "weird girl" antiheroes are finally here in this unflinching feminist campus novel.​

When introverted loner Penny transfers to a Midwest university in search of the all-American college experience, she finds herself under the intoxicating influence of Stella, a glamorous, damaged sorority girl with a razor-sharp wit and a bottle full of secrets. As their unlikely friendship deepens into obsession, both young women spiral into a hall of mirrors--haunted by frat-house cruelties and the brutal expectations of modern femininity.​

"A powerful exploration of what it means to survive, and transform, in the gilded cage of modern campus life." --BookTrib​

"Think Mean Girls on uppers. By turns savage and sympathetic, Heather Colley's The Gilded Butterfly Effect skewers the absurd theatre of college life with ferocious wit and style." --Damian Fowler, author of Falling Through Clouds

Review Quotes

"A sharply written trip into dark academia." --Forbes Magazine

"Raw, witty, and irreverent--a sharp interrogation of the rust that lies beneath the gilded cage of the glamorous sorority life." --Independent Book Review

"A powerful exploration of what it means to survive, and transform, in the gilded cage of modern campus life." --BookTrib

"Heather Colley has a sharp mind indeed, and that gift for dialogue, wry humor, and witty observations results in a fierce, funny, and fearless novel that fans of campus adventures are sure to find irresistible. . . . A real must-read for fans of 'weird girl' antiheroes, The Gilded Butterfly Effect is an uplifting, emotive tale." --Indies Today

"Much like a frat party . . . with manic, fizzy energy." --Kirkus Reviews

"If you're a fan of the teen movie Mean Girls or you love YA fiction about college years, complex friendships, self-worth, and the pressures to fit in, this novel is a must-read." --Readers' Favorite

"Think Mean Girls on uppers. By turns savage and sympathetic, Heather Colley's The Gilded Butterfly Effect skewers the absurd theatre of college life with ferocious wit and style. Told in alternating first-person narratives, it lays bare the dark, narcotic heart of sorority culture." --Damian Fowler, author, Falling Through Clouds

"A sharply observed novel that deploys innovative language to get deep into the psyche of women at one of the most pivotal times in their lives. An engaging and thought-provoking read." --Amanda Eisenberg, author, People Are Talking

"With an academic laxness that's almost charming, and armed with pharmaceuticals taken not for recreation but to restore the humanity the Greek system has taken away, Colley's characters collide with a system where betrayal is as transactional and expected as a course assignment. The Gilded Butterfly Effect is a rowdy, utterly compelling journey through the debauchery and moral reckonings of contemporary university Greek life." -Laura Hulthen Thomas, author, The Meaning of Fear

"The Gilded Butterfly Effect spreads like a stain, dark and irrevocable, as the characters chase the edges of their own destruction. At once jarring and hypnotic, bitter and full of desperate hope, the voices of its two narrators entwine and pull each other to pieces. Heather Colley has invented a new rhythm of language, or perhaps pulled one out of the depths of consciousness. A singular and unforgettable debut." --Devon Halliday, author, To Stay, To Stay, To Stay

"A sharply written trip into dark academia." -Forbes Magazine

"Raw, witty, and irreverent--a sharp interrogation of the rust that lies beneath the gilded cage of the glamorous sorority life." --Independent Book Review

"A powerful exploration of what it means to survive, and transform, in the gilded cage of modern campus life." --BookTrib

"Heather Colley has a sharp mind indeed, and that gift for dialogue, wry humor, and witty observations results in a fierce, funny, and fearless novel that fans of campus adventures are sure to find irresistible. . . . A real must-read for fans of 'weird girl' antiheroes, The Gilded Butterfly Effect is an uplifting, emotive tale." --Indies Today

"Much like a frat party . . . with manic, fizzy energy." --Kirkus Reviews

"If you're a fan of the teen movie Mean Girls or you love YA fiction about college years, complex friendships, self-worth, and the pressures to fit in, this novel is a must-read." --Readers' Favorite

"Think Mean Girls on uppers. By turns savage and sympathetic, Heather Colley's The Gilded Butterfly Effect skewers the absurd theatre of college life with ferocious wit and style. Told in alternating first-person narratives, it lays bare the dark, narcotic heart of sorority culture." --Damian Fowler, author, Falling Through Clouds

"A sharply observed novel that deploys innovative language to get deep into the psyche of women at one of the most pivotal times in their lives. An engaging and thought-provoking read." --Amanda Eisenberg, author, People Are Talking

"With an academic laxness that's almost charming, and armed with pharmaceuticals taken not for recreation but to restore the humanity the Greek system has taken away, Colley's characters collide with a system where betrayal is as transactional and expected as a course assignment. The Gilded Butterfly Effect is a rowdy, utterly compelling journey through the debauchery and moral reckonings of contemporary university Greek life." -Laura Hulthen Thomas, author, The Meaning of Fear

"The Gilded Butterfly Effect spreads like a stain, dark and irrevocable, as the characters chase the edges of their own destruction. At once jarring and hypnotic, bitter and full of desperate hope, the voices of its two narrators entwine and pull each other to pieces. Heather Colley has invented a new rhythm of language, or perhaps pulled one out of the depths of consciousness. A singular and unforgettable debut." --Devon Halliday, author, To Stay, To Stay, To Stay

About the Author

Heather Colley is a PhD student in English Literature at the University of Oxford (Regents Park College). She researches late 19th and early 20th century jazz and blues aesthetics in transatlantic modernist literature, with a particular emphasis on the impacts of musical forms and tropes on literary experimentation and cultural development. She completed her Master's in Modern and Contemporary Literature with Distinction at St Andrews, where she studied lyric and form in the work of mid-twentieth century African American women novelists. She received her Bachelor's in English Literature/Creative Writing and Sociology at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Heather Colley's writing won The Oxford Review of Books Short Fiction Prize, the Hopwood Award, and the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize Shortlist. The Gilded Butterfly Effect is her debut novel. She lives in Oxford, England and New York.