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