Author ⁠Heather Colley ⁠joins Literally Heinous to talk about her debut literary fiction novel, ⁠The Gilded Butterfly Effect⁠ — a haunting exploration of college Greek life, drug addiction, and hazing culture. We talk about what it’s like to publish a novel at 27 (!!), her PhD experience at Oxford (double !!!!), and how she sees the state of literary fiction today.

Heather shares her honest take on BookTok, smut books, and whether the rise of “spicy” books (sorry I hate typing that) is actually good for readers. We also unpack the difference between literary books and genre books (not all novels are the same, people!).

A Lit Hein classic, we play a round of Chic or Freak, debating hot literary topics like performative reading in public or attending book club and not finishing the book.