Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Life is a tangled web that we weave, and this book breaks it down for us in almost minute detail. The story is centered around the many, seemingly miniscule exchanges of money and power in a 2017 University of Arkansas dormitory building. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant (RA) at Belgrade Dormitory, is focused on graduating with a job and house until she meets Agatha Paul, a visiting professor hoping to find her next great book idea in Millie’s residence hall. So while Millie attempts to juggle her side jobs, Agatha goes about seducing Millie with this agenda in mind, and tensions at the dorm morph from petty gossip to life-altering mistakes. The author creates a diverse and interesting cast of characters and the multitude of messy, interactions interactions between them that are at once believable, intense, and occasionally comical. While the college and dormitory environment has a complex web of relationships, she manages to lays it out in a surprisingly straightforward manner. From the start we see it plainly. Agatha arrives at Belgrade to be greeted by Millie, who has gathered three of her residents to be interviewed. As the novel goes on, we can see leaves on branches — Kennedy, a junior transfer student who has come to the University of Arkansas in the hopes of enrolling in Agatha’s creative writing class; Colette, Millie’s co-resident assistant; and Robin, Agatha’s dancer ex-girlfriend. The story unfolds in a tense way but at a relaxing pace, and we are all eased into the final unfolding of what will be will be. Que sera, sera. Quietly amazing.