This story follows Claire West, a lovable, quirky, and neurodivergent teen who is just starting college at Port City University, with the goal of becoming a famous fiction writer. She sets out to reunite with her absent grandfather, Dr. Timothy West, who is a creative writing professor and a renowned writer in North Carolina. He has published his legendary book about the only coup d'etat in United States history, inspiring Claire to carry on the West family's tradition. As Claire greatly misses her old high school friends and begins searching for new ones in college, she meets Chloe Stewart, her reclusive and studious roommate, with whom she instantly becomes close friends. They share a strong bond over many things, especially her pet cat and emotional support animal Snowball. On her first day of classes, Claire also befriends a gentlemanly, jock-like upperclassman named Andrew Smith in biology, who then invites her to a party later that night hosted by the best fraternity on campus, called Alpha Gamma Eta. There, Claire comes face-to-face with Lucy Harthan, the fastidious queen bee of Port City University and president of the top sorority Chi Omicron, who takes a fondness for her different personality and suggests they hang out more. Later on, as PCU's welcome week progresses, Claire learns about Lucy's true identity, a closeted lesbian forced to obey society's ideals as the frat president of Alpha Gamma Eta, Jack Romanoff, lusts after her in a pursuit to become the most respected alpha male at the university, all the while asserting his white male privilege upon her in a violent way. As Claire has developed a seemingly hopeless crush on Lucy, she must find a way to keep everything from going wrong, but the journey proves difficult. Having to deal with Jack's misogyny, homophobia, and discrimination against neurodiversity and marginalized groups, as well as her grandfather's authoritarian influence over her, the unpredictability of her new environment, and her past childhood experiences with trauma and bullying in school, Claire wants to make the world a happier and better place for everyone and everything in it, becoming the blazing light in the darkness of the world. This book tackles important and current topics like female objectification, toxic masculinity, the pressure to conform to society's rules, and the true meaning of friendship, among many other things.
