Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman

In her striking debut novel, Kristen R. Lee tells the story of Savannah Howard, a college freshman navigating the tense landscape of Wooddale University, an elite institution with a troubling racist history. As she discovers that admissions favoritism and privilege permeate campus life, Savannah is faced with moral dilemmas after a significant act of vandalism targets a monument to the university’s first Black president. Torn between her desire for justice and the potential cost to her future, Savannah embodies the struggle against systemic racism and the fight for truth in a world that often turns a blind eye.