UNFORGIVABLE

Butts presents a character-driven novel about sexual violence on a college campus and the painful, intimate work of rebuilding after betrayal.

College student Maggie Colomb is violently attacked on a dark campus path at Annville University in Pennsylvania—but the real shock comes afterward, when her repeated attempts to report the crime, just 15 minutes later, are met with indifference: “I was attacked. Assaulted. I just said,” she says to the Annville police. The officer shrugs and says: “I’m sure there must be a reasonable explanation for what happened. Who’d you say did this? Um, maybe a misunderstanding?” From that moment, the story tracks Maggie’s descent into fear and isolation and her quiet resilience in the face of systemic failure. Fortunately, she isn’t alone: Her two closest friends—pragmatic Jesse Lawrence and volatile Cal Nichols—rally to her side. Jesse, a veterinary student with her own buried trauma, becomes her emotional anchor: “The worst part was hiding it, not talking about it,” Jesse says of her own experience. “I was sick for days. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I felt so ashamed, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t do anything.” The pair’s bond forms the novel’s emotional core. As Maggie seeks medical help and tries to navigate campus support systems, a second case emerges, involving a bruised, unconscious girl found in a fraternity house. The question of whether there’s a link between the two cases drives a subplot involving a student journalist and an under-the-radar investigation, but Butts effectively resists turning the novel into a whodunit, instead focusing on the quieter, harder work of survival. With crisp prose and deeply human dialogue, the author manages to capture the fragility of trust and the complexity of recovery. Maggie’s voice, which is at once defiant, ashamed, and unsure, lingers: “I can’t seem to get clean. I don’t feel clean now,” she says after the attack—and yet she perseveres.

A chilling story about what happens when institutions fail, and how friendship, truth, and persistence can provide comfort.