Come and Get It

Come and Get It, published in 2024, is the second novel by American author Kiley Reid. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and assistant professor at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, Reid wrote the novel after conducting interviews with undergraduate students about how wealth influenced their social interactions and perceptions of class.

Set in 2017, Come and Get It is a literary varsity novel that follows three members of the academic community at the University of Arkansas. To write her next book, visiting professor Agatha Paul strikes a deal with Belgrade Dormitory resident assistant Millie Cousins to eavesdrop on a group of undergraduate residents who fascinate her. Millie only accepts because she knows the financial offer will bring her closer to her goal of becoming a homeowner. The illicit relationship they form along the way interferes with her role as a resident assistant, preventing her from noticing the struggle that transfer student Kennedy Washburn goes through to fit into her new environment. Yet Kennedy has only come to Fayetteville to study under Agatha Paul, the writer who changed her life. Come and Get It explores themes related to new adulthood, communal living, and personal and professional boundaries.

This study guide refers to the paperback International/Export Edition of the novel, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 2024.

Content Warning: The source material for this guide includes allusions to racist behavior, depictions of a relationship with an imbalanced power dynamic, depression, thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation, and accidental animal death.

Plot Summary

The novel is told from the perspectives of three central characters: Agatha Paul, Millie Cousins, and Kennedy Washburn. The novel’s events are depicted in semi-chronological order, occasionally flashing back to explore a character’s backstory or narrate their experience of common events. For the most part, the novel follows the events that occur over the fall semester of 2017.

Journalist and visiting professor Agatha Paul comes to Belgrade Dormitory to interview three University of Arkansas undergraduate students about their love for weddings. During the interview, Agatha is compelled to shift the topic when the three students—Tyler, Jenna, and Casey—talk about their access to wealth before downplaying it to highlight their work experiences. The resident assistant who arranges the interview, a Black student named Millie Cousins, confirms Agatha’s suspicions that the girls often hide their privilege. Agatha pays Millie for her help, which she accepts in the hopes of building up her savings to make a down payment on a house she wants to buy from her boss, Aimee.

Earlier in the semester, Millie helped Tyler to switch her suitemates’ places so that a Black girl named Peyton could share the double room with Tyler, instead of another girl named Kennedy Washburn. Kennedy, a transfer student who has come to Fayetteville to study creative nonfiction under Agatha Paul, becomes upset with her apparent exclusion at the suite, which sets the tone for her stay at Belgrade. Much to Millie’s surprise, Tyler pays her for the favor.

One night, Kennedy overhears Millie and the other resident assistants talking about an upcoming health and safety check. She leverages this information for Tyler’s approval, but Tyler ignores her and instead plans a prank on the dormitory staff with Peyton. The prank is successful, which upsets Millie. Later, at a bar, she bumps into Agatha, who indicates her interest in observing Tyler and her friends once again.

The narrative reveals that Agatha used the material from her first interview to write a piece for Teen Vogue on student wealth. The publication’s success warrants additional pieces, so Agatha strikes a deal to eavesdrop on Tyler and her friends from Millie’s room at Belgrade. Agatha never tells Millie that she is writing the pieces for online publication, just as she never communicates her intention to write a piece on Millie’s financial situation. All the while, Millie develops a crush on Agatha. When Agatha reciprocates her feelings, the two enter a secret relationship.

Kennedy applies for Agatha’s nonfiction writing workshop, having been moved by the professor’s first book on grief. Kennedy wants to write about being ostracized by her community in Iowa after she caused the accidental death of a fellow student’s dog. Kennedy’s aspirations get in the way of her personal responsibilities, which causes tensions with Peyton, who repeatedly reminds Kennedy to wash her dirty dishes. When Kennedy eventually discovers that she has been rejected from Agatha’s workshop, her feelings are exacerbated by the discovery of her dirty dishes in her bed. She and Peyton get into an argument, which ends with Kennedy accidentally injuring herself and Peyton fainting.

Agatha and Millie are having sex in Millie’s room when the argument between Peyton and Kennedy occurs. Finding Peyton collapsed, Millie assumes she is having an allergic reaction and mistakenly administers her EpiPen. Kennedy and Peyton are sent to the hospital, and Millie’s relationship with Agatha is discovered by nearly all who are present, including her friends and her boss, Aimee. Millie’s friends expose Agatha’s Teen Vogue articles, admonishing Millie for letting Agatha use her. When Agatha’s ex-partner criticizes her for taking advantage of an undergraduate student, Agatha decides to resign and leave the university. Before leaving, she gives Millie enough money to make the down payment on her house and ensures that she isn’t in any trouble with Aimee.

Millie struggles to face Peyton’s parents in the aftermath of the accident. Aimee withdraws Millie’s forthcoming promotion but nonetheless extends the offer to sell the house to Millie. Millie agrees to the deal and reconciles with her friends. Tyler and Peyton move out of Belgrade, though Peyton plans to move back for her senior year. Kennedy also leaves Fayetteville with her mother but is consoled by the messages of support she has received from both of her former academic communities.