Review: The Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden

by Dot Hutchison

Thomas and Mercer, 2016

Adult Horror

Summary: After the FBI raid a serial killer’s compound, the agents start to interrogate one of the survivors. Maya seems to be a leader among the girls. None of them want to talk without talking to her first and the agents need her to build a case against this monster but she might be in on it all.

“Let’s call me a shadow child, overlooked rather than broken. I’m the teddy bear gathering dust bunnies under the bed, not the one-legged soldier.”

pg. 37

Likes: I liked Maya right away. She’s sassy and smart. This also pulled me along. I wanted to know everything even though we know how it ends. Psychology is also very important. We understand a little of Maya through what she’s saying but also how the agents are interacting with her. Maya also has a lot of insight into her fellow captives and the people harming and killing them. And their relationships are complicated.

“Some people stay broken. Some pick up the pieces and put them back together with all the sharp edges showing.”

pg. 74

Dislikes: There’s a small twist at the end that I’m not sure I believe… but it didn’t ruin anything for me.

“I think a trauma doesn’t stop just because you’ve been rescued.”

pg. 273

Overall I picked this up for reasons that I’m not sure make sense. Part of it was how much fun people are having talking about Halloween being closer and closer. There was a spooky week-long readathon. And this book has been recommended by multiple people over the years. I also started this at night and then couldn’t sleep.