Reviews with content warning for Self harm - The Butterfly Garden

Holy fucking shit. this is one of the best books i think ive ever read. it was beyond dark and beyond twisted, but was written, so incredibly well. I have read a fair amount of thrillers and psychological thrillers, but this one easily takes its place at the top of my list. The characters were written so well and the plot developed so seamlessly in a way that I don’t feel like I’ve read for a long time. Way that the author switched back and forth between past and present, but the story itself kept flowing, was so cool and so captivating I literally could not put this book down. When I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about this book. I could hardly focus on anything else unless I was sitting down and reading it.

One thing I found that added to how deranged this book is, is how the author made you almost like the gardener and Desmond. she wrote them in such a delicate way, and gave them such gentle personalities that you almost started to feel safe when they came into the room. but then she would add a comment about who these people really are and it would remind you that they are monsters, and that you should not like them. It’s almost like she was giving the Stockholm syndrome. And I find that incredibly cool. I don’t think it was a particularly difficult thing for the author to do but I thought it was a really interesting addition to the experience of the book.

I will recommend this book until the day I die, but only to specific people. I do not think of this book is for everyone because of how dark and twisted it is, but the writing the characters, the plot, the ending are just so incredible.

Content Warnings

letrasenrizo's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

phoricho's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I initially rated this book 4 stars, but after a couple of months of it living rent-free in my mind, I decided to change that to a 5 star. My original rating was more due to the fact that this book left me not knowing how to feel. It was so different from anything I've ever read, both in content and layout.

Content-wise, it's a very dark book, and the characters go through numerous traumas. It's not for everyone. Check the trigger warnings.

Layout-wise, there are no chapters. That's unique, but it works with the story. There are two parts, and the POVs are broken up by section breaks.

Yes, it's a horrifying story, but I thought it was beautifully told, and the characters felt so real. I'm excited to read the rest of the series.

Content Warnings

aparker89's review

Go to review page

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book kicks off with a bang and doesn't stop! It's a super fast paced read that holds a lot in its few pages! You are immediately thrown into the middle of a horrific story and you just have to find out what happens! The final twist at the end is a little too thrown together and honestly I would have left it out, but I'm not the author. This is a great book to jump into and just enjoy!
Note this book is a horror/thriller and while the author does "protect" us from some of it early on that shielding does disappear as the story progresses.

Content Warnings

mblanke's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson was not on my radar until Erica (@wittyreading) shared it to her feed. She reads creepy, disturbing books and I get a lot of my recs from her, so naturally I was curious. It’s under 300 pages so we buddy read it quickly and it held my attention start to finish.

In this story, we meet Maya who is a key witness helping to explain what happened in a place where she was held captive. The story is told primarily through her flashbacks and recounting and it’s quite effective at building a very slow, creepy setting. Her personality and voice were probably my favorite part of the book, and the audio edition really added to the effect.

This book was published in 2016 and is classified as horror, but it’s not heavy on body horror or gore. It’s more of a slow, terrible situation that you become enmeshed with as a reader. The whole book takes place in awful circumstances, but the young girls and women in the book are written with such depth that I wasn’t wincing or tense reading it. The sadness was palpable throughout the whole thing, and I just wanted to know more about their story and see them to the end. All in, this is a solid choice if you can handle a terrible concept (kidnapping and holding young girls / women captive) with a methodical unveiling of how it all went down.

Content warnings: kidnapping, sexual assault, self-harm

Content Warnings

More...