The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
Series: The Collector #1
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Pages: 288
Published By: Thomas & Mercer on 1st June, 2016
Format: Ebook
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Book Synopsis:
Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.
When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.
As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding…
Book Review
My sister had recommended this one to me, and the premise sounded really intriguing. I really wanted to love this book as the concept was brilliantly chilling but overall it didn’t deliver as I’d hoped. If you have Amazon Prime then you can get this book for free almost like a library book which is what I did.
This book is promoted as a thriller and horror novel, but I think it lacks in both. I was more creeped out and chilled by the storyline rather than feeling thrilled or horrified. It was that disturbing that even at times when the pace was incredibly slow, I just couldn’t stop reading. There are a lot of heavy and dark themes throughout this book which I think the author handled well. However, I kept reading because I felt like it was building up to a huge twist at the end but it left me disappointed.
I really enjoyed that the story shifts between flashbacks and the present day. There are no chapters in this story but there is a page break between the present story and the flashbacks. This makes it really easy to follow and gives natural breaks where you can put the book down. It helped to add suspense, intrigue, and left just enough mystery throughout. It also made me think of Maya being an unreliable narrator, never quite knowing whether to believe what she was saying.
My main problem is that I just wasn’t connecting with Maya herself. She seemed very nonchalant when telling her story to the FBI and kept going off on tangents that sometimes didn’t feel necessary. I much preferred the scenes involving some of the other ‘butterflies’ like Bliss and Lyonette. Their character/personalities were way more interesting to see and compelling.
The first like 80-90% of this book had me completely hooked and the tone stayed entirely creepy throughout which I loved. The last 10-20% however is when it started to rapidly decline. I’m so mad with how it ended! I thought it was going to have the most shocking twist but it left me feeling confused and underwhelmed. I personally don’t think the ending fit with how they story was unfolding. This could’ve been a solid 4.5 stars but Maya’s character and the ending the rating significantly.
*Definitely ensure you check out trigger warnings beforehand if you are thinking of reading this. Regardless of my criticisms, the writing itself is very good. It’s hard to say I would recommend this book due to the themes throughout. However, it does make for a very interesting read and the plot is unlike anything I’ve read before. So I guess, I’ll allow you to be the judge of whether want to read it not.
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