Title : The Butterfly Garden
By : Dot Hutchison
Published: June 1st 2016
By : Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Thriller- Mystery- Crime – ARC- Favorites
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…
Rating
5 / 5 Stars
“I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review”
“Some people stay broken. Some pick up the pieces and put them back together with all the sharp edges showing.”
This is an amazing book, I’m pleased to have decided to go for it,. it is one of the most intense readings I’ve had this year
This, I believe, is my first adult book and it was excellent to start.
I think it’s a book I would not recommend for children or sensitive people because its content is quite strong and sexual. besides than that I think that if you enjoy mystery, criminal and hard life stories you will love it.
It seemed to me that is a very quick and easy book to read, but also contains part in which, I confess I had to stop a moment and take a breath, because the life of the main character is the hardest I’ve read, I felt so sorry for her and the injustice in which she was involved during her childhood, I really I found myself quite indignant about it.
The story is written from Maya’s perspective , who is one of the survivors that the police are interrogating, is strong and as the plot develops we will know each time more about her life, her childhood, the events that led her to the Butterfly Garden, which was her role in there and how it manages to escape.
The parts where the police is interviewing to Maya are told in the third person. Which is pretty good because it gives us a more open perspective of the FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison, as well as of the other characters.
“You seem to have this strange image of me as a lost child, like I’ve just been thrown on the side of the road like garbage, or roadkill, but kids like me? We’re not lost. We may be the only ones who never are. We always know exactly where we are and where we can go. And where we can’t.”
At times I failed to understand the behavior of Maya, but later understood why their behavior ,and end up for loving her as the main character, I think she contributed with large doses mystery to the plot.
The character of the Gardener, is a man who obviously has a big mental problem, what can clearly see through reading,I liked him as the villain , and it is quite interesting to get into his mind and know why he thinks everything he does is so good and correct. The way he treats the girls is pretty interesting too, although he is friendly and open in some cases can easily see the tencion between the characters that interact with him, and the great darkness that surrounds it.
It was a surprise that I liked this so much, but the plot is the most original and is superbly written, so that caught me completely! 🙂
Feel free to leave your comment below, I always love to know what you think
You can also find me at Goodreads and Twitter 
I read this book last year as my Kindle First book for one month, it’s excellent! Great review.
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Thanks! I’m glad you like it hon 🙂
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Great review!!! I have a copy of this on my own shelves & have for a while. Your review makes me glad I did!! Now I just have to actually read it 😀
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Thanks, yeah you have to, it’s quiet dark and something creepy and it’s so good lol, I just love this book, you have to give it a try and if you do I would love to know what you think 🙂
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If I remember to, I will let you know as soon as I read it! 😀
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I don’t read much crime, last I read was The Snowman by Jo Nesbo years ago … unless you count Sherlock Holmes. But I have heard good things about this title.
Great review 🙂
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Thanks, I’m glad you liked it :), I hope you’ll give it a try in the future, it’s an amazing book 🙂
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Reblogged this on TeacherofYA's Book Blog and commented:
Sounds good, but this kind of story I need to see as a movie vs read as a book!
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I’d much rather see this as movie than read this as a book!!
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[…] Goodreads / My Review […]
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[…] ☕️ The Butterfly Garden (The Collector #1) by Dot Hutchison: I love this book but I feel it’s one of those that is not for everyone. It’s very dark and follows the story of a girl who’s kidnapped by a man named as “The Gardener” and this man has been capturing girls for years and taking them, against their will, to a secret place in his own home called “The Garden”. All these girls are named as their butterflies and he make tattoos of wings on their backs. As you can see the story itself is very intense and touch several topics that could hurt a sensitive person, as well as abuse and violence, but it also has a police aspect, which I don’t usually enjoy, but this book is written in such an intriguing and smart way that just captures you from the first moment. I don’t recommend the following books and I think this works perfect as a stand-alone (MY REVIEW) […]
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[…] The Butterfly Garden (The Collector #1) by Dot Hutchison || Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful […]
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[…] The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison is one of my favorite books of all time, it’s dark and disturbing, but it’s amazing and it’s very smartly created, but I don’t think that its sequel or companion book reach that mark, I don’t hate Roses of May but since it focuses more on other cases and moves in another direction, I completely lost interest in continuing with the following books. If you ask for my opinion, I would tell you that The Butterfly Garden works perfectly as a stand-alone 🤔 […]
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[…] | Book Review | Book […]
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