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…

Goodreads

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! 🙂