Book: The Butterfly Garden
Author: Dot Hutchinson
Pages: 288
Read on: Kindle (Via Kindle Unlimited)
Read in: 3-4 hours
Plot Summary: 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.
Trigger Warning// Sexual Violence/// This is a very, very disturbing book. The Gardener and his festishes and the way he kidnapped and then kept very young girls captive in his "butterfly garden" is so disturbing and super-creepy. So, if descriptions of sexual violence or rape are hard for you to stomach, then do avoid this book because there is a lot of it in this book!
Things I Liked:
1. This book is very taut, no extra fluff, nothing that does not need to be there in a thriller to take away from the core mystery. I hate thriller books that meander too much.
2. Maya is a really great character. She is tough, kind, smart and resourceful. She manages to hold her own against the FBI and even the Gardener. It was so good to read about a strong and smart character like her. Reminded me of the protagonist from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
3. The description of the garden, the tattoos, the lives of the girls in there, the relationships formed inside the garden are very nicely done. The author brings that world alive and as a reader you feel completely pulled in to the story.
4. The suspense in the book is maintained right up until the last chapter and there is a twist, which is a bit unexpected but slightly unnecessary (in my opinion). However, I still liked that surprise twist simply because it was unexpected and I did not see it coming..
5. I also liked how inspite of so much darkness, the girls in the "Garden" manage to keep up their spirits and be there for each other. It made the book easier to get through.
I don't want to give anything else away because anything else will completely spoil this book and I do want you guys to read it.
Rating: 4/5
Highly recommend this book. It is well written and the book is full of twists and turns and great suspense.
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