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Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

93 reviews

spaghettii's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Check the trigger warnings if you have literally anything that you want to avoid reading about

that ending was dumb asf. Like you're telling me her roommate escaped and left all the other girls to die?? Like how would he get custody of her child if he is caught for kidnapping children,,,,
Why was it written as if there was an unreliable narrator when she did not lie a single time??
I also don't get how she would've wanted the dude (Desmen?) to survive when he was complicit for 6 months and had to be convinced by the rape and kidnapping of a 12 year old just to call the police because he didn't want to upset his mom??
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ilikenaps's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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pichismichis's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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asourceoffiction's review against another edition

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challenging 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was expecting this to be one of those thrillers that jumps straight in and punches you right in the scaredy bone. But actually it starts off more slow and sinister, building background before going too deep into fear.

Because of the structure of the story, with events being recalled rather than happening in real time, it frames things in a more emotional light, rather than focusing on tension or cheap scares. That paves the way for a focus on survival and strength, where it is the women who take centre stage. Of course there is horror woven in, but it is never the driver of the story.

Inara is an amazing protagonist and peeling the layers from her story over the course of the book just had me completely invested. I was surprised by how much I loved this book, apart from it feeling a little rushed at the end - there's a quite a reveal shoehorned into the final few pages that I would have liked more time with. But I'm definitely going to read the rest of the series.
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dreamingofsmiles's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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hailey_brueggen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is terrifying and insane and so heartbreaking and made me sick to my stomach. A book club read that i am so glad i read. So out of my comfort zone but it was amazingly written. i mourn for all the people going through anything even close to the same things in this book. 
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cc_shelflove's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

My many faces while reading this book: 🤢😵‍💫😭😫🥴🤮😳🫨🤬😣😤😪😷😵

A hard book to review and an even harder book to read! Meet the ‘Butterflies’—young girls who were kidnapped by the Gardener and adorned with magnificent butterfly wings on their backs. There is no sugar coating; the girls are brutally raped, killed, and stored for safekeeping. One of the victims, Maya, recounts her captivity to FBI agents following their discovery of the Garden. Will justice be served? This book was seriously fucked up and I don’t know that I can even stomach the next three (!!!) books, but I’m going to try. I must also mention that although the undertones were incredibly dark, Hutchison’s writing was stellar. Damn. That was a lot. 🤕

Buddy read with my best friend for spooky season. 💞
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lucashearn1's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Finally a good book for book club! This was super solid and I loved the way everything unfolded. Using the interview to switch back and forth was a cool way to approach that. 

Definitely lots of yuck, icky, gross moments. Very un-comfy at times. I liked the character of Maya/Inara. She’s flawed but was a super interesting journey and character development as time went on. The relationships between the girls felt very real and we got a villain we can detest.

My biggest gripe comes with the last 20ish pages, I did not vibe with that reveal and I feel like it kinda tainted a big portion of the story. All in all an interesting read.
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kermittuesday's review against another edition

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It just really wasn’t that good. Neither was it bad. I felt so indifferent about it. It was picked for book club and  it was not really my kind of book. But I wanted to give it a chance so I spent two days reading a good chunk of it and then decided to give it up. 
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stelleisonfire's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

The concept was very intriguing albeit dark and the first half of the book shone. I quite liked the story being told from the interview room and I actually liked Maya’s character. The books starts to flag half way and I wasn’t a fan of the end twist. It almost wasn’t big enough for the themes of the book. Kept me on my toes in the first half but started to lose me in the second.  
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