Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

81 reviews

elkiebear's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? No

3.25


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sol84's review against another edition

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

4.25


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lovelydeadgirl's review against another edition

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

3.5

I was really liking this book until the ending. It just seemed like it was building up to something.. just more. It just felt like something was missing, or like the ending was rushed.

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drs645's review against another edition

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

4.0


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magical_mads's review against another edition

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

5.0


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megzv06's review

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dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0


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cait's review against another edition

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

5.0


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zoemain'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? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Um, okay, so I loved this book! It is certainly not for a sensitive audience because there are many very disturbing themes and ideas. However, if you’re like me and love dark, twisted fictions, I cannot recommend this more. There is also a dystopian aspect to the novel that I really enjoyed. And the characters were so complex! I was fascinated by the Gardener and his sons and loved all of the girls. 
The reviews stating that the Butterflies could have easily escaped their entrapment are not wrong. The logic in this book is flawed, but I could easily overlook this. I should probably take a star off because I felt like the book could have been longer and therefore given some more insight into the Garden. Oh, also, every description of layout in this novel is extremely confusing. I employed the help of my friends to translate descriptions of surroundings a few times but they couldn’t fathom what Hutchison had written either.
But I loved the rest of the writing. I loved the way the book focused on the story of the Garden but also gave insight into Maya’s backstory and the police interviews. So it’s  a 5 stars from me! Read the content warnings before purchasing.

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nocturnalbookworm's review against another edition

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

4.5

 Holy Sh*t At first that's all I can say. I intended to just start this before bed last night and I literally could not put it down. The storytelling style was so smooth and the pacing of everything being revealed just sucked me in where I couldn't help but keep turning the pages. A chilling and dark story if you are easily disturbed or triggered this is not the book for you but if you can handle it it is a haunting and engaging story.

I read a lot of reviews where people said things like they couldn't imagine certain victims in the story reacting to things the way they do or taking the actions they do and I have to say, as someone who has been though psychologically and sexually abusive relationships and situation, I found the depictions of the victims disturbingly and heartbreaking realistic. What I went through is nowhere near what happens in this book, but I did find the coping mechanisms and the rational of some of the victims in the book all too familiar at times. We all like to imagine we may be a certain way or do certain things in bad situations, but things like this can really fuck someone up psychologically and you just don't know until you are in that place. 

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maybesky's review against another edition

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

4.5


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