Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Butterfly Garden

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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anisiaguerrero's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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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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squidshroom's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

2.5

I wanted to like this book but it just felt that the premise was a little over the top. I had to continuously suspend my disbelief if I wanted to continue the story because it was just too much. Adding to that none of the characters felt like real people, our main character does not feel like a real person that lived and experienced trauma from a young age, the ages for things just don't make sense to me.

If you are willing to suspend your disbelief and not take some of the aspects of the book too seriously it would probably be a more enjoyable read but I just kept reading certain things and thinking there was no way that would happen IRL.

Also, the plot twist at the end was just too much, the author kept pushing about an extra mystery that was more profound than anything we had heard before...only for it to be that?? So Silly and just unnecessary really.

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