Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

225 reviews

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

dreamingofsmiles's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

anisiaguerrero's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hailey_brueggen's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

squidshroom's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lottipop_105's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cc_shelflove's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 💞
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lucashearn1's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

yinzer_barbie's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kermittuesday's review against another edition

Go to review page

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. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings