Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

56 reviews

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

stephrozjac's review

Go to review page

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kimmytanzone's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gillzzzo's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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? Yes

4.0

Very well written book and sad/creepy storyline. For some reason I didn’t find it as thought provoking as I was hoping it would be, which was slightly disappointing but that was probably just an expectations thing. 

Overall a good book, but didn’t change anything about my worldview or anything

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lcampbell1003's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

This book is veryyyyyyyyy dark. Be forewarned. It is not a thriller, it is *horror*. Sometimes the horror and trauma was gratuitous, not because it was overtly described, but just because the whole situation was just layer upon layer of fucked up shit.

The way the novel was written kept me invested. Back and forth between first person account and third person as told via interviews with FBI detectives who added the needed levity and warmth to balance things a bit. 

This was an interesting one! 🙃

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

reeccees's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lethridge's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

katy_four's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings