Review:

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

Format (That I Read It):

Ebook, Netgalley ARC (Advance Reader Copy)

Summary:

Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.

In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...

Initial Thoughts:

I was browsing through Netgalley and I randomly saw a lone butterfly on  a black background. I thought it looked interesting. I skimmed the description because I like to only know a little about the book going in, but I was very intrigued. So I requested and received it.

Minor Spoilers

Review:

★★★★★
Wow! This book surprised me. It was dark and disturbing at points but almost subtly so. I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into but I was captivated from the first sentence to the very last. Throughout my adventure in reading this book I kept thinking about everything that happened. I can never look at butterflies the same! Inara/Maya was very interesting. She was likeable despite her standoffish ways. I really enjoyed the back and forth nature of this novel. How it would go from present to past and back again. That's another thing about this book, the fact that it takes place after the police get involved. Most thrillers happen as the crime is going on not after the fact. Another thing that caught me off guard was that I felt some very tiny moments of redemptions of the Gardener. As much as I hated him for everything he did he had very small instances where he was nice or made of sweet gesture towards someone but I knew better than to like or except it.