It added a comical relief to a frightening topic. I enjoyed reading Vic and Eddison bicker in between questions. The book starts with two FBI agents, Vic and Eddison, interviewing Maya, one of the girls who was saved from the burning building. While the title sounds seemingly innocent, the book surprises you with page turning twists that show the acts that the Gardener commits to his captives. The Butterfly Garden is a crime thriller with layered complexities showing the lengths the mind will go to achieve a semblance of normalcy in extreme conditions.The Butterfly Garden written by Dot Hutchison follows the gut-wrenching story of a teen girl who is trapped in a man’s fantasy garden. That said, this book has been on my radar for a while and I did enjoy the journey overall. Unfortunately for me, the ending was unbelievable. With any good thriller, the chase to the end was ever present with the need to reconcile the choices and actions of these characters. Also curious is Avery and how a breaking point is quite subjective. There’s no doubt about what has to be done, but for someone like Maya, this might be the best she gets. While he is clearly a monster on many levels, he also finds joy in pleasing his butterflies and this creates an added conflict for the reader. What I found equally intriguing is the dynamic between the Gardener and his captives, especially with Maya. The world created in the Garden is quite unique with a combination of fantastical and horror. “But each time I saw it, I knew I was in the presence of something extraordinary, something that not everyone found of was capable of recognizing and sustaining.”
This plot structure definitely adds to the tension of how it all started, and the intimation that Maya may not be telling the truth raises constant questions. Narrated through Maya’s voice while she is in police custody, the timeline shifts between the present and the past. Immediately into this story, it becomes clear Maya isn’t living an ordinary life, but these circumstances hone her ability to observe and to adapt.
You just have to do what’s right, even if it scares you.” Abducted and at the mercy of the Gardener, Maya becomes what is required, playing the role of a butterfly that cannot fly away. As she is getting acclimated to a new city and friends, her life changes when she wakes up in the Garden. Maya learned early that family doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.
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