The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson


                He called her Maya, but that wasn’t her name. That was the name he gave her, after he tattooed the butterfly on her back. He gave all the girls names. That would make them his after all. They would be his from now on. They would stay with him in his garden, preserved in all their beauty. She knew him as the Gardener, as did the rest of the girls. That’s what Maya is trying to explain to the FBI agents now that they have been set free. She tries to explain how they were kept, how their lives were taken away from them, how they all wore the butterflies on their backs, how no one had ever left, how they had been abused, how it was they continued to live. How they were all Butterflies in his Butterfly Garden.
                I’m not sure where to begin with this review. Do I start with the extremely haunting and unsettling tone of this novel? Or do I begin with the incredible world building and eerie imagery? What about the main character who brought this story to life and made this such an intense mystery? I just honestly don’t know because this novel was amazing on so many different levels. Imagine what could come of kidnapped young women forced to become a family in order to survive, in order to live through the rapes and the abuse.  Imagine a man who loves each of these girls in a sick and perverted manner, so demented that he literally preserves them so he can treasure their beauty forever. That’s what this novel is and Hutchinson does this so well. It is told in three different parts with the narrative changing from third person, to that of Maya, the girl who could be considered the Gardener’s favorite. She was so full of depth and had an overwhelming presence. It was obvious that she wasn’t broken regardless of the pain the passing years had dealt her. Her strength and her courage juxtaposed with her acceptance of her dire circumstances was unnerving and yet said so much about the plight of these young women. All of the characters had depth and seeing these people and their lives through Maya's eyes was alarming and revealing. I loved the way the story was told. The change in storytelling kept me aware of how dire the circumstances were and continued to be for these women.
                The imagery in this novel was so vivid. Hutchinson did something amazing and yet so painful by naming the butterfly each woman had tattooed on her back. I found myself looking up the images and imaging the pain that came with each tattoo and the knowledge of what those butterflies meant regarding their fate. It was heartbreaking. The descriptions she provided about their day to day lives. And the wait. The counting down. The knowing. It was painful and there was no reprieve from this knowledge for them. Then there was the garden itself, which was really their home and their cage.

                I finished this book in one sitting. I genuinely could not stop reading this story. The tone of this story was so unbelievably disturbing that I couldn’t look away. I had to know what happened. There was no way to predict what was happening in the story. The only thing the reader knows is true is that the butterflies somehow escaped the garden as a result of a fire. The rest is a mystery. I was trying to understand that mystery. I was trying to understand how these girls could live in these conditions, how they could become a family, how they could survive the never ending abuse and psychological damage. Hutchinson just did an amazing job in every aspect of this story. It is a thriller in every sense. I’m unsettled after reading this. I am physically jarred and my reality is shaken. This is a book that I will definitely recommend to anyone in the mood for an amazingly eerie thriller. I give this 5 out of 5 stars. Well done. 

Thank you Netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest review. 

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