An Amazon Charts bestseller.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 … 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…
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If you’re a fan of shows like criminal minds then this is the book for you. Told from the perspective of the victim the book opens with us knowing that the killer has been caught but how and what led to this is still a mystery. The butterfly’s in this garden are young girls who have been abducted and are being kept in a truly beautiful yet disturbing garden for the frills of an aging man. Watch as the story unfolds. Who doesn’t love a butterfly garden right?
This book’s creepy level was at least a 10. The girls in the garden that were treated as such objects, the tattoos, all of it…. so creepy. The way he treated the girls and the way the book described the cage they were in… haunting. And I was excited to find out there is a type of a sequel… I can’t wait to read that as I really enjoyed this one! Recommended for people who don’t mind descriptions of torture and gruesomeness.
Sad, creepy, unsettling, frightening, infuriating…enchanting, unforgettable, thought provoking. Mia still haunts my thoughts. There is no big mystery, no “big reveal” in this story yet it is edge of your seat reading. It is like watching a train wreck or a car accident…it is horrible, but you cannot look away…you must “see” it. Don’t give up if you feel there is a slow start. Stick it out, you may thank me or curse me, but you will never forget the story of Mia and the other Butterflies. There are some basic assumptions about our reality that are examined in this story. What is love and what is evil. Can someone totally evil show tenderness and love? How can/do we survive when confronted with evil, desperate, hopeless situations where there is no escape? We learn from page one that Mia is a survivor, the question we want answered is how. That is her story and we walk every painful step with Mia without losing hope, humanity, and hope IN humanity. Mia will haunt you and you will miss her presence in your life long after her story as been told.
When I finished this book, I wanted to throw it away and I wanted to start the next book (yet to be released) at the same time. Twisted, disturbing and peppered with unexpected moments of tenderness in the midst of a sickening reality these young girls are subjected to. You’ll want to rip some characters apart and take others home and adopt them.
I love reading books about dark subjects and this hit the spot. If you enjoy James Patterson you will love this book!
I thoroughly enjoyed The Butterfly Garden and didn’t want to stop reading, even when my eyes were fighting me to stay open.
In order to avoid spoilers, I will only say that this is a story about young women who are kidnapped and forced to live in a garden built by their captor.
The premise of The Butterfly Garden is not a pleasant thought, but the writing is so well done that I was hooked from the first page. The descriptions are fabulous. Dot Hutchinson gives enough detail so the reader can form a mental picture, but pulls back when too much description would have been, well, too much. Some books overdo descriptions and others under-do it, but this one is perfectly done. The characters are well crafted – I felt for them as if they were real people. I rooted for the main character, Maya/Ivana, and there were many times when I wanted to reach into the story so I could hug her.
I highly recommend The Butterfly Garden….it is a dark story but you’ll be sucked in and find yourself unable to put it down. Throughout the story you will feel an array of emotions and the characters will stay with you long after you finish reading it, (for more than one reason).
This book will have you staying up all night and not wanting to put it down. It is a thriller suspense novel. Each page has a new twist to the story.
*Book source ~ Kindle First
A fine upstanding citizen who has a twisted dark side kidnaps and ultimately murders the beautiful young women he targets. The Gardener, as he is known to his victims, cares for them and says he is preserving their beauty and doesn’t understand why they aren’t more grateful. When disaster strikes his “butterfly” garden it’s left to Maya to tell their tale to the FBI. But Maya has secrets of her own. Will Agents Hanoverian and Eddison get the truth from Maya?
This is one dark and twisted tale of a very sick man and his even sicker son. The women he kidnaps are around 16 yrs old, so beware triggers to kidnapping, rape, mutilation and murder even though the story itself isn’t as graphic as it could be. Thank goodness. The story is told mostly from Maya’s POV (with Hanoverian switching occasionally) after the women have been finally rescued and she narrates her tale with caginess, sarcastic humor, and intelligence. Her backstory (which comes through in flashbacks as she parses out the story of the Butterflies) is heartbreaking and yet inspiring. She is tough and has long since lost any vulnerability, so she adapts to her new situation with The Gardener better than most. That’s not to say it doesn’t affect her because it does, but Maya has long been a survivor. I can’t tell you how much I love and hate this story. It’s compelling to be sure. I couldn’t stop turning the pages to see what Maya would reveal next. But it’s sick, sick, sick. The Gardener and his son? Omfg. *shudder* The ending seems a bit of a reach with Sophia’s story, but overall I forgive it because the book is just that good.
This is the first book I’ve read by Dot Hutchison, but if this is an example of her writing then she will be added to my Favorite Authors list. I’m definitely looking into her other books.
Amazing
First off I really didn’t know to much about this book going in. I knew by the reviews it was mix of reviews. This a story about a Garden full of butterflies. But butterflies who are young girls being kidnapped. By a man they called the gardener. We learn about him and his son’s through a young woman named Maya who was taken and all the pain that she was forced to be put through How strong she was. For herself and the others. I don’t want to give to much away but I recommend this book it’s full of mystery and thriller.And now I am going to read book two.
1st book in a trilogy. very well written.
This is a very disturbing book. Even though I got a fair idea from the blurb what I was getting into, after actually reading it made me regret it sometimes. Yes, this a very good thriller with a gripping story which made me keep on turning pages till the end. But the events occuring in the book are such that it made me feel uncomfortable even disgusted in some places. And even after all this I kept on reading because it was truly a well written story. If you can handle such dark contents then you should definitely go for it. I think I am going to take a break from this genre for a while
This was definitely a unique read with an interesting story. I enjoyed most of the story but was slightly let down by the ending. While it held my attention, I felt as though they could have added more to the story to develop the characters and background of the story
Good read for a rainy day. Get cozy & enjoy!
Welcome to the garden!
Come see the beautiful flowers with their vibrant colors and heavenly fragrance!
Bring a book and relax under my shady trees!
But most important come see my exquisite and one of a kind “butterflies”
I’m the Gardener and I take care of this place! What can I say I’m obsessed with capturing and preserving beauty!
WARNING: If you’re here, it’s already too late! There is no flying away!
“How fucking unfair it was that he made us butterflies, of all things. Real butterflies could fly away, out of reach. The Gardener’s Butterflies could only ever fall.”
― Dot Hutchison, The Butterfly Garden
FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison have just been assigned a disturbing and twisted case “The Butterfly Garden” They need to find out as much as they can as fast as they can but Maya is determined to tell her story her way and at her own pace. Will she tell them the truth and everything they need to know, or is she still holding back?
Maya and the girls have lived for years in captivity some longer than others. Each taken by “The Gardener” a sick and twisted man who isn’t satisfied with just taking them from their lives. He marks each of them with his personal signature with a butterfly tattoo on their back! The butterflies are the girls’ namesake. But the garden is full of dark secrets and The Gardener isn’t the only person the girls should fear!
This is the second time I have read this book, and it is just as dark, twisted, and creepy as the first time around! But I enjoyed every minute! The story is from Maya’s POV, but it flips back and forth between the past and the present. This time around I listened to the audiobook (my 1st) and I picked this book for a couple of reasons.
I have read it before, so I wanted to compare the differences between the actual book and the audiobook
How this book is written with the flashbacks, I wanted to see if the flow of the story would be different
But just like in the book, it has a great pace and the flashbacks flow effortlessly. It’s a beautifully written story about a dark and twisted world! Happy reading everyone!
“Some people stay broken. Some pick up the pieces and put them back together with all the sharp edges showing.”
― Dot Hutchison, The Butterfly Garden
I really enjoyed the writing and characters in this book, but the story is really twisted. It kept me enthralled.
NOT a romance, but one of the best thrillers I’ve read to date!
Not for the faint of heart – excellent read!
This is a book that will stay with you for many days after you finish it. The characters are great, the writing is excellent and the plot takes unexpected turns. You can read a short synopsis elsewhere; my review is simply to encourage you to buy this if you like stories about twisted families who do awful things to innocent victims, who, in the end, triumph. Good wins over evil but the journey there is one you won’t forget.
Finished in one night.
there is some parts where i’m confused but i like the book.