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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A solid 4 stars until the last 10 pages. The ending was erratic and just so random that I can only give it 3 stars, if that.
Well written and captivating, but very disturbing.
It was weird, hard to understand but good.
Wow! Something very different and bizarre. I highly recommend
This book is terrible in the best way. I loved it but I also feel so twisted saying that. It was extremely original and even tho it’s been two years since I’ve read it, it’s the one I think about when I think of a book that truly haunts me.
I was asked what category this book was in and my answer is boring. This book was so hard to read. Every time I picked this book I felt like i need to take a nap. I was completely over it. There are no chapters so that made it confusing to know when the scene or story was moving forward. It was like being stuck in a loop. Then to top it all off it spends most of the time in a interview room going over every detail and at some points the author even repeated herself. That got old quickly. There are parts about her childhood that had nothing to with the main story because went on and on so much that it didn’t even seem important. We knew nothing about the Gardner for like 70 pages then bam his a sick crazy child molesting son Avery and younger son comes into play. This book is not disturbing, not taboo, not gory or even dark. The coldness of Maya is how I felt after reading this book. I wanted to know more about the Gardner and why he kept the “butterflies” and why he chose each tattoo for them. But she failed to explain. This book would have been a DNF if it wasn’t for book club.
Maya learned early that family doesn’t necessarily mean happiness. As she is getting acclimated to a new city and friends, her life changes when she wakes up in the Garden. Abducted and at the mercy of the Gardener, Maya becomes what is required, playing the role of a butterfly that cannot fly away.
“You don’t have to be brave. You just have to do what’s right, even if it scares you.”
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. Narrated through Maya’s voice while she is in police custody, the timeline shifts between the present and the past. 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.
The world created in the Garden is quite unique with a combination of fantastical and horror. What I found equally intriguing is the dynamic between the Gardener and his captives, especially with Maya. 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. There’s no doubt about what has to be done, but for someone like Maya, this might be the best she gets. Also curious is Avery and how a breaking point is quite subjective.
With any good thriller, the chase to the end was ever present with the need to reconcile the choices and actions of these characters. Unfortunately for me, the ending was unbelievable. That said, this book has been on my radar for a while and I did enjoy the journey overall.
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.
Loved this book. Not something I would normally read but pulled me right in. Fell in love with the characters and had to find out how it ended. Kept me interested the whole way through. Loved it.
This is my favorite book. It is the first in a series and I loved it! A man kidnaps these women and keeps them in his garden and calls them his butterfly’s and tattoos beautiful butterfly’s on their backs
This is one of my all time favorite books. It’s dark and haunting, yet well written and beautiful. Couldn’t put it down.
This book is not for everyone. There are mentions of severely disturbing issues that can be considered very triggering.
Dot Hutchison does an amazing job of describing the cruel treatment of the kidnapped girls. The entire book had me on the edge of my seat, waiting for what would come next.
I listened to this book with my dad, who loves anything true crime and horror. I have never once seen him uncomfortable while watching nor listening to any case or movie. There were several times when he would look at me with the most confused, uncomfortable look I’ve ever seen in another person.
Overall, it was an amazing book. It really made me think about just how cruel the world can be, and it kept me interested from the very first page. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone who isn’t squeamish.
A bizarre twist on the already macabre.
***WARNING!***
This story is not for the faint of heart. Though it doesn’t delve too graphically, it does cover some sensitive issues.
Two problems I had-
1)Tattoos need at the very least 2 weeks of healing between sessions, not only will there be lots of pain, but I believe that it won’t heal correctly so the lines and shading may not be consistent.
2)Is it 3 sections with no chapters or just 3 extremely long chapters? Where are the quotation marks when she’s telling her story?
Aside from these two issues I had, I felt the story was well told, and compelling. I’d love to see a second part with the trial, or at least a novella. Let the readers see The Gardener get what’s coming to him.
This book is very intense. I could not put it down until the end. It is very well written.
FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison have the grueling job of questioning a reluctant witness, Maya. Little by little, the horrific story unfolds in a lovely and lush garden in which kidnapped girls lived. Each girl’s back is filled with a tattoo of butterfly wings. Each girl’s species is different, but each is intricately and colorfully inked. As the agents pry the story from Maya, the true horrors of what took place come out.
This is an interesting story, because it is basically all flashbacks told in the agents’ office. The true horror of the crimes is revealed slowly from the mouth of one of the “butterflies” herself. This is an unusual perspective, and it causes the reader to flip those pages quickly in anticipation of what is coming next. This is a unique and well-written story.
How this novel could be so twisted and loving is still beyond me. There is no way to describe this book except amazingly intense. The way the characters are developed and the depravity depicted is page turning and unpredictable. The emotional intensity that the characters experience is what fueled me through this book. The end was sure a twist I didn’t see coming.
It was so amazing. Fresh and feal to life. Terrible things happen to the innocent. The world we live in is harsh. To give hope a d healing back is a great gift.
I loved this twisted book. It kept me wondering what was going to happen next. If you’re looking for something that will really boggle the mind, try this one. Well written, shocking, creative, and a great read.
The plot was thin and unrealistic. Only a couple of the characters were well developed. The ending was contrived and felt forced. It was easy to read and suitable for passing time while in a waiting room.
I read this book because it was listed as one of the scariest books. It was not scary at all. I finished it because the story was good, a bit twisted, but an interesting read. The characters were very well written and I’m looking forward to starting the next in the series.