Strange, weird, odd, crazy, these are words I would use to describe this book!
Yet I couldn't put it down! Each chapter has a huge cliffhanger that is irresistible! I had to read what happened next.
This book has been compared to The Shining. It's being way overdramatic to make the comparison. Read it in one night.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
All opinions are my own.

Emma's trying to forget the past and finds herself recklessly hitchhiking across the U.S. with a guy named Lowell who has gone from harmless and dumb to a creepy potential serial killer.

Just outside the Badlands of South Dakota, Emma decides to make a run for it and ends up stranded in an abandoned town with a loaded gun and a snowstorm creeping in.

Emma takes shelter in an old diner where she meets Earl, an odd young boy wearing a tinfoil mask.  Earl creeps her out but she's desperate to find gasoline to get her out of town before the snowstorm hits.

Before long, Emma is pulled into Earl's isolated world that quickly spirals into a house of horrors.  Confronting the boy's demons, both real and imagined, brings Emma's tragic past to the surface and the two make a choice to survive.

Tinfoil Butterfly is a tough book for me to rate.  It's a horror story so obviously I was willing to suspend my disbelief for a chilling story.  I found myself several times saying out loud, "Nooooo, why would you do that?  Who does that?" when there were major red flags / creepy vibes.  (I'm that person throwing popcorn during a movie and yelling my frustrations at the screen.  From the comfort of my own home of course.)
*Yelling at book* "Get out of there girl!  I'd rather take my chances walking to the next town in a blizzard!"

Emma has a terribly sad and over-the-top disturbing past that readers learn in a series of flashbacks.  Earl's current situation is also over-the-top and heartbreaking.  I liked that the two characters found kindred spirits in each other but it felt rushed.

Overall, this read like an average horror movie:  I was entertained and appreciated the disturbing atmosphere but was never invested. 

And finally, this book is billed as "The Shining meets About a Boy" and that is completely inaccurate.  The comparisons stop at boy in an isolated location.

I'd mention this book to readers who enjoy horror with metaphysical elements.

Thanks to MCD x FSG Originals and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.  Tinfoil Butterfly is scheduled for release on September 10, 2019.

A strange novel that borders on the genre of horror. A creative and unusual plot to highlight trauma, love and redemption.

You know those feel-good books that leave you with a smile on your face after you read them? This is not it. As disturbing as it's possible to be, some of its powerful images are burnt into my mind, from the mask worn by Earl, a little boy that Emma meets while running from a bad guy, to the dilapidated buildings where the action takes place. Emma is not the most balanced person and some her actions are shocking. The synopsis describes this book as The Shining meets About a Boy but to me it was wholly original. I've never read About a Boy but the relationship that Emma develops with Earl is not a cute "kid conquers adult's jaded heart" trope but goes deeper... much, much deeper. The plot is full of horror but is also strangely touching. This one will definitely stay with me for a while.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Farrar, Straus and Giroux!

The Shining meets About a Boy? Really???

The description for this book attracted me right away and it is the main reason I was so disappointed. Publishers do themselves, nor the author, any favors by attempting to prop up a book with an over-promised representation.

Diving into a book expecting one thing and getting another seldom ends well and Tinfoil Butterfly is a perfect example.

The structure of the book is frustrating to say the least. The story jumps from past to present from paragraph to paragraph interrupting the natural flow of the story. It was disruptive and made it difficult for me to get into the narrative.

I really enjoyed Earl as a character, he tore at my heartstrings. Seriously, the book would have been more compelling had it been entirely about Earl and his family.

2.5 Stars ⭐


I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

No spoilers: It’s best to go into this one knowing very little about it. I had no idea what kind of book this was when I first picked it up. I had heard that it was horror and a real page turner but I didn’t know if the evil in it was supernatural or human in origin. I’m not telling which one it turned out to be! This ultra-violent thriller is more gruesome and appalling than frightening. I would definitely count it as horror because it is absolutely horrific but not really scary. There is a decidedly ominous tension right from the start and it doesn’t let up until the very end. The story involves just about every possible trigger warning; murder, child abuse, rape, suicide, self-harm, cutting, drug abuse, desecration of a corpse, and I think you get the idea. Some parts of the story were almost sweet but the majority was very dark and the subject matter was difficult to read about. A butterfly is fragile and delicate but this Tinfoil Butterfly is all sharp edges.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

This was a solid page turner. Perfect for a quick read full of thrills and no deep intellectual thoughts necessary. I don’t think the comparisons are true or helpful, but it was highly readable.

I think the author just tried too hard. It started off interesting with the hitchhiking and eerie town but the author seemed to stagger and never regain proper balance. It was just a lot of bleak blah after a while. The writing was well done and what salvaged this from being a complete waste of time.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG Books (& MCD x FSG Originals) for this ARC, out September 2019!!


After I had seen a couple of glowing reviews for this novel, and the fact that it is described as a cross between The Shining and About A Boy, I had to have a copy of it. I read it in a little over a day, and only put it down to go to sleep (and even then I really didn't want to). Rachel Eve Moulton sucks you into this story that is about so much more than the connection between a young woman and a small boy. It is about abusive relationships, bad childhoods, your identity and what makes you you. I loved that Earl was a trans boy and that Emma accepted him fully and never questioned his identity and gender, and that Earl's mother was also this loving and accepting. Even though I am not a person who is head over heels about children, I connected with Emma and how much she loved Earl and how she wanted to protect him from all of the bad things that had already happened in his life, and what was to come. This book also scared the hell out of me with its terrifying imagery, both real and supernatural. The flashbacks (Emma with Ray and what happens to their relationship, the scenes when she has her surgery and is with her mom in the hospital) are so painful and heartbreaking, but also so relatable in a way that shocked me. I cannot recommend this book enough, and can't wait to read a finished copy later this year.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Holy cow. I don't even know how to put into words what I read. all i can say is this book is DARK. You won't expect what comes in this story.. seriosuly. read it.

I read some Dark Books but this one was PITCH BLACK! Main characters Emma and Earl have so many issues and no hope of a resolution. Story started out well with great attention getting; but just made this reader as the book evolved sad, depressed etc.. Quite a violent narrative. "A copy of this book was provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion.

“…evil doesn’t take people by surprise. In order for it to really get you, a tiny piece of you has to want it. He sure wanted it, my father. He drank it up until he lay down on the train tracks where he let it kill him. Literally let it split him in half. And that’s what I tried to do too, right? It’s what I’m still trying to do. Split myself in half.” — Rachel Eve Moulton, Tinfoil Butterfly

Everyone will know the name Rachel Eve Moulton come September 10. She’s a threat. This slow-burning debut is pure cocaine, loaded with Tarantino’s dark humor, and has a smattering of angst akin to Richard Chiem’s King of Joy. I knew it would be a smash from the first few pages.

(Thank you @fsgoriginals for sending this one in advance — can’t wait to celebrate its release this year.)

An almost perfect horror novel, where a young 18 year old woman finds herself having to take care of a creepy and gruesome 8-year-old kid (hence the reference to About a Boy) in a kind of ghost town where she has to face her own inner demons (and hence the reference to Shining). The style is sure and confident, the rhythm incisive, the book begins in medias res and immediately immerses you in dark and disquieting atmospheres.

This book may contain triggers for some readers.

A debut novel by Rachel Eve Moulton that explores a very dark and very chilling silhouette of childhood abuse and what is left in the wake of such atrocities. As one character runs to escape her abusive past, she is put in circumstance to help another stand up to his. The storyline gives that dire, shock-and-awe sensation that readers in this genre crave but only due to the abundance of horrendous brutality that is portrayed. The plot lacks a certain amount of depth and feels overly contrite due to the absence of a much-needed tension breaker. While this, in and of itself, adds an element of anxiety to the story, it feels contradictory. Rather than pulling the reader in, it serves to push them out. 2 stars.

Thank you to #NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review..

TINFOIL BUTTERFLY combines a few things I like: dysfunctional family drama, makeshift road trip gone awry, and scary, weird things happening. But this is one of those more plot-driven books that was good enough for me to want to finish (that need to know the ending), but not good enough for me to actually care that much about. The type of family drama was incesty and a total turn-off for me, and I wonder if had that one element been different would I have been more invested? Hard to say, but this one just wasn’t really for me.

Emma is hitchhiking across the United States, trying to outrun a violent, tragic past, when she meets Lowell, the hot-but-dumb driver she hopes will take her as far as the Badlands. But Lowell is not as harmless as he seems, and a vicious scuffle leaves Emma bloody and stranded in an abandoned town in the Black Hills with an out-of-gas van, a loaded gun, and a snowstorm on the way.

The town is eerily quiet and Emma takes shelter in a diner, where she stumbles across Earl, a strange little boy in a tinfoil mask who steals her gun before begging her to help him get rid of “George.” As she is pulled deeper into Earl’s bizarre, menacing world, the horrors of Emma’s past creep closer, and she realizes she can’t run forever.

Tinfoil Butterfly is a seductively scary, chilling exploration of evil—how it sneaks in under your skin, flaring up when you least expect it, how it throttles you and won't let go. The beauty of Rachel Eve Moulton's ferocious, harrowing, and a surprisingly moving debut is that it teaches us that love can do that, too.

This was a book that was difficult. I did not care for the characters. It was an ok read, not what I was expecting.. I am sure, it could have Emma that put me off. She just seemed to keep making things more difficult.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy for review.

Whoever did comparison promotions for this book should be chastised for shamelessness. But then again I was mainly attracted to this book because something about the oh so unlikely combination of The Shining and About a Boy proved irresistible. Also…inaccurate. Or, if you want to get technical about it, dramatically tangential at best. Yeah, there is a creepy locale, sort of, and a boy, sort of, but that’s about it. The story is really about a young woman named Emma who, following a personal tragedy, is hitchhiking to South Dakota to get away from her life. Because hitchhiking is neither safe nor reliable as far as transportation modes go, she ends up in a small abandoned town where she meets a boy wearing a tinfoil mask. I’d say from there on it’s a violent nightmarish ride into a snowstorm (aha, is that where they got the Shining then), but really Emma’s life has been a violent nightmarish ride leading up to this moment too. Which is another way of saying this book is relentlessly dark all the way. On a positive note it probably saved it from being YA, because otherwise a novel about an 18 year old and a 8 year old might have gone that way. But this is just too bleak, depressing and heavy to be suitable for younger audience. Maybe some…like Emma herself, a thoroughly tragic young lady. But also a survivor. She push comes to shove, she definitely steps up to the plate, especially once she becomes responsible for her young charge. This might be difficult for some readers, there are all sorts of violence perpetrated onto kids by themselves, by adults around them. But it makes for a darkly compelling read. In fact, it should be read in one sitting and I wish I did so. It’s quick enough of a read so that you can and the author presents such a well rendered literary desolation that it just isn’t a sort of place you want to go in and out of. For optimal results, immerse yourself completely for the duration, however difficult that might prove to be. Not an easy book to recommend, but fans of dark psychological fiction might enjoy this horrific trip of a story. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. I could not connect with the characters in this story from the beginning. Upon reading the synopsis, I was i was really interested in this book, however this story really fell flat for me. Emma, who has hitched a ride in Lowell’s VW Vanagon dubbed “Veronica” by Emma are traveling through South Dakota to reach California to supposedly pick up Lowell’s child. After spending a few days riding with Lowell, Emma is annoyed and wants out-although she wants to take Lowell’s vehicle, which she’s somehow become obsessed with over a short period of time. I don’t mind reading stories about people I can’t necessary completely relate to, because usually I can find some reminant of a personality to find interesting. However, this was not the case with this novel. I found myself bored and ultimately skimming to get through this book.

Emma has hitched a ride with the wrong guy, as she discovers when she ends up handcuffed to Lowell, the creep who picked her up. She manages to get his gun away from him and shoots him, leaving him lying bleeding on a snow-covered road. Taking his VW van, she soon runs out of gas in the parking lot of a gas station/diner. The diner and surrounding town appear empty except for a little boy, Earl, who wears a mask made of tinfoil. A boy smart enough to get her gun away from her and convince her to help him get rid of someone named George. I started this book with high hopes and initially really liked it, but the encounters with Earl became so strange and meta, that I lost interest

3.5 Stars. This appears, at first glance, to be another dysfunctional family drama. It quickly turns into a dark, violent thriller, interspersed with beauty. This is a page-turner, but not for anyone looking for a feel-good story. I need some time to fully digest this one.