What price does a person go to to acquire beauty? Not exactly utopian, but certainly a different society where a person captures young girls and turns them into butterflies to keep their beauty. An interesting read that is a bit science fiction yet very compelling. It certainly drew me out of my usual subjects. The book makes you think of a different society.

You can think of this as the "Gone With The Wind" of harrowing books about innocent women abducted into enslavement, terrible abuse and ultimately murder.
Certainly a gripping and sometimes horrific read, with the women subjected to a kind of fetishistic mutilation by having enormous butterfly wings tattooed across their backs. "The Garden', so to speak, is presided over by an aging twisted pervert and his murderous psychotic son. And you can only grieve and ache for the poor victims under their control.
Disturbing to the max, the book functions simultaneously as a depressing drama, a psychological thriller and sometimes borderline horror. But once you start a book as compelling as this, it's a given that you'll see it through to the end.

Took me way to long to review
Not at all my kind of book but as a thriller goes this was it Twisted from the get go.
If you love thrillers, horror this one is for you. I just learned this is a series

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book a WHILE ago. So much has happened since the first time I read The Butterfly Garden. It is a book that is certainly not for everyone, but one that I deeply enjoyed and invested myself in, on more than one occasion.

The story opens with an FBI agent questioning a girl about a mysterious person of interest referred to simply as "The Gardener". She shares what she knows about the man in question and the twisted and sickening methods he has for "grooming" young girls, tattooing them, choosing what they will wear, etc. until they reach a certain age, when they are then preserved indefinitely in his compound.

The story itself is hard to digest at times, but the characters the author has created that live under the Gardener's care, make for a tighter "family-like" organization rather than all of them viewing themselves as captives. Perhaps there is a bit of Stockholm syndrome occurring here, but the twists and turns culminating into the finale more than make up for any suspension of belief, and there is plenty of that. But at the same time, the scariest feeling I got from this book was that it could actually happen. And unfortunately, there exist many young girls with difficult lives who would submit themselves to a seemingly caring older gentleman who will provide them with the basic necessities. Then again, all good things must come to an end!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for an advanced copy, albeit years ago, in exchange for my honest review! 5 stars out of 5.

This story is thrilling and definitely stands out. It is not my kind of book however horror and thriller fans will enjoy the plot, development of the characters, and plot twists towards the conclusion of the book.

Note: I received an ARC in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

This was a utterly sick and twisted read which I fully admit I loved. From,the start I was gripped by this book. Definitely not for the faint hearted.

twisted and dark. I look forward to reading the other books in this series and more from this author.

Young girls of around 16 years old have been 'collected' by a man who calls himself the Gardener and brought to a gorgeous garden complete with beautiful trees and flowers somewhere in New York. In reality though the garden is a prison from which there is no escape. In this garden each girl has been tattooed with the wings of a species of butterfly and are kept captive to fulfill the sexual fantasies of the Gardener.

Butterfly Garden is a story told by one of the butterflies in the garden after her release from captivity. She describes in chilling detail her life before and in the garden with the other butterflies and the Gardeners obsession with them. A gripping , exceptional tale of strength and survival which I had a hard time putting down.

I would like to thank Thomas & Mercer & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

I'm not sure there is a descriptive word in English that adequately classifies The Butterfly Garden. It is both horrifying (content and plot) and yet brilliant (writing and characters) at the same time.

The Plot
It should be noted, in case the blurb doesn't make it obvious enough, that this is a book about awful things done to teenage women. It has kidnapping, torture, rape, permanent marking and almost any other awful thing you can think of that someone would do to a captive. It is not to be taken lightly. And yet the horrifying nature of it all is actually what allows this to be such brilliant novel. Author Dot Hutchison leverages those awful things and uses them to write about friendship, family, and love. By taking the extremes of the bad, Hutchison is able to tell a strong and passionate story of the extremes we can be pushed to in order to find good in our lives.

Lead Gal
She has so many names that I'm not even going to bother trying to name her. The focus of the story is two detectives interrogating one of the kidnapped women that seems to be 'the leader' of it all. She tells the story with a starkness that I loved. Her dryness, sarcasm and ice cold demeanor are exactly how I can imagine myself reacting to a situation like this. With little to no compassion for anyone except the girls whom she is trying to 'protect'. I like that Hutchison gives us some background and context for why she is so distant and how she is able to easily accept many things around her. By the end of the story any 'twists' that appear feel natural and obvious because the bond with our lead gal is so strong.

The Love Story
I know what you're thinking... there's a love story?! Sort of. There are off branches of love between the kidnapped girls. There is a twisted type of love that the kidnapper has for the girls. It's beyond deplorable, and yet Hutchison describes it in such a way that I can totally understand someone convincing themselves that their reasons are justifiable. There is also another story of love (of sorts). One that I cannot say much about except that I hope we get a slice of what the future is for those directly impacted in the second or third book of this series. It's well positioned, among all the horror, that love exists in this garden because otherwise how could anyone survive.

Overall
Unless you are drastically concerned about some of the content of this book I would recommend reading it. I don't read a lot of thriller/mystery type books in a year so I'm delighted that I chose this one as one of the few.
Call me twisted, broken, awful, etc. but I couldn't put this book down and cannot wait to read the next two in the series that have new stories investigated by the same detectives. Hutchison spoke to a dark place in my soul that didn't even know it craved this story until it consumed me. Maybe those I recommend it to will think less of me; but I don't care because the brilliance of writing, story flow and characterization is too good to be hidden away because of the horror mechanisms used to tell the story.

This book was everything I hope for in a Thriller, it was a COMPLETELY original storyline. I've never even seen another book with this type of originality and depth. Each character seemed throughly created and every storyline was described to bring you in as a reader a little more. I will say that it is a very disturbing book with a plot that some readers could have problems reading, but it is beautifully written.

It's does bounce around a little from past events to the present, but it helps add that suspense to wanting to know the ending.

It did drag out in some places, and some parts of the story were a little dry and over repetitive, but overall it was very well written.


I have nothing but praise for the Butterfly Garden and Dot Hutchison.

Wow. What a book! I was intrigued by the description, but didn't quite know what to expect. Beautifully written, explaining the garden so well I could almost see. it. The characters were portrayed beautifully. The story was dark, horrifying and a little creepy, but the relationship of the girls was unmistakably beautiful.

what an amazing read. Maya is the perfect heroine for this story as we are drawn into her visual, her story. the only survivor. told in flashbacks from past to present it is the harrowing, intense story of survival. perfect for fans of Hannibal Lector, definitely not for the fate hearted.
if you want a story that you aren't going to forget in a hurry- then this it.
it is thought provoking and makes you wonder exactly how you would survive in the same situation and makes you really feel for the survivor.

Intense! Kept me on the edge of my seat through the entire book From the first page I was drawn into this story.
I would recommend this is you're into detective/murder and mystery books.
It starts slow but soon builds up.
Why, oh why, did I wait so long to read this book Great read keeps you guessing right till the end now to dive into her second book :)

Thank you Netgalley the Author and Publisher for a chance to read this great book.

A taut thriller that is better told through the dual timeline than it would be as a linear story. The character development is thorough, the mystery is subtle but discernible, and thee main character maintains both a toughness and sympathy that is unusual in a book of this genre. Recommended.

This book pulls you right in! A chilling story of a young woman's kidnapping and survival. Some moments are absolutely awful but you can't stop reading!

I'm ashamed to admit that I received an ARC of Dot Hutchison's The Butterfly Garden last year but didn't get around to reading it until it was selected as one of the May/June 2017 group reads by the Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group on Goodreads. I made the mistake of starting it on Sunday night: a mistake because I was so immediately engrossed that I didn't want to put it down, but I had to get up for work on Monday morning. The Butterfly Garden is one of the best thrillers I have read recently.

Is this book perfect? No. Does it require some suspension of disbelief? Yes. Was I happy with the twist at the end? Not particularly. So why 5 stars? Because The Butterfly Garden masterfully accomplished what it set out to do: it thrilled me, to the extent that I wasn't even aware of the flaws in its logic until I read some of the less generous reviews here.

If you're looking for a how-to manual for successfully abducting, imprisoning, and murdering young women for 30 years without discovery, this book may not be for you. However, if you want a fast-paced and disturbing escape from the everyday, you need look no further than The Butterfly Garden. As for me, I'm heading off to join FBI Agents Victor Hanoverian, Brandon Eddison, and Mercedes Ramirez on their next case, Roses of May, due out next week.

This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher.

Creepy, strange and weird! Good book! Not sure if I missed it but I wanted more on the Gardeners wife! I rate it a 3.5.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Wow, what a ride. This was one of those that slowly unfolds in front of you, each page growing for horrifying and intriguing as the the last. I really liked the main character Maya, who is strong and calculating, but you fear her too, because she might not be as good as she seems. To reveal more would be to give things away. But please approach this one with caution, it has some rather disturbing content. Part of me probably could have done without it.

This book is beautifully written and also quietly disturbing. I found myself engrossed by the story, which felt so original.
A difficult subject told in a very special manner.

Beautiful and Unforgettable.