This is a YA coming-of-age story about Bethany - a girl with osteogenesis imperfecta. The novel is one-part coming-of-age - dealing with Bethany's life, her crush, her experience being bullied at school, and her coping with her disability. There is a sci-fi element in Bethany's dad - and his search to find a cure for his daughter, using the DNA of butterflies. The sci-fi elements with her father and his search for the cure was some of the most enjoyable for me - though parts of the story dragged on. I has been a while since I read this book - I remember thinking that the inclusion of disability representation was awesome, but that the inclusion of a sci-fi style search for a cure can undermine the impact of that representation, as disability and the concept of cure requires more nuance than this book really went into from what I remember. This book seems to be a hit-or-miss among reviewers, and I would take the heavy concepts of illness in a child and bullying to heart when deciding to read it. I did however enjoy it and gave it 4 stars.

I was immediately drawn to this book because I also have Osteogenesis Imperfecta. I have had type III since my birth and I am always interested to see how authors spell out and handle the disease in their writing. I sympathized with Bethany not just because we have the same disease, but because of the struggles she has in school. I was also bullied growing up though not physically. I figure being in a wheelchair and having an aide to help/bodyguard helped keep me safe from that particular brand of torture. This novel as it progressed got pretty dark but it kept me interested. For one thing, there is definitely something off with Bethany’s dad. His zealous search to find a cure is somewhat explained by the end but it is one of those situations where being that the novel is not from his perspective we will never know exactly what goes on in his head. He loves his daughter though that is abundantly obvious.



I enjoyed this book and think that if you are reading this review you should get it if it sounds interesting to you. She handled speaking about the disease very well. Unlike other books and media that have had my disease as a subject matter after reading this book, I did not come away angry about being misrepresented. I have moved on to the next book in the series that came out last month so stay tuned for that!

Bethany is fifteen, she has a rare bone disease and a father who works and experiment's with science. This means Bethany is something of a human guinea pig trialling her fathers creations when we meet her first. Her mum has passed away from cancer when she was young and unfortunately, the children on the bus use that fact to bully her.

At school however new girl Zoey assumes that Bethany is in the wrong school and so is shocked later when she realises that a photo was taken of her holding Bethany's hand. Zoey is in with the A group however, so starts to bully Bethany physically and verbally. At least Jeremiah can see through Zoey and stays best friends with Bethany even after a fall out he wins her over with a sweet display of affection.

Yet at home her father's experiments in finding a cure for Bethany's bone disease and the lymphoma which killed his wife result in him undergoing a caterpillar/butterfly transition into a human chrysalis of which he tells Bethany to expect to happen to her as well due to the shots he had been giving her to make her better until he completed his research.

It is also interesting that Bethany is also named after a butterfly, Boloria Selene, as Bethany is her third name she discovers in her fathers journal. Bethany seems to be able to interact with the butterflies around her and they help her in a situation at the end of the book involving the police. I'll let you read the book yourselves to find out what happened though!

Thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book, it was very different and out there but in a refreshingly good way.
I can't wait for more!

Butterfly Bones by Rebecca Carpenter is a tragic story of one child’s illness becoming a father’s obsession. Poor Bethany. At a time in her life when school and boys should be her focus she instead has to worry about her father’s experiments. It is love that makes him desperate to help his only child but in his desperation, he does something to Bethany that starts an irreversible change.
That’s not all Bethany has to worry about. A mistake on her part brings her to the attention of the new girl at school. An attention that is nothing but bad. Jerimiah, her best friend is also her crush. Bethany can’t tell him of her feelings, not with Zoey’s attention so focused on them both.
A strong book with bullying as a central focus Rebecca Carpenter brings emotion to fore even with characters who are not emotionally present such as Bethany’s father. Bethany’s sarcastic inner strength cannot save her from her own father’s misguided love. All of the characters have a well-roundedness that heightens the emotion of their errors. The fantasy element of Butterfly Bones only enhances the true story of love that underpins the drama. A great book one. I look forward to reading more.