The Butterfly Garden
Dot Hutchison, 2016
Mystery, thriller & crime HorrorContemporary fiction
A survivor tells the FBI how she lived inside a collector's garden, where young women were kept and tattooed like butterflies.
Feels like dread and melancholy. About freedom, identity and memory.
A page from the book
The fairy tale that explains why some people keep striking matches.
And that stupid little girl stood in the winter and kept lighting matches to catch glimpses of families that weren’t—could never be—hers and froze to death in those harsh moments of reality between matches, because even though matches can burn, they’re light, not heat. Dot Hutchison.The novel is built as framed testimony: Maya tells her story to FBI agents, so every scene arrives through a survivor's controlled account.
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Questions readers ask
- What is The Butterfly Garden like?
- Feels like dread and melancholy. About freedom, identity and memory.
- What should I read after The Butterfly Garden?
- If you liked The Butterfly Garden, try Butcher & Blackbird (Brynne Weaver), Clockwork Angel (Cassandra Clare) and Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice).
A taste of the feed
What it sounds like when devotion stops apologising for itself.
I would kill for you, and I have. I would do it again, every damn day. I’d turn myself inside out for you. I would die for you. I don’t just like you, Sloane, and you fucking know it.
Butcher & Blackbird · Brynne Weaver
What it means when a shattered face doesn't bleed.
It connected with a sickening sound. Miranda reeled back—and then straightened. Tessa shrieked and dropped the globe, staring—the whole left side of Miranda’s face was crushed in, like a paper mask that had been smashed flat on one side. Her cheekbone was flattened, her lip mashed against her teeth. But there was no blood, no blood at all.
Clockwork Angel · Cassandra Clare
Why the devil survives even when God does not.
People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don’t know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.
Interview with the Vampire · Anne Rice
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