The Butterfly Garden

Author: Dot Hutchison
Genre: Psychological Thriller
276 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, Seattle, 2016

Synopsis
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 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…

My review
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison is a dark and deeply unsettling serial killer thriller and I was completely captivated from the start. The story is about a sexual predator who imprisons girls in his personal greenhouse garden and transforms them into “butterflies”. There is something disturbingly alluring about watching the horrors of the Garden unfold and being privy to the bonds that hold the victims together. At under 300 pages, it’s a short novel that can easily be read in one sitting. The book’s well-crafted structure immediately drew me in, making it hard to put down even for a short break. It’s a definite page-turner and a bleak, deeply unsettling story.

The story is divided into three parts, alternating between an interview with a mysterious survivor of the Garden and the events leading up to and occurring within the Garden. Hutchison’s narrative is beautifully written, creative, vivid, and harrowing.

While the first two parts of the story were fantastic, the third part fell completely short—I was so disappointed! The final section lacked the eerie tension and chilling suspense of the earlier parts, feeling rushed and somewhat juvenile. The ending shocked me, but not in a good way. It was a complete departure from the tense, compelling atmosphere of the first two parts. My rating dropped dramatically from 4.5 stars to 3 due to the last section, which I found ridiculous and a huge letdown.

I also found it hard to believe that a group of young women would accept their fate with such passivity and not pursue the opportunity to overpower the Gardener.

The Butterfly Garden was a solid 4.5-star read for me until the third part of the book. It was an alluring, darkly atmospheric story until the ending, which I found ridiculous and anti-climactic. While the story does include disturbing themes such as kidnapping, rape, self-harm, and brutality, I didn’t find it as dark as some of the previous reviews suggested. I would recommend this book but caution readers that the last section may provide a very unsatisfying conclusion.

My recommendation: read it for the first two sections, but keep in mind the ending may not be satisfying!