So I have been reading a psychological thriller called the Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison. It was creepy and thrilling at the same time, so if you like books such as Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, then this is definitely the book for you. But ***Warning*** This book can have triggers of rape and physical and emotional abuse. So beware it's for Mature Audiences Only.
Butterfly Garden is about a girl named Maya. The story starts off with Maya telling her story of being held captive to the FBI. Maya has been held captive for 4 yrs by a crazed man called "The Gardner" that has a unique butterfly collection. The butterfly collection is made up of girls between the ages of 16-21 that he has tattooed butterfly wings on, that live in his garden. Since butterflys have short life expectancies it's only natural that the girls do to. At the age of 21 the girls are killed. "The Gardener" abducts these girls and for days tattoos butterfly wings on their backs, re-names them, and then rapes them and takes them to be one of his women in his harem.
Maya tells the story in a way that the reader will find very intriguing. Maya isn't somber, but very much a realist. Maya tells about how the girls interact with each other, like a family, a support group to get through life day by day in the garden. She tells about how when the girls died, whether it was an accident, they we're too old to stay, or his sick, sadistic son Avery killed them. Maya would tell how life was boring in the garden and how she quickly became the gardner's favorite, but never wanting the attention.
Maya was 14yrs old when she came into the garden, even though "The Gardener" never took anyone who was less than the age of 16, her license stated that she was 18yrs old. Maya was a runaway, born to parents that never wanted anything to do with her. She went to live with her grandmother until she died and then took a bus to NYC to start a new life, working for a high end restaurant as a waitress and then ended up living in an apartment with the other waitresses that worked there, she had a comfortable, but meager life, but one work night a very rich businessman rented the restaurant for the night, and took a liking to Maya. The rich man happened to be "The Gardner". And that very next night she was abducted.
The story is so creepy to me, because it's so realistic, that these things can actually happen. A rich man abducting young women. And because he has money and the status he's able to hide them and is the least likely suspect. The setting is great, I love how the author toggles back in forth between the past in Maya's life when she lived in the garden and the present where she's in the interrogation room being interviewed by the FBI agents. The novel has a lot of twist and turns. This one is defintely a page turner. You will be trying to speed read the whole time just to find out the twists and the ending, while trying to savor the moment in each page. I'm telling you this would make for one hell of a movie. It's great and intense. The heroine is amazing. The author has did a great job with this one. Even though this is a great book and this is what the author's great mind envisioned, the ending fell a little flat to me, so I would love to see a more twisted alternate ending in the movie. This is defintely a must read, and will most definitely be a must see, once it gets optioned for a movie!
Once you read the book you'll understand the pictures below.....Until Next Time!
***Update***
I just received word from Dot Hutchison that Butterfly Garden has been optioned by Palmstar Media and Anonymous Content! Please click on the link below. How Exciting!
Butterfly Garden is about a girl named Maya. The story starts off with Maya telling her story of being held captive to the FBI. Maya has been held captive for 4 yrs by a crazed man called "The Gardner" that has a unique butterfly collection. The butterfly collection is made up of girls between the ages of 16-21 that he has tattooed butterfly wings on, that live in his garden. Since butterflys have short life expectancies it's only natural that the girls do to. At the age of 21 the girls are killed. "The Gardener" abducts these girls and for days tattoos butterfly wings on their backs, re-names them, and then rapes them and takes them to be one of his women in his harem.
Maya tells the story in a way that the reader will find very intriguing. Maya isn't somber, but very much a realist. Maya tells about how the girls interact with each other, like a family, a support group to get through life day by day in the garden. She tells about how when the girls died, whether it was an accident, they we're too old to stay, or his sick, sadistic son Avery killed them. Maya would tell how life was boring in the garden and how she quickly became the gardner's favorite, but never wanting the attention.
Maya was 14yrs old when she came into the garden, even though "The Gardener" never took anyone who was less than the age of 16, her license stated that she was 18yrs old. Maya was a runaway, born to parents that never wanted anything to do with her. She went to live with her grandmother until she died and then took a bus to NYC to start a new life, working for a high end restaurant as a waitress and then ended up living in an apartment with the other waitresses that worked there, she had a comfortable, but meager life, but one work night a very rich businessman rented the restaurant for the night, and took a liking to Maya. The rich man happened to be "The Gardner". And that very next night she was abducted.
The story is so creepy to me, because it's so realistic, that these things can actually happen. A rich man abducting young women. And because he has money and the status he's able to hide them and is the least likely suspect. The setting is great, I love how the author toggles back in forth between the past in Maya's life when she lived in the garden and the present where she's in the interrogation room being interviewed by the FBI agents. The novel has a lot of twist and turns. This one is defintely a page turner. You will be trying to speed read the whole time just to find out the twists and the ending, while trying to savor the moment in each page. I'm telling you this would make for one hell of a movie. It's great and intense. The heroine is amazing. The author has did a great job with this one. Even though this is a great book and this is what the author's great mind envisioned, the ending fell a little flat to me, so I would love to see a more twisted alternate ending in the movie. This is defintely a must read, and will most definitely be a must see, once it gets optioned for a movie!
Once you read the book you'll understand the pictures below.....Until Next Time!
***Update***
I just received word from Dot Hutchison that Butterfly Garden has been optioned by Palmstar Media and Anonymous Content! Please click on the link below. How Exciting!