ARC REVIEW The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

This is one of my Not Romance reads! I must emphasize this point. It is about a mad man sociopath and his son who kidnap young woman tattoos their backs with butterfly wings, rapes them repeatedly, and keeps them for a couple of years before he kills them. What makes this book unusual and what I really liked about it is the narration. If you have seen The Usual Suspects it is similar to that. The main character is sitting in an interrogation room telling her story. The thing with this is that she doesn't tell it in order she jumps back and forth so it may confuse some. It does also switch from third person through the perspective of the FBI agents and first person as the young woman tells her story. I loved this book and while there was rape it was never really described it not graphic but it lets on enough your imagination can get the hint and run with it..

The book starts off with FBI special agent in charge Victor Hanoverian observing the young woman in the next room and despite being told that she was in shock he sees something different. The young woman only known as Maya has a story to tell, one that started three years ago when she was kidnapped by a man she only knew as The Gardener. There is more to Maya though and Victor and his partner Eddison are trying to figure out what exactly happened. Maya's narrative flows in a circular motion but she does eventually get to the point. She tells of her experience as a child and how she ended up where she did and what lead up to her kidnapping, she also tells of the girls in the garden with her and the bond they formed, she also tells of The Gardener.

Overall,  I feel this is a twisted story that really pulls you in and sets you on edge. It has to be one of my favorites of the year so far.