From the Bookshelf of The MacHalo Asylum for Mischief and Mayhem (MAM²)…

The Butterfly Garden (The Collector, #1)

Dot Hutchison

Start date: January 15, 2018

Finish date: January 30, 2018

Discussion: Fantasy and Sci-Fi

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Fantasy and Sci-Fi

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What Members Thought

May 25, 2016 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, kindle-first

This book was my kindle first May pick and it's very disturbing. *TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE*

--->EXCERPT<---

In terror she spoke, letting sink her wings till they trialed in the dust--in agony sobbed, letting sink her plumes till they trailed in the dust--till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

But my wings couldn't move and I couldn't fly, and I couldn't even cry.
All that was left to me was the terror and the agony and the sorrow.

This story is about an evil man only known as the Gardener. He has a ...more

111 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2018 Catherine rated it liked it

Shelves: machalo-read, horror, mystery, dark, thriller, own-it-ebook, first-in-series

Coulda been creepier. The story was off the wall crazy but it just didn't deliver the creep factor and horror that I wanted. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I'll read the second one. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2018 Nikki ~ The Nocturnal Bookworm rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dark, horror, human-depravity, couldn-t-put-it-down, thriller, series, books-i-own-read

Holy Sh*t At first that's all I can say. I intended to just start this before bed last night and I literally could not put it down. The storytelling style was so smooth and the pacing of everything being revealed just sucked me in where I couldn't help but keep turning the pages. A chilling and dark story if you are easily disturbed or triggered this is not the book for you but if you can handle it it is a haunting and engaging story.

I read a lot of reviews where people said things like they co ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2018 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: machalo-brs-and-recs, 2018-machalo-reading-challenge-aka, mmfbce

~~~~ MacHalo Buddy Read~~~~

This was out of my comfort zone, but that's the beauty of a buddy read.

Dark and twisted. Watch out for this one, even with all of it's creepiness it's hard to put it down. It's not a horror, but some horrific things happen (trigger warning all over this). The relationship dynamics are all sorts of messed-up and I'm pretty sure I sounded crazy talking about them and my understanding of them to other people.

The end is not what you are expecting (or may not be the way yo ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2020 Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* rated it really liked it

The Butterfly Garden was chosen by me for a challenge where I needed a bug on the cover.
It's the first KU book I tried a free audio with, considered free if you have a KU membership of course. I listened to most of this book on audio, the book being surprisingly well narrated considering it's a free narration. The audio quality is as good as purchased audiobooks. Recommended for that

Storywise it actually gets pretty good. Myra is a well done, toughened character who bounces the plot of the story The Butterfly Garden was chosen by me for a challenge where I needed a bug on the cover.
It's the first KU book I tried a free audio with, considered free if you have a KU membership of course. I listened to most of this book on audio, the book being surprisingly well narrated considering it's a free narration. The audio quality is as good as purchased audiobooks. Recommended for that

Storywise it actually gets pretty good. Myra is a well done, toughened character who bounces the plot of the story after the fact of events in an interrogation room to two detectives. One is more open minded and leads the pov of part of the book, while Myra leads the rest.

The other detective is hostile and generally unreasonable. This brings me to part of my annoyance with the story. They believe her less because she is not as fragile. They look for reasons to pin her with some guilt, some responsibility, throughout the whole story. The surviving girls ask for her as support and they never point a finger at her, but being a strong and jaded girl works against her where the police are concerned. This irritates me greatly. It reminds me of the rape victims who do not break down "strongly enough" to be as believed.

That works out in the end, although the ending of the book is the most fragile and - like butterfly wings eventually do - starts crumbling into a deteriorating plot device where the author tries to add in a shock twist that doesn't work.

Besides those two negatives, it's hard to put this down when you get into it. The girls are alive with personality. The Gardener is a fascinating villain. The sides of his sons showing family bonded dysfunctional villainry is as complex as the master of the garden himself. The psychological addiction some, like Lorraine, go through in a sort of prisoner turned praiser outcome, also adds substance to the story. This is not simple, cheesy, or overdone. It's well played and deeper the longer you dig....well, except the bad ending. That's just so unlikely it's implausible.
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2024 LolliMolly ⫷fiction addiction⫸ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2024, favs-2024

If you're a fan of Criminal Minds, this is a great one to pick up.
I was a little disappointed at the BIG SECRET, but aside from that this was a great read with a pretty satisfying ending. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 30, 2020 Maraya21 (The Reading Dragon) rated it really liked it

Shelves: botm, y-defunct-groups, kindle-unlimited, read-in-2020

❣️ April Celebratory BotM @ URR™

Celebrating 4 Years of Unapologetic Romance Reading with BotMs chosen by Nenia "Smuty Trash Panda" Campbell, our glorious leader and creator of the group ❣️

“Our choices make us who we are,” he said eventually.
It wasn’t what I’d call a substantive response.
“What choices are you making, Desmond?”
“I don’t think I’m making any choices right now.”
“Then you’re automatically making the wrong ones.” He straightened, mouth open to protest, but I held up my hand.