Pages:
320
Publisher:
Electric Monkey
Release
Date: 30th
June 2016
Edition:
UK proof, review
copy
My
dad didn’t see, or maybe he just didn’t want to.
June’s
life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one – and a secret
one. Not even her dad knows the truth. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net.
But
then June meets Blister. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she
can find a way to fly far, far away.
Because
every creature in this world deserves their freedom. But what price?
Paper
Butterflies is
Lisa Heathfield’s incredibly powerful second novel, and it more than lived up
to the emotional punch of her first.
For weeks and weeks before I finally
picked up Paper Butterflies I'd been
hearing how June’s story had left people in floods of tears so I went into this
book fully expecting to get my heart broken. And get my heart broken I did, but
not in the way I was expecting. June’s story is not comfortable reading. The abuse
she suffers is horribly brutal and I kept having to put it down and step away
for a while – it ended up taking me a good few days to finish this when I really
could have read it in two sittings. It's shocking and powerful.
We begin when June is 10, moving
through her story and flashing forward to After. We don’t know what has
happened, just that it’s Not Good. Everything is slowly revealed and I was
blown away by the twist in Paper
Butterflies. It took the story in a direction so unexpected and tense that I
pushed through my discomfort and raced through the final third in one sitting.
By the time I reached the end I was
too stunned to cry. My lack of tears aren’t an indication of a lock of impact
or anything though – I lay awake for ages thinking about this story. About the
moments of beauty and light in darkness, about friendship and family and love,
about hope. That’s what Paper Butterflies
is all about – love and friendship and beauty and hope.
Paper
Butterflies is
brave, bold and beautiful – I've never read anything like it. Lisa Heathfield
is an incredibly powerful writer; a real force to be reckoned with.
Thanks to Electric Monkey for the
review copy.
Sophie
Ohh this one looks and sounds absolutely heartbroken and beautiful. Now I am very intrigued about this book after reading your review. I most definitely want too check out this book one day. Thank you for your great review and post.
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