Monday 11 July 2016

Paper Butterflies, Lisa Heathfield

Pages: 320
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Release Date: 30th June 2016
Edition: UK proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Seed

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

1 comment:

  1. 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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