"Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place--possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home.
But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as "Sapphire"--a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind.
As she attempts to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death."- summary from Amazon
Wow, this was one hell of a debut! I absolutely loved it and had trouble putting it down. Ellison's prose is just so fascinating to read and the twists and turns are just amazing. It was a compelling mystery and while I had a feeling who the murderer was (mainly through elimination of who'd been in the novel) way before Lo did, it was still a little bit of a shock when it was revealed.
Ellison did a great job handling Lo's OCD and hoarding problems. They were so well integrated into the whole story, which was nice because sometimes I read a book where a character supposedly has something but doesn't exhibit any signs at all. I really felt for Lo when her OCD got the best of her and when others tried to interfere while she did it; plus, she's very insecure about it and how people view her, even though she tries her best to hide it.
While in the middle of writing this review, I had a chat with the awesome Shanyn of Chick Loves Lit about this book. I want to tell everyone that this is not a paranormal. I know it doesn't look or sound it (the "violent underworld" in the summary made me think a paranormal element might be inside), but it is. This is a wonderful, gritty contemporary with a great romance in it too. I loved seeing Lo and Flynt together- they had an interesting chemistry and some rocky obstacles to overcome.
Overall, I cannot recommend this book enough. This book is one of the reasons why I'm glad contemporary is still being published and I'm happy that there's been such great buzz for it. It really deserves it. So go grab a copy on February 14!
FTC: Received e-galley from Netgalley. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.
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Woohoo!! Love your description of this one (and thanks for linking me) :) Going to make sure I get a copy at some point - I can't miss out on a great contemporary!
ReplyDeleteGreat review. Will see to it that i get this book. Thanks,:)
ReplyDeleteMmm... I kind of find Butterflies creepy as a whole so I dunno... but I do think the book sounds pretty awesome :D, I would have to cover that cover though :P
ReplyDeleteButterflies are beautiful, not creepy! But aside from the cover (you can take off the dust jacket), there really isn't much to do with butterflies. It mainly refers to a butterfly pendant the main character gets.
DeleteDefinitely will be checking out this one. I've been looking for a good mystery/thriller lately. And I love Hoarders whenever it's on and this book sort of reminds me of it from what you've said. As usual your review was ridiculously insightful. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThat is a HUGE compliment, especially as I didn't think it was that insightful, lol. But I'm glad you think so.
DeleteThe hoarding aspect isn't brought up too much (though she does steal a lot, but I hadn't thought of it as hoarding until later), just a couple times toward the end. The main focus is on her OCD.
This book sounds really interesting so thanks for bringing it to my attention, I have a touch of OCD so its always nice to read something you can relate to in some way!
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you loved this one because I loved it too. It was such a surprise and I'm so glad I read it. It seems like we feel the same way about it!
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