Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. I absolutely love it when the author weaves well-researched facts into fictional stories and takes us back in time. What is particularly interesting about this book is that the author has taken experiences of her own family and weaved it into a thrilling and beautiful story. It’s not just historical fiction, it’s also a mystery and a romance.

Set in 1860s Melbourne, this book showcases the raw side of this city where in the red light area women are not safe. Women in general, during that time was looked down upon (I mean what has changed in 2025) and then women living in brothels did not even have the right to earn safety. Throw in a killer amidst that and everything turns to chaos. Two women, a journalist and a “lowly” woman now will have to search for this killer to ensure they don’t end up dead.

Really enjoyed it so much and loved the way the author portrayed the struggles of women! Highly recommend. Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster AU for providing me with this ARC copy.

I'm not normally a historical fiction reader, so sex work was the sell for me to pick up a copy of The Butterfly Women. It's written by a non-sex worker, Madeleine Cleary, whose loose connection to the industry is relatives "who likely worked in a brothel in Romeo Lane (current day Crossley Street) near Bilking Square." You'll see her distance from sex workers in items like the reader questions buried at the end: "Can sex work ever be empowering or is it naturally exploitative?" It's also obvious in the trite little sections any time a worker is murdered that try to fill in what was lost in actual character development. I found these sections patronising. They seem to suggest that sex workers have motivations for acting that are not able understood by ordinary people. Yet aren't we all driven by doing what we need to do to survive, both as individuals and as mothers?

So a warning for sex workers, and people who love them, that the early part of this book spends a lot of time in demeaning and derogatory language: "You hated your body and what you did to survive." The author buys into the hierarchy between different types of sex work: "They are dressed girls, not streetwalkers. The men who visit Papillon are respectable not dangerous." It perpetuates myths about bodies wearing out: "But in the future, when your beauty fades and your body tires, do you still think men like Garrott will dress you in silk and pour you Champagne?"

Eventually you get to the point where the author finally realises sex workers "lived remarkably independent lives for the time" through the character of Johanna, but I don't think it quite sinks in that it could be a choice, a deliberate sacrificing of reputation for freedom. I mean, I'd much rather be Johanna than Harriett, even though Harriett has a better than most life as a journalist...

I think the book owes a big debt to Sarah Waters lifting women cross dressing for access to freedom and writing about Melbourne's laneways in Little Lon as being a local answer to St. Giles. It felt like a Melbourne version of something I'd read before, and telegraphed the murderer though harping upon unaccounted time over and over again...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Women.
Madeline Cleary did a great job of weaving fiction into to history, with parts based on her own family history.. The reader has been rewarded with a fantastic story of women’s struggles in the mid 1800’s in the seedier parts of Melbourne. It was intriguing read & to see it all unfold was testament to the author’s clever writing. I found the approach told primarily from the women’s perspective to be really empowering.
I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.
4 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC for an honest review.

The Butterfly Women follows the dark and twisted life in Melbourne around the 1860s. In the city that is fast growing and developing, the heart of Melbourne can be found in a brother house in Little Lon. When murders start to appear in the streets, the sinister side of the city starts to be revealed.

As a fantasy girlie who lovess seeing maps in books, how I yelp when I open the book and saw the map of Melbourne, made me so weirdly happy HA. The author gives fresh voice to the history of the lives of people, especially women, at the time. The book dive deep in difficult topics like sexism, social classist, racism. If you love feeling big emotions, roller coaster read, you will need to save this book for when it comes out.

4.25 stars!
thank you netgalley and simon & schuster for the opportunity to read to an early copy of this book.

this is an incredible story to follow and Cleary sets the scene of 1860's melbourne incredibly. and the women's stories that she tells are all so different, yet so similar and intertwine beautifully. i was hooked from the very first line, "the woman seated in death's shadow is the youngest in his flutter".

i really enjoyed the commentary on the society at that time and how women were looked down on for activities that men could partake in without a blink of an eye. i felt that the quote "as women we earn our own income and we run our own businesses. most have others who depend on un. if i could somehow change things so women could earn a decent income with the use of their bodies, than of course i would..." really showed what the book was discussing and how women had to take their fate and lives of themselves and their family into their own hands.

i really enjoyed this book, and loved the women and the mystery storyline that we followed throughout!! what an incredible way to tell the stories of so many people and stories that may have been forgotten in the years since.

Thankyou to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Butterfly Women in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Such a good read.
Australia in 1863 comes alive in the readers imagination. The comparison of women living in Melbourne, the disparity of their role in society, is evident in this telling. Throw in the hunt for a killer, and you have a read that will keep you up until you reach the final page.
Well worth a read.