Breaking Butterflies

Breaking Butterflies BY M. ANJELAIS

AMAZON | GOODREADS

Publisher: Scholastic (August 26, 2014)
Print Length: 277 pages Format: E-arc Source: Netgalley.com Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Series: Standalone Completed: July 2014

SUMMARY

FROM GOODREADS:

The closest he will ever come to happiness is when he's hurting her. Will she let him? A beautiful and twisted story of first love and innocence lost--written when the author was just eighteen.

Sphinxie and Cadence. Promised to each other in childhood. Drawn together again as teens. Sphinxie is sweet, compassionate, and plain. Cadence is brilliant, charismatic. Damaged. And diseased. When they were kids, he scarred her with a knife. Now, as his illness progresses, he becomes increasingly demanding. She wants to be loyal--but fears for her life. Only the ultimate sacrifice will give this love an ending

BACKGROUND

I couldn't find much information on the author M. Anjelais, but what I do know is she wrote this when she was 18 years old. Breaking Butterflies is a standalone novel.

SETTING PACE AND STYLE

Let's start by saying this book was penned by a young girl of eighteen. Writing is absolutely beautiful, the mature, powerful fashion in which she conveyed thoughts, emotions and details on the pages of this book, I would have never believed someone so young could have written this. She is definitely an author I would read again and again in the future, mainly because it was so terribly easy to get lost in the words and sucked into the story. I easily fell into the writing style. I like how the narrator, Sphinx, in a first person narrative, is going back in time and telling of a story that's already happened, with subtle hints of traumatic experiences in her voice. The mood is slightly eerie, a foreshadowing of something difficult to come.

CHARACTERS AND PLOT

The characters in this story were terribly flawed. Sphinx, the narrator, bothered me from the get go. I didn't like how weak she was, how she allowed Cadence to manipulate her, how she was so easy to be persuaded to follow along. I felt she was incredible naive and had a difficult time believing she could really just be that stupid. The love she felt for Cadence was totally twisted. I became angry with her and the poor decisions she repeatedly made. I didn't really understand why she wanted to be around someone who just hurt her over and over. I struggled to see how she could love him. It also bothered me how she tried to justify every wrong Cadence ever committed.

Cadence, on the other hand, was a character meant to be hated. His mental illness and terrible behavior made him pretty easy to detest. He seemed spoiled and coddled, which just got worse as he became sicker. However, I knew he was ill and even I found myself making excuses for him pretty easily. I also felt quite sympathetic for his plight. Still, I couldn't help but thinking in the back of my head the world probably will be a better place when he dies. I know! How mean, huh?

Plus I also found myself so completely frustrated with Sphinx's parents. I would have never left my kid in a different country, while she missed school and was with a dangerous kid who had already marred her face and tried to kill her.

PERSONAL NOTE

This book is about two youngsters who made a pact as kids, hatching a crazy plan to be best friends forever, to grow up get married have kids (a boy and a girl) and then have those kids marry each other and live happily ever after. Then, they sealed it in blood. But things don't always go as planned, no matter how hard you believe or wish for them to. When these young girls grew up, married and had kids, everything seemed to be going according to the grand plan. They each had a child a girl and a boy. The girl was quiet and meek, the boy was extroverted and strong, but something was terribly wrong. He wasn't normal, he was mentally ill and when he became a teenager he also was diagnosed with leukemia. This is where the story actually begins.

Honestly, I did find myself frustrated with some parts of the story. For example, at a certain point in the book a bird is purchased for Cadence. I already knew the fate of this bird wasn't going to be a pleasant one. I found myself screaming, "C'mon who buys a sociopath a friggin' bird!" I also never really understood why Cadence painted in only one color - blue. Maybe it was symbolic? If so, I totally missed it. At times, this story and the premise seemed unbelievable and quite far-fetched. I guess if I let all that go, then, looking back, it really was a beautiful, but broken story. Its great how the author tied the title of the book into the story line. Its an extremely fitting title.

The story was powerful, it moved me and was quite thought provoking. In the end I'm happy with the choices the main character made. Of course I knew ahead of time the story would conclude in a certain way because in the beginning, the narration immediately went into a flashback, confirming she was still around in the end to tell the story. This is a stand alone novel. It wrapped up without any lose ends. The conclusion satisfied me and the character growth impressed.

RECOMMENDATION

I would recommend this book to readers who are bothered by characters who make poor choices or decisions. Those who are interested in reading about mental illness and the effects it can have on those around them would also find a lot to like about this book.

RATING

4 out of 5 Rings