Review: The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison

Title: The Butterfly Clues

Author:  Kate Ellison
Publisher: EgmontUSA

Publishing Date: Feburary 14th 2012

Pages: 325
Genre: YA Mystery Thriller

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: ARC 

 

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.

This book has been on my TBR for a while. I waited patiently for it to be released, well maybe not paitenitly, then I had to wait about a month to get to a place in my reading pile to actually read it. I was really really excited. The cover is just gorgeous and the sysnopsis sounds amazing. Well, it didn’t dissapoint! This book had everything I would hope for in a mystery book. Mystery (of course) thrills, cooky characters, and a little romance. 

Lo has issues. She has OCD and anxiety and is pretty much a loner. One more thing. She collects things and often steals things. It calms her down and gives her purpose. One of the items she finds leads her to a murder. A murder she feels she must solve. And that is this story.

I will start by saying I fell in love with the main character, Lo, within a few pages. She is just amazing. It’s pretty obvious that she is OCD but she seemed a little autistic to me too. I haven’t read a book where the point of view is from such an intrigquing, strange, but easy to love character. Lo is very smart, brave but scared in the same breath, and unpredictable. She has hers issues and that is what I love about her. She does not let her issues get in the way. She is fully aware that she has the little ticks that others see as strange. She just can’t help herself. She does what she can to not let her ticks become obvious out in public, but that is hard to do at times. I also think it’s amazing that she basically lives on her own, her parents are both checked out in away, from parenting. She realizes this but knows she cannot let it affect her life. I love how driven she is, even if the drive comes from obsessive compulsion. I also love that fact that she does find someone that accepts her for who she is and realizes that there may possibly be more that will accept her as she is. 

The other characters are great too. They do stand out in their own way but really are shadowed by the main character. 

The story is also awesome. The author does a great job on opening the mystery up by tying it into the Lo’s obsessions. Lo wil do whatever ever she can to solve the mystery. The other part of the story is what has happened in Lo’s life with her family. Her brother dissapeared and shortly after found dead. Lo is still having difficulties dealing with her brother’s death. This is just one of the reasons she is so obsessed with death of a girl found in a not so good neighborhood and obsessed with finding out what happened to her. 

I will say it again. I found this book amazing. The story flowed smoothly the entire book, not one single snag for me. I found myself immersed in the story, even when I was not reading it. I stil find myself thinking about “tap tap tap bananan” everytime I go through a door. (you will have to read to find out what that means) I really wished this was a series with a whole new mystery, I am not ready to say goodbye to Lo.

Pick one up as soon as possible if you love exciting characters and a good mystery! 

Kate Ellison spent a lot of time as a child, in Baltimore, pretending to be things she wasn't: a twin, a telekinetic, a benevolent witch with a box full of magical stones, a spy, a soccer player. She trained as an actor in Chicago and has walked across the entire country of Spain. She is a painter and jewelry-maker, and has at least one artist friend who really does keep his true name a secret from the world. He told her, but don't ask her to tell you—she's not gonna do it. Kate lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Butterfly Clues is her first novel.