The Butterfly House, to me, did not live up to the high praise it has received from other reviewers here. While the topics "tackled", to quote Bonnie Hearn Hill whose review is printed on the jacket cover, are tough, I am not quite so sure they were even "handled".
The tough topics include alcoholism, living with an alcoholic parent and the resulting fallout encountered in adulthood for the ACOA (adult child of an alcoholic), finding a home in another family and struggles with maturity as a teen. While it is fresh having these topics in a fictional read, I was not left with much sense of resolution for the main character Bobbie Lee.
The author paints an unending parade of undeveloped characters and relationships throughout the book throwing a new character in the plot here and there leaving the reader to question yet again, "now, who is this person?"
Preston struggles to find meaning in Bobbie's mother's alcoholism and attempts to pinpoint blame when in reality, there is no one thing which can be attributed to the cause for alcoholism than the simple fact that the alcoholic is an addict. She more effectively paints a portrait of ignorance to the understanding of the disease with different tactics throughout the book including one blatent statement that Ruth's doctor "referred her to AA". No one refers anyone to AA.
The relationship between Bobbie and her husband David takes a myriad of twists and turns when the author throws in everything but the kitchen sink to make this relationship have drama further adding confusion to the mix of the story. While in reality, it is fairly accurate that an ACOA will encounter troubles in intimate relationships, there is no foundation given to support why the character is so conflicted in her marriage aside from the fact that she had this confusing childhood and major incident that occurred which the author avoids relaying to the reader until well into the book. The sequencing of events was not only frustrating but aggravating.
Delving into the topic of the life cycle of a butterfly is interesting however that is about the apex of anything interesting being portrayed. I found The Butterfly House to be a quick, easy read but nothing I would seriously recommend to anyone but a quick read for an afternoon at the beach and then to dispose of the book as soon as possible.
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The tough topics include alcoholism, living with an alcoholic parent and the resulting fallout encountered in adulthood for the ACOA (adult child of an alcoholic), finding a home in another family and struggles with maturity as a teen. While it is fresh having these topics in a fictional read, I was not left with much sense of resolution for the main character Bobbie Lee.
The author paints an unending parade of undeveloped characters and relationships throughout the book throwing a new character in the plot here and there leaving the reader to question yet again, "now, who is this person?"
Preston struggles to find meaning in Bobbie's mother's alcoholism and attempts to pinpoint blame when in reality, there is no one thing which can be attributed to the cause for alcoholism than the simple fact that the alcoholic is an addict. She more effectively paints a portrait of ignorance to the understanding of the disease with different tactics throughout the book including one blatent statement that Ruth's doctor "referred her to AA". No one refers anyone to AA.
The relationship between Bobbie and her husband David takes a myriad of twists and turns when the author throws in everything but the kitchen sink to make this relationship have drama further adding confusion to the mix of the story. While in reality, it is fairly accurate that an ACOA will encounter troubles in intimate relationships, there is no foundation given to support why the character is so conflicted in her marriage aside from the fact that she had this confusing childhood and major incident that occurred which the author avoids relaying to the reader until well into the book. The sequencing of events was not only frustrating but aggravating.
Delving into the topic of the life cycle of a butterfly is interesting however that is about the apex of anything interesting being portrayed. I found The Butterfly House to be a quick, easy read but nothing I would seriously recommend to anyone but a quick read for an afternoon at the beach and then to dispose of the book as soon as possible.
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