Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Spoilers follow: This book is all hype and let down. I had such high hopes for this story because the premise is very interesting but it fell short in so many areas. The first problem is the setting; It's hard to picture the "butterflies" ( The kidnapped girls) being kept in some kind of enormous greenhouse (big enough to hold a pond for swimming, a waterfall, a cliff, a glorious garden, a kitchen, rooms, hallways, essentially and entire compound) inside an even bigger greenhouse on the killer's private house grounds. Such a colossal structure wouldn't slip by prying eyes for the nearly 30 years that the Gardener has been abducting girls. It's even harder to imagine over 20 girls being kept against their wills in this place with only 3 abductors. 20 against 3. The girls have access to an entire stocked kitchen with knives and one girl is allowed to carry a small pair of cross stitch scissors. The girls, not a single one, never seize the opportunity to kill the Gardener or his son, even with these tools available at their disposal. You're led to believe that the survivor, Maya, may or may not be on the right side but then she starts singing like a canary right after that and the mystery is lost. I wanted to abandon this book a few times but I didn't because I wanted to see how it ended. Almost the ENTIRE book foreshadows some big shocking revelation and escape at the end that just ends up being lackluster and not believable at all. Maya was protecting her former roommate who was the one butterfly who had escaped 10 years prior, pregnant with the Gardener's child. What are the odds? And the roommate never went to authorities because she wanted to keep the killer's baby (which was conceived by rape). There were women being beaten, tortured and raped almost daily. She knew this and never told the police because of her baby? I also really dislike how apathetic Maya's character is portrayed. She literally doesn't care about anything at all. She's being put through hell and doesn't care. And it's not character development. She never cares. She also takes such great care to not let the detectives find out her real name an this is never properly explained why. She was a runaway. That's all.The author seemed to be more concerned with reminding the reader every few pages that a butterfly was being raped or beaten by the Gardener and his son instead of moving the story forward at an even pace. The fact that the only time Maya shows any emotion is when she's developing affections for the Gardener's other son, Desmond (who discovers the truth and doesn't go to the police until 6 months later) is infuriating. And finally, the way it all comes tumbling down. Avery, the Gardener's son and fellow psychopath, kidnaps, rapes, and brings a 12 year old girl to the garden and suddenly, everyone involved in these crimes has an epiphany that the whole thing, what they're doing, is wrong. Why? There's a 4 year difference between being 12 and 16. It's okay, in their minds, to abduct and rape a 16 year old girl but not one who is 12 years old. What little story there was moved so slowly and it made this book very drawn out. With as many pages as this book occupies, not a whole lot happens that is in any way eventful.