Book Review: 'Paper Butterflies' by Lisa Heathfield

I've read three YA books about abuse this year—physical, emotional, domestic or otherwise—and that is officially three too MANY if you ask me. Apart from Paper Butterflies, I read The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis and A List of Cages by Robin Roe. All three books address abuse in very different ways, and out of the three I enjoyed A List of Cages the most; and I say this because I couldn't help but draw comparisons between that and Paper Butterflies.

Paper Butterflies follows a young girl named June through several years of her life, from the time she is 10 until she is a teenager. She lives with her father, stepmother Kathleen and stepsister Megan, and suffers intense psychological abuse and vindictive mind games from Kathleen. Different chapters follow June either "Before" or "After." June is the only black person in an otherwise white household as well as a pre; her white father had her with her black mother, who died in a drowning accident. Kathleen abuses June based predominantly on the fact that she is black, referring to her as a dog or animal "just like her mother." Her only friend in the world is a boy named Blister, as well as his eccentric family. There are several disturbing scenes of abuse, most of which don't make a lot of sense for different reasons. For starters, I found the storyline of Paper Butterflies to be very surface-level—that is, I don't think the characters and their actions were developed far enough for me to understand them wholeheartedly. While reading the scenes of abuse (Kathleen purposely gives June too much food at meal times and forces her to eat every bite; she makes her daughter help her force-feed June dog food until she vomits; on one occasion, Kathleen dumps June's plate of food on the floor and makes her eat it off the floor, because that's where dogs eat), I was so shocked and disturbed, but I just couldn't understand why someone would do those things—but maybe I would have understood why exactly Kathleen did those unspeakable things if the author had developed the story beyond June is a young black girl who is abused at home and bullied and misunderstood at school.

Ultimately, I think Paper Butterflies is a narrative about how family members, teachers, society, all authority figures can fail someone so entirely. It's about how the truth can be grossly twisted, to devastating effect. A List of Cages is also about exactly that, and that story is developed and told so much more convincingly which makes it so much more gripping and emotional than Paper Butterflies. A List of Cages is about a highly sensitive young boy with a learning disability named Julian who, after his parents die, ends up in a few homes before being taken in by an in-law, having no other family members. In terms of a narrative about families as well as school systems and societies neglecting and/or leaving a child behind, I would definitely recommend A List of Cages over Paper Butterflies, which just feels generic and written for shock value in comparison. Maybe it's me; maybe if I had read Paper Butterflies without having read any other books about abuse this year, I would have been more shocked and engrossed in the story. But it's hard to enjoy a book with all of your heart when you've read other books with similar stories, and those books did it so much better. 3/5 stars.