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THE BUTTERFLY CLUES
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery
A debut worth picking up, this excels not so much in its mystery — which is creepy enough, but a bit predictable and all too coincidental — but in its narrator, obsessive-compulsive teenager Penelope “Lo” Marin. Because readers see the world through Lo’s eyes, the extent of her illness doesn’t become clear until the climax of the novel, making the end disturbing and heartbreaking. The insight into teen runaway culture and inner-city Cleveland is stark and realistic, adding a layer of grit that helps to set the tone. Reeling from the death of her older brother and seeking escape from a family in shambles, Lo, who suffers from extreme OCD, wanders the streets of inner-city Cleveland after school. When she near-witnesses the murder of a stripper known as Sapphire, Lo becomes obsessed with the case and forges a connection with a street artist to learn more about it. But she’s delving into an underworld more dangerous than anything she’s ever experienced, and nobody — not even Lo herself — is exactly who they seem. (EGMONT, Feb., 336 pp., $17.99, ISBN: 9781606842683, HC, 14 & Up) Reviewed By: Ellen Parsons Publisher: EGMONT Published: February 2012 |
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