The Butterfly Clues [Hardcover]

The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison has some very distinctive elements that appealed to me, chief of them an obsessive-compulsive/kleptomaniac protagonist, "Lo." Written from a first person POV, the parts where the narrative delves deep into Lo's obsessive rituals, worries, fears, and compulsions are the most impressive. Lo's condition is one that I haven't seen before in young adult so in this psychological aspect The Butterfly Clues stands out in a very crowded genre.

"Here's the thing: I don't choose to take things. I have to. I've always had to do certain things, since the day I turned seven and began to insist that I wanted to stray six. I didn't know why, but seven felt off, somehow, made me feel like the world was tilting too much to one side. It wasn't so bad at first. Just little things--like the way the food looked on my plate, or needing to eat peas before chicken, or needing to put the left shoe on before the right. I started taking little things---a toothbrush or a candy bar from a store, discarded ticket stubs from the movie theater, stickers from the kids at school.

"But since Oren disappeared, it has gotten worse. A lot worse. Now, when the urge comes on, it's like this superhuman force that grips my body and won't let go until I have the thing I've spotted, the thing I need. And it's not the taking or the stealing I crave, it's the having and the keeping. Forever. With me. Safe."

When The Butterfly Clues begins, Lo is in the throes of her disorder. Although the narrative hints that her brother's, Oren's, disappearance over a year ago precipitated her condition into manifesting as full blown kleptomania and hoarding, the reader is kept in suspense as to what exactly happened. Only the aftermath is apparent: a stressed out, absent father; a heavily sedated mother; and Lo, a daughter left helpless and alone in the grip of her own demons. The exposition is subtly and expertly revealed, along with the parallel story of who killed Sapphire.

Mirroring Lo's free fall into her obsessive-compulsive ways is her descent into the underworld of drug addicts, runaways, thieves, and strip clubs called "Neverland." Ellison balances its allure, in the form of a free spirit, Flynt, with its dangers, such as Sapphire's murder. I was intrigued with Lo's exploration of Neverland and charmed by Flynt; however, I was frustrated by how Ellison depicted Lo's clumsy and unrealistic investigation of the murder, which involved posing (while underage) as a stripper in a nightclub, interrogating other strippers, finding evidence in plain view which the cops apparently did not locate. I knew who the killer was the moment he/she came on the scene.

As a mystery/thriller, The Butterfly Clues, was not very compelling; it fares better as a psychological portrait of a teenage girl trying to cope with tragedy while battling OCD.

This book was different. The first thing you realize is that Penelope (Lo) has severe and untreated OCD. Her world has fallen apart since the death of her brother and she finds refuge in the many different routines and rituals she performs every day. She clings to them as the only stable thing in her life. I felt so badly for her and since the book is told from her viewpoint, you really get a sense for her need to count or say certain things as she goes through her daily tasks. However, as she embarks on this quest to solve a murder, her compulsions seem to keep her brave and give her the strength to do things that would otherwise be completely insane for a teenager from the suburbs.

The story straddles the world between realism and something with a touch of the unseen. At some point you get the impression that her OCD actually gives her some insight into things she couldn't possibly know otherwise. Her romance with Flynt, the street artist, was sweet and unusual, much like their characters. Within the element of the paranormal, is the story of Lo's family and their deep and intense sadness. I think that's what saved the book for me. As she is taking huge risks to solve this mystery, her mother is non-functional and her dad is trying very hard to keep the family together in some way. Their grief is intense and you definitely get the sense that Lo wishes, more than anything, that things could go back to the way they were before everything fell apart. The ending was bittersweet and realistic, which really worked well with the rest of the story. I give Kate Ellison a lot of credit for depicting Lo's OCD and her powerlessness against it in a very realistic and sympathetic way.

I have no idea why I put off reading The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison for so long. Because once I started it, I thought The Butterfly Clues was truly and wonderfully beautiful.

It's so rare to find a protagonist who isn't just weird-yet-still-endearing, but actually, truly, probably..I don't want to say crazy, but maybe just that their world doesn't make sense to us. We rarely read a book from the point of view of someone who thinks so differently. And The Butterfly Clues was just that - I couldn't necessarily understand Lo's sense of purpose in the collection of objects, but I was able to emphasize with her overall.

And the loss of her brother and her family's way of dealing with the grief - it broke me. Lo's treatment of her brother's room and her dad's reactions...I just thought The Butterfly Clues was such an interesting look at the grieving process and so heartbreaking.

Other than Lo, one of the main reasons The Butterfly Clues appealed to me is because I am such a huge fan of the mystery-solving-sleuthing teens. I love a good teen mystery - I must have read a billion and twelve Nancy Drew as a teenager book. And The Butterfly Clues? Has a damn good mystery, if I do say so myself. I did not solve it AT ALL (except for one teeny tiny thing I guessed at) and rather than feeling stupid, I was sucked in - I had to know who killed Sapphire, I had to know how Lo figured it out, etc.

The writing, also, was beautiful. Kate Ellison's writing really allowed us to get inside Lo's head and even though I don't have the same urges as her, the way she was written made her so real.

Overall, I loved The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison. I thought it was a beautifully written story with an intriguing mystery and I loved trying to solve it with Lo.

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