Louise H

The many deadly rival street gangs in this fantasy each have their own magical power and tattoos to identify them. When seventeen year old school-girl Adeline loses her mother, whom she discovers is the Red Butterfly, leader of the violent Butterflies, Adeline drops out of school, becomes a member and matures very quickly, falling in love with the new leader. She adapts to the customary violent ways in a war to keep the Butterflies alive. This 450 page saga-like writing takes place over several months. The author's descriptions of places and situations are thorough, and she does a good job of summarizing the outcome of, sometimes long, thought/discussion decision making processes. She also does a good job of explaining the logic behind the motivation of each rival gang.

This is a great tool if you are creating a book club. It also includes wonderful resources for book clubs that are struggling or aging or that just want to check their "book club health". The book provides a brief history of book clubs going back to ancient times. It makes suggestions as to size, how to choose books, meeting frequency, length and location. Great Resource!

Told from POV of LT Anna Koray. The author did a good job of developing LT Koray's character. This was a fantasy with a mysterious disappearance 15 years ago that the LT was trying to solve. Are some of the deaths caused by the fantasy water creature Rusalka? The book has a lot of interesting characters: a suspected witch, religious zealots, abused kids, a deputy who wasn't who he presented himself to be, and LT Koray's jewel of a husband. No one is that perfect!

The subject of the book is interesting, but it was not very easy to read. Too many characters were introduced. It would have been better to use generic terms for characters who didn't play a part in the solution to the problem. Or use the title, when the individual changed throughout the years. i.e., "the DA at the time". I started keeping a list of names and it got out of hand quickly.

Including the emotions of the four incarcerated men would have created emotional involvement by the readers. Other than the incarcerated saying they didn't do it, how did they feel, hopeless, resolved to their fate, maybe they felt they were paying for past sins? A helpful approach would be a parallel timeline for those arrested after 15 years.

What were they doing the night of, up until the end of the book. I never saw a resolution to the local government corruption alluded to. Naming names would have made the book a best seller! Also, a background on the prejudice of Indians would have been helpful.

This plot is very unique. The book is fast paced and I never put it down for long. While the main plot theme--in the visible world--is farfetched, I could still see it happening.

Theo, attending college in Australia, needed a career shift and moved to Kansas (seriously?) where her brother lived. She used a local diner as her office, and, there, met another author. They strike up a friendship which ends tragically for him and life changing for her.

The sub plots also serve to keep the story moving--including a love interest for Theo; a web-based blog of conspiracy theorists who think people are disappearing and being experimented on; and a family of survivalists.

Years before, one of Theo's favorite authors died. The unique situation behind his death is explained and Theo is caught up in it.