Date Finished: February 21, 2018
Page Count: 400
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Yes, I have
stopped to reading juvenile fiction, such shame for someone my age. Or at least
that’s what I’d say if I cared about such things. HA!
So I am
aware this is over a week late, but blame my history class and Night by Elie Wiesel! Those just ate up
my time and prevented me from doing pretty much anything I wanted to for about
a week. Since I’m still plagued by my history class and something else in my
English class (we just got a project and I made the foolish decision to make a
story book because when I really want to art things get real intense.) this review will be rather brief yet (hopefully)
still summarize all the awesome things about it and include a picture. Without
further ado, have a picture!
Me being
the noob I am, was super happy to see some small artwork illustrations in the
book (and done so creatively too, with newspaper clipping form China) with
Chinese characters and be able to read them. 陈老师,
you have taught me well. I found many an instance where there were clutters of
Chinese characters and despite not being able to read them all I could read all
the important ones (as far as I’m concerned) that added an interesting aspect
to the story. Speaking of China I really loved the plot and setting of the
story.
Kara, the
main character is an eleven year old girl unofficially adopted by a
Chinese-American who was temporarily living in China. Her right hand deformed
and her “mother” always hiding form the public Kara feels something is missing
form her life and wants to find out what. This plot was an instant win for me
as I could tell it would have little to no romance for the main character (beside
a crush she has on a boy for the first part of the book) and the focus would be
family relationships which is what I really crave. Red Butterfly had so many touching moments and heart breaking ones
(really, who could have expected Kara’s “sister” to suddenly get sick and end
up causing Kara and her “mother” to be discovered?), but all the way through I
felt for Kara who was struggling to find her place in a world that favored
healthy baby boys over girls or ones with disabilities. The struggle is real
Kara and more people like you need to have their stories told (despite the fact
that you’re a fictional character). Overall it reminded me of my days in early
elementary school when I’d watch MLP: FIM
and could feel the struggles of those characters and felt an incredibly deep
connection with them to the point where they consumed my everythought. Life is
about more than romance and to find a good story that minimizes it and is able
to capture all the other special relationships in life is hard if you also want
intense fantasy action or excellent character development and I applaud
Sonnichsen for doing it so well.
Special
shout outs go to Xiao Bo, the cripple boy from the orphanage who died and the guy
form New Zealand as they both helped Kara get through her time at the orphanage
and were excellent supporting characters to me. I’d name some others but my
mother returned the book to the library without me knowing so I can’t remember
how to spell all their names and feel horrible if I were to get them wrong. But
you all were the ideal cast for this type of narrative: you were plot devices
yet more as you contributed to building Kara’s world and life that touched my
heart and moved me to writing this review even though it’s not required of me. Thumbs
up to you guys supporting cast *insert thumbs up.*
On last
thing I loved about the narrative was the writing style it featured which was
free style poetry. I know, I know, the last freestyle poetry I read I hated
but this book had an interesting format as well as an interesting
narrator. Kara’s narration was truly that of an eleven year old sealed away from
the world. It was curious, it was quite, and it was happy yet resentful as
well. I found her words easier to read since she wasn’t always cursing every
three words or swimming in the seep end of the depressing sea than any of the
characters in Perfect which simply
has to do with my preferences but also the excellent writing style of
Sonnichsen. Short, yet not choppy, fluid yet not a thousand pages of life
story.
Overall, I
think you should read Red Butterfly
no matter what age you are. It’s a heartwarming tale about a young girl from another
country (assuming my readers don’t live in China) which shows of one of the
darker aspects of it yet is full of happiness and touching moments. Kara’s storytelling
and the plot are a joy to read and so full of character, I almost wish I knew
of more books like this by A.L. Sonnichsen. Family books are certainly my coup
of tea when done right and this book was done right for me so why don’t you
consider taking a break from your depressing and bleak life to read it?
DISCLAIMER: I didn’t proof read this review very much and
sorry if it’s not the quality of my normal reviews. I have some where I need to
be in a few minutes so I don’t have time to make some elaborate stuff if I want
to get around to posting a review for this book anytime soon.
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