Guest Review: Butterfly (Sonya Hartnett)

Here is another guest review from Jessica. I hope ya'll enjoy it!

Publisher: Candlewick Press (August 10, 2010)
Hardcover: 240 pages

Plum Coyle is on the edge of adolescence. Her fourteenth birthday is approaching, when her old life and her old body will fall away, and she will become graceful, powerful, and at ease. The strength of the objects she stores in a briefcase under her bed —a crystal lamb, a yoyo, an antique watch, a coin —will make sure of it. Over the next couple of weeks, Plum’s life will change. Her beautiful neighbor Maureen will begin to show Plum how she might fly. The older brothers she adores will court catastrophe in worlds that she barely knows exist. And her friends, her worst enemies, will tease and test, smelling weakness. They will try to lead her on and take her down. BUTTERFLY is a gripping, disquieting, beautifully observed coming-of-age novel by an acclaimed author at the top of her form. (Source)

Review
BUTTERFLY, by Sonya Hartnett, brings you to a time when everything sucks, you can never be good enough and most of all you just want to be liked by everyone; that time was when you were 14 years-old like Plum in Butterfly. Plum doesn’t like too much about herself, she collects trinkets that remind her of people she wishes she were more like, and she finds a fast friend in an older woman who gives her advice she thinks will make her better. This is a truly wondrous coming of age story of the typical insecure young girl.

I picked Butterfly from a list and was expecting a girl finding herself through harsh times but this is truly a coming of age tale. Ariella “Plum” Coyle doesn’t want to be herself; she wants to be prettier, thinner, and of course more popular. She thinks all of those impossible until she meets Maureen who is more entwined with her family than she realizes. Maureen promises Plum what she wants if she’ll do this or change her name to that, but when Plum’s friends just begin to like her and Maureen’s advice seems foolproof shocking discoveries are made and Plum’s world falls apart.

I find that Sonya Hartnett is able to capture the pure hell that a young teenage girl must endure just to be happy. Plum faces everything that a 14 year-old must face. Problems with how she looks, not being popular enough, not being able to be yourself. Plum puts a smile on for people she doesn’t honestly like but is desperate for them to like her. Like anybody Plum wants to fit in. She finds refuge in her brothers, Justin and Cyder but finds that sometimes you cannot even trust the ones you truly do love.

I have not read any of Sonya Hartnett’s other novels but I wil be looking in to them. This novel is easily comparable to J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye but set in modern time from a less cultured young girl point of view. I was astounded at how accurately Hartnett was able to capture the evilness and snippiness of Plum’s ‘friends’. Overall this book is absolutely terrific. You’ll find yourself wanting to help guide Plum away from the bad people and easily avoidable messes.