The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld ©2019 is a sequel to The Child Finder, reviewed and given five stars in my previous post dated 6/5/20 . The Butterfly Girl is equally well written but I did not like it quite as much as The Child Finder. The setting is an urban one in the depraved parts of a city and does not have the beauty of nature or the excuse of animal instincts to cushion the harshness of heinous crimes. In this novel, Naomi reprises her role as an expert in finding children but, in this situation, the child she sets out to find is the one lost in her own memories from her pre-foster childhood days.
Several of the characters in The Butterfly Girl are homeless children, living on the streets as a preferable alternative to a more distasteful situation in their source home be it due to physical or sexual abuse or due to bodily or emotional neglect. These children are lost in an entirely different interpretation of the word. Celia is one of these children; she has taken to sleeping under a freeway underpass and feeds herself by foraging for food from trash or begging money to eat. Her method of mental escapism is to imagine herself covered in beautiful butterflies, invisible and impervious to harmful acts, hence the title of the novel. Parallel to the Celia story is an ongoing murdering spree where bodies of young girls are found in the river. An undercurrent of fear runs throughout the book that Celia is at risk of becoming one of the corpses.
So far my description does not at all paint a very pretty picture to imagine nor an enticing experience to read! So why did I read this? To be truthful, I did not realize it would be so stark. But even if I'd had an inkling of the extent of the depressing plight it shows of the homeless children, I would have read it anyway. The precursor book The Child Finder left a big question open as to the beginning years of Naomi's life and how it drives her to pursue her chosen profession. It also left me curious as to how Naomi's life and relationship with her foster brother Jerome would morph and develop. I am glad I read The Butterfly Girl since it satisfied both those desires while instilling in me a much greater sympathy and awareness of the plight of those denied the mere basics of a stable home. Our society sometimes dismisses the homeless as being mentally ill or preferring to live the way they do, but can that same rationalization extend to children?
Naomi's zeal in addressing the ignored crimes against these young girls is sufficient to delay her from following her own personal deep-seated agenda. Are those females who must become thieves or prostitutes in order to survive not worthy of protection and do their lives not matter? Why had solving these crimes not been pursued before? Do people really care so little that they can so easily look the other way? These questions sent the lyrics from Blowing in the Wind sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary echoing through my brain.
How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?
How realistic is the urban scene Rene Denfeld describes? In reading about this author I learned that she is writing from personal experience. She herself was homeless as a child, choosing to stay on the streets, foraging trash cans for food instead of living under the same roof with her registered sex offender stepfather and his pedophile cohorts. She relays a chilling real-life experience she had when accepting a ride from an ordinary looking man driving a truck in her candid article for CrimeReads titled The Green River Killer and Me. In her own words, Rene Denfeld reveals the epiphany she had.
I suddenly realized my own life had value. This had never occurred to me before. When you are homeless, you stop thinking your life even matters. It’s hard to believe you even exist when so many people look right through you.
This book was an absorbing, well-organized read. Naomi clearly and logically followed clues and achieved justice for victims who have no voice. Her actions and results were inspiring. Though the situation of street children was appalling, I am glad I read this book. I give The Butterfly Girl four stars, translating in my system to mean Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience. The difficult topic can hamper reading for pleasure; but, the novel does have a feel-good ending. A foster mom herself for twenty or so years, Rene Denfeld describes the adoption of three of her own foster children in a New York Times column called Modern Love. I found her contribution to the August 11, 2017 column titled Four Castaways Make a Family to be an up-lifting supplemental read to The Butterfly Girl.
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