The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison YP FIC ELLISON

Lo (short for Penelope) collects things, well everything actually.  Is started as a hobby, it became an obsession. Ever since she couldn’t save Oren.  Shouldn’t have thought about him! Can’t breathe. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, banana, banana, banana. Better. But she can make it right, maybe.  She finally found something important.  A butterfly necklace that belonged to a dead girl named Sapphire. A girl killed when she was moments away.  It has to mean something. The girl that was killed was also deemed damaged and unimportant, as was her runaway brother, as is Flynt the young man that lives in the shadows of the streets and tells her she’s beautiful. Now she can’t stop thinking about Sapphire and has to find out who killed her.  But this obsession could prove fatal.

This book made my brain itch. It is a strange, dark, and twisty thriller.  Lo is a unique voice, because she is very disturbed and using Obsessive and Compulsive tics to try to push away her pain and sadness. Not the Nancy Drew type, clearly.  But that’s what makes the mystery so thrilling.  Lo is drawn to venture into in underworld of Neverland (the homeless kid shanty town) and Sapphire’s dark past, because she knows what it’s like to feel discarded and deemed a freak.  Also her obsessive nature means she notices things other people don’t, but fortunately it isn’t turned into gimmicky gift ability either. Ellison does a great job at getting into Lo’s scary psyche.  Her ticks and obsessions and overwhelming anxiety are very compelling and got deep under my skin.  That underlying unease and tension elevated the murder mystery element and made me feel that the danger was real and palpable in a way most thrillers never do.  I kept worrying for Lo in every dark corner she went down and jumping at every shadow with her. I won’t say I enjoyed being in Lo’s mind, but I certainly was affected by it.  That’s hard to do for someone that reads as many books as I do! The central mystery is complicated by the slow reveal of what happened to Lo’s brother and by the developing relationship with Flynt.  Which means Butterfly Clues is always working on multiple levels at the same time.  This book won me over in spite of myself and I found myself caring about Lo even as she drove me crazy.  If you like dark lit like Ellen Hopkins and want a creepy mystery with a twisted twist, definitely grab this one.  

You can check our catalog for The Butterfly Clues here.

Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell YP FIC POWELL

Ruth and Perry are step-siblings with a close bond. Their friendship is strengthened by their shared secrets of hallucinations. Ruth is a protector of all insect life and sees swarms of invisible insects everywhere. Perry is compelled to draw by a tiny wizard only he can see. As awesome as all that sounds, it means they are medicated for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Schizophrenia respectively and travel through the world unsure of what is real and isn't and who they can turn to. Both find themselves pulling away from each other as they discover love and try different ways to reconcile reality in this strange and dark look at the magic and madness of adolescence.

FAIR WARNING: This is a Category Five Tearjerker. The title combined with loads of foreshadowing warns that the ending will not be a cheery one, but still doesn't lessen the impact of watching a young girl be consumed by madness. It may be one of the most genuinely creepy books I've read in a long time, because it's all based on what really can happen with mental illness. Everything about the art helps tell the story even the lettering which often forms into gibberish to show Ruth and Perry's inability to communicate with anyone besides each other. The hallucinations come in and out of nowhere so it's hard for the reader to get a handle on what is real or not. This makes it hard to read, so you have to pay close attention. This is one that may take several reads to really "get", but the art and writing is good enough that it’s worth the effort.