Butterfly

Starred review from August 16, 2010
Hartnett eviscerates modern suburban life in this blistering story of broken families, buried secrets, and foundering lives. Plum Coyle is almost 14 and terrifically insecure, with two older brothers, Justin and Cydar, who love her but are as emotionally helpless as Plum and their parents. Plum prepares for her 14th birthday, desperately trying to stay afloat with a set of friends who are ready to pounce on the slightest vulnerability, and befriends an older neighbor, Maureen, but cruelties and pain are never far away. Plum's secrets are humiliatingly revealed, as are those of Justin and Maureen. Hartnett's exquisite prose is soaked in visceral descriptions of consumerism, human weakness, and an ugliness that lies just below the surface of everyday life; the closest the book comes to offering a moment of hope is when Cydar, by far the most self-aware character, sacrifices to purchase Plum the birthday gift she wants more than anything—a television. It would be easy to dismiss Hartnett's story as misanthropic, yet it's not so much contemptuous of humanity than of what it has become. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from August 1, 2010

Gr 5-9-Using her characteristic surprising and spot-on descriptions, Hartnett drops the usual intensity down a notch or two in this tale. While events seem to be taking place in a recent past, Plum is like every teen in her emotional upheavals, her yearning to fit into a group, and her obliviousness to the feelings of those around her. The narrative mostly focuses on Plum herself, her older brothers Justin and Cydar, and their interactions with a neighbor, Maureen, and her young child. Plum, who is young for her almost 14 years, has a collection of mundane objects that she treats as talismans to keep her safe from day-to-day humiliation by her so-called friends, girls who either taunt and tease or ignore her. Maureen, who is in her mid-30s, offers sage advice and support, but readers know that her motivations for helping Plum are questionable. The situation comes to a head at the girl's birthday slumber party. Her parents and brothers truly love her but are incapable of advising her adequately and generally watch her suffering helplessly. The deliberate pacing, insight into teen angst, and masterful word choice make this a captivating read to savor.-Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
Grades 8-12 Hartnett, who wrote with such volcanic force in the Printz Honor Book Surrender (2006), adjusts the power of her prose to a soft boil in this lyrical glimpse into the aching contractions of an ordinary Australian family. On the brink of her fourteenth birthday, Plum oscillates between wanting to be oldereven submitting to her friends amateur ear piercingand clinging to the talismans of her youth and the comforting presence of her older brothers Justin and Cydar. Hartnett excels at turning Plums petty desires (like her own TV) into minor epics of heartbreak and longing. More complicated is Plums friendship with Maureen, the 35-year-old married woman next door, and the dawning awareness of Maureens relationship with Justin. Hartnett shuttles the point of view between all three siblings and Maureen, and her deft rendering of their interactions makes this book a natural fit for advanced and adult readers. Suffused with the helpless shame of being unable to soothe the private sadness of loved ones, this is another strong addition to Hartnetts impressive bibliography.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2010
Plum, an Australian girl on the cusp of fourteen, both craves and fears adulthood and her imminent passage into it. As the school year starts, the threads of her life-her social circle, all predatory scheming; her rapt friendship with Maureen, a married neighbor with a young son; her approaching birthday party; her superstitious reliance on stolen totems for emotional strength-converge in disaster. Plum's adored older brothers have their own problems: Cydar passes through life "tightly stoned," while golden boy Justin carries on a secret affair with Maureen, who uses Plum as leverage and ego-boost in a manner increasingly similar to that of Plum's friends. Plum herself can be as treacherous as anyone in the novel, but she commits so passionately to her wrongdoings, believes so wholly in their necessity to her future happiness, that she is sympathetic nonetheless. Hartnett's dense, sensory prose captures the misery roiling beneath the surface of Plum's awkward, average existence, while the adolescent sense of drama that suffuses the plot should allow teen readers some purchase on an otherwise difficult, though rewarding, read. Faintly grotesque turns of phrase and detail (Plum's cheeks are "the pasty yellow of cereal left to float all day in milk"; a parked car sits in a driveway "like a great blue tumor") emphasize the themes of violation and despoliation that run through this tender, brutal novel.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2011
Almost-fourteen-year-old Plum both craves and fears her imminent passage into adulthood. As the school year starts, the threads of her life--her scheming social circle, her rapt friendship with married neighbor Maureen, her approaching birthday party--converge in disaster. Hartnett's dense, sensory prose captures the misery roiling beneath the surface of Plum's awkward, average existence in this tender, brutal novel.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)