Book Review: “The Fall of Butterflies” by Andrea Portes

Author: Andrea Portes

Published: May 10th, 2017

Publisher: HarperTEEN

Find the Author: Goodreads

Disclosure: I was sent this book for review purposes. As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

We Were Liars meets Looking for Alaska in a uniquely funny and heartbreaking teen novel about a passionate-yet-doomed friendship, set against a backdrop of wealth and glamour.

Willa Parker, 646th and least-popular resident of What Cheer, Iowa, is headed east to start a new life. Did she choose this life? No, because that would be too easy—and nothing in Willa’s life is easy. It’s her famous genius mother’s idea to send her to ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep, and Willa has no intention of fitting in. But when she meets peculiar, glittering Remy Taft, the richest, most mysterious girl on campus, she starts to see a foothold in this foreign world—a place where she could maybe, possibly, sort of fit in. When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything. But for Remy, having everything comes at a price. And as she spirals out of control, Willa can feel Remy spinning right out of her grasp.

Andrea Portes, author of Anatomy of a Misfit, spins a similarly incandescent, heartfelt story that explores the meaning of friendship, new beginnings, and the precarious joy and devastating pain of finding home in a place—a person—with wings.

First Thoughts

When a book is described as We Were Liars meets Looking for Alaska, you don’t think about reading it – you just do it. That’s the first thing that stood out for me, aside from the gorgeous autumnal cover and provoking blurb. I just want to take a moment to thank Harper360 and the whole team for their amazing opportunities that they give me to read these incredible books. I feel so much more than blessed to get to read these books ahead of time (even though most of my reviews are late, so sorry!) and really get to hold these characters so close to my heart. It’s one of the best feelings in the world!

Review

Willa is somewhat of a misunderstood character. She lives with her Dad, but her whole academic life has been put under close and precise orders by her famously smart Mother. She’s not popular, far from it, and she’s consumed in a cloud of never-ending depressive clouds above. Her life in Iowa is simple and consistent, but then her Mother decides that Willa will be attending a new school: a high-class, exclusive prep school that cost more than Willa can contemplate thinking of those kinds of numbers.

Pembroke Prep is different. Willa meets Remy there, a highly popular girl with more than a few problems of her own. When Willa sees Remy, this girl who has everything she could ever want in the world, she can’t understand why she would ever need to feel this troubled. But Remy knows the true price of having everything she could ever want, and it’s not pretty. They start a twisted, borderline crazy friendship that brings Willa’s live to turmoil as she follows a crowd that she shouldn’t be in. Pembroke Prep isn’t like Iowa, and it’s more than clear that it has it’s deep, dark secrets.

I just loved this book so much that it’s hard to think of a time when I hadn’t been consumed by these characters and this friendship. It’s not your usual kind of friendship – it’s borderline doomed, on the verge of complete failure. But Willa finally feels a part of her is home, and that changes everything. Remy is out of control most of the time and Willa can feel their connection slipping in parts, despite their unbreakable bond. Still, there’s something magnificent about this book, a feeling that makes me want to cry and smile and just fall into the pages over and over.

Overall, The Fall of Butterflies will make your heart soar with compassion. The POV is a different kind, but it just makes it all the more unique. I was really going to give this book such high standards to live up to the books it’s compared to and although it didn’t blow them out of the water, it landed right among the greats perfectly. So much love for this book!

Rating & Recs

I’d recommend this book to YA readers that loved Jessi Kirby, E. Lockhart and John Green.