The Fall of Butterflies audiobook

With the average Goodreads rating being so low, I thought this book was gonna be an easy book to fly through, rate 2 stars, and throw to the side. Uhh, I don't know why, but I kind of enjoyed this book. It felt fresh and the narrator's voice was one that I haven't yet encountered, which is definitely a feat considering how many voices I have read. I could definitely relate to her thoughts at this time in my life, and I'm 19 years old. That might be bad.. Nevertheless, Mile is turning my head into jelly and goop because all I can do is think that I shouldn't get a crush on him but I'm getting a crush on him but I shouldn't get a crush on him but maybe he's getting a crush on me but maybe he isn't but maybe he is... The Fall of Butterflies is very deceiving. The cover of the book might make the reader think that it's going to be a fluffy contemporary where a girl falls in love and there's some dramatic moments wher they fight and stuff but for the most part, it's a fluff fest. Uhh, The Fall of Butterflies is definitely not a fluff fest; it's a strange little book with some pretty heavy topics in it. To cover a few: drugs, teacher student relations, parents and their affect on their children, etc.The book starts out kind of fluffy. Willa, our narrator, introduces herself as one of the most unpopular girls at her school and how she sits at a lunch table with the special ed. kids. She then tells us that her renowned economist mother got her into Pembroke Prep. She has a really young, quirky voice, riddled with bad jokes, hashtags, and text talk. It isn't overwhelming though, at least it wasn't for me. Her voice felt real for her age group, and the author retained this throughout the entire novel, so it was effective.Willa soon meets Remy, and that's when shit starts to turn darker. I know, I know, there are so many books out there that have a girl meet another girl and them have some sexual tension but them not actually be lesbians, and then one of the girls discovers the other one has a dark side. I KNOW. I don't know, this book just feels a tiny bit more fresh. There were some really weird scenes that literally made me make a cringe face.Of course there are things that could be cleaned up in this book. There are a couple of things that I'm still a little confused about or questioning, but I can't say them without spoiling some major aspects of the book. However, my expectations were pretty low but I'm coming out feeling that this book was enjoyable, and it was shocking. It feels like a mixture of Go Ask Alice and some fluffy contemporary like Anna and the French Kiss or something, but it works.

See this review and more on my blog, LilybloombooksThe Fall of Butterflies was a new-to-me book that I had not seen much of before requesting it for review on audio. I’ve been in a contemporary mood, and this was the perfect book to satisfy my new habit of mood reading.I loved the writing. It’s told in the second person, with Willa narrating to you as the reader. It was a fun and unique was to be pulled into the story, especially given the state of mind that Willa was in at the beginning of the story. It’s like she is preparing us… for things to come.Willa has an unapologetic voice that I love reading. She comes off… rude, crass, and harsh at times, and there were even comments that would (and do) upset others, but it’s the way she handles herself that makes me attracted to her personality. She feels alone, isolated, and watching her open up and find herself after befriending Remy was a magical experience, even though their relationship was toxic to the core. She grows a lot throughout the book and finds herself along the way. The themes throughout the novel are dark but well handled. It’s not overdone but not too subtle, either.The Narration I thought Cassandra Campbell did a great job narrating Willa. Willa is far from a reliable narrator, and she was able to portray that in her voice. I also really liked how she handled Remy’s voice, or all the characters, really. She doesn’t have that too mature voice, either, which is great considering the age of the characters. I will be on the look out for more books narrated by her in the future!All in all – I really liked The Fall of Butterflies. It’s a quick read (listen), with a dark undertone but such a great story of a girl finding her way. The ending is left pretty open, so that leaves us to fill in the rest of their story. Or maybe, a revisit? I highly recommend it.*I received this book for free from The Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

3.5 starsThis was a pretty good book about a small-town gal whose absentee mother wangles her into a prestigious boarding school where she plans to commit suicide.So this isn't exactly the cheeriest start to a book and I never really got to grips with why Willa wanted to off herself. Still, the author manages to lift the mood considerably by not really talking about Willa's intended suicide for the rest of the book and instead regaling us with the escapades and pranks that Willa and her new boarding school friends get up to. The plot is pretty good, although I could kind of see where it was going in terms of Remy's problems.I found it hard to actually identify with any of the characters, which was a bit of a hurdle for me as a reader. All the rich kids (like 90% of the characters) seem ultra-privileged, super-rich and don't have to go to classes if they don't want to. This was so utterly unlike my own high school experience that it just felt off-kilter. They got very tedious and I wanted Willa to tell them all (Remy especially) to bog off and when she didn't I wanted Willa to bog off for being just a doormat.While I really like Andrea Portes' style of writing (Anatomy of a Misfit remains one of the most emotionally-affecting books I've ever read) this one didn't hit the mark as well as I'd hoped

WAY better than anatomy of a misfit.I guess I could relate to Willa, and that's what made this book so interesting to me. Nothing special here. I guess it's one of those books where if u can relate you'll enjoy it. If I can't then u won't.

About 3.5 stars (just because I had to put this book down and start over at a later date).Full disclosure - I'm definitely not the target demographic for this book. However, I do have teenage nieces who may or may not be interested in this book.....When I first started reading The Fall of Butterflies, I was a little bored. Same old story, teenage girl with an absentee parental unit plotting her own demise. I'll admit it, I put the book down for a bit and went on with my business. I picked up the book about a week later because I really enjoyed Ms. Portes' Anatomy of a Misfit.I then proceeded to read this book in one sitting. Why? I think that I was curious about Willa and Remi. Willa is a misfit from a town called What Cheer, Iowa and Remi is the queen of the social scene. The two hit it off, much to the chagrin of the other students at the prestigious Pembroke Prep School. Willa is shown an entirely different side of life. Beautiful clothes, huge mansions, private island parties, and designer drugs. She notices that some kids can miss classes for days and still graduate. Willa also learns that she has her own options and she does not need to follow her mother's path. The story is told through Willa's point of view and while she does have a wonderful sense of humor, at times I felt like she should have used some common sense. Again, I must reiterate that I had difficulty with reading this book at first.Trigger warnings - drugsThank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for a review copy of this book.

Take a smart, but wounded girl, have her mother become rich and famous, then abandon her while still controlling part of her life. Don't let her fit in with anyone at school except for the misfits with whom she bonds. Then have her absent mother force her to attend a super fancy prep school without any concern for how the girl feels. Add a roommate who seems alive and daring, but when the veneer wears off, is just as fragile (maybe more so). Mix well and you have Willa Parker. Read this story and you'll laugh, cringe and empathize with how she deals with her own fragility, her gradual awareness of roommate Remy's own self-destructive impulses and an eventual emotional toughening that allows her to see Remy for who she really is and decide where her own life will go. This is a book with biting humor and language as well as wonderful and insightful prose. Definitely worth reading for teens who like a wounded, but very appealing heroine.

CW: Suicidal thoughtsThe Fall of Butterflies was not the book I thought it was. The main character Willa moves to a private girl school on the East Coast in the US. She plans to kill herself there. But she also meets Remy Taft there. The girls strike up a friendship. Remy is popular, rich and peculiar. She opens up a new world to Willa. But as Remy spirals out of control, Willa can feel Remy spinning right out of her grasp.I really enjoyed the narrative voice of Willa. It is a very sarcastic, teenage angsty narration and it worked great as an audiobook. The narration is not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

this wasn’t on the edge of your seat kinda book. it was insightful & meaningful. i liked the way it was written- like a spill all from the protagonist. a great coming of age story. an easy, enjoyable read.

¡Ha sido todo una sorpresa!Al comenzar no estaba 100% segura del libro. La chica, Willa, era muy chistosa aunque a veces la narración tomaba otro rumbo (divagaba), pero después se puso serio y quedé flipando.La historia es muy profunda aunque al principio no se percibe.El libro toca temas como el suicidio, las drogas, malas amistades, familias disfuncionales, problemas personales, superación personal... La lista sigue.Lo más intenso para mí fue el mensaje: muchas veces encontramos personas que marcan nuestra vida, pero tal vez nosotros somos importantes para ellos. Todo queda en uno mismo.Dios, no sé si tiene sentido. Pero espero que sí.Es la primera vez que leo a Andrea, pero me declaro su fan desde este momento.Sería súper guay que leyeran este libro, porque vale la pena. Lo único malo (y por lo que no se lleva las 5 estrellas) es porque está muy españolizado. A veces encontraba palabras/frases que de plano no entendía. That's so sad.

Willa Parker (whose name you don’t know until Chapter 5) has decided to leave her cafeteria table of gentle misfits and go to boarding school. Though she hasn’t spoken to her mother in a long while, she knew her mom could pull the appropriate strings and get her in the ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep. An all-girls school on the east coast, it’s a long train ride away from her loving and encouraging father in What Cheer, Iowa. She doesn’t plan on staying there very long, and in that end, is encouraged to find that they have a rather tall bell tower. Perfect.Willa’s mother has a plan, too: Princeton after Pembroke. After all, she’s a worshiped economics muckety muck and wants Willa to follow in her footsteps. So of course she’s ecstatic about the switch to Pembroke. She’s a driven perfectionist that hasn’t realized that maybe she should have asked Willa what she wants and maybe shouldn’t have ruined their family.Immediately, Willa draws the attention of Remy Taft (yes, that Taft family), a fellow student who becomes fast friends with Willa. Why, Willa has no idea, but it has caused their classmates to think Willa is not just some hick from Iowa. But being friends with Remy has a price, and Willa didn’t come to Pembroke to complicate her life.Slowly, she gets drawn into a world of privilege and private islands and NYC high-rises where she discovers that maybe having everything you want isn’t always the answer.I previously read Anatomy of a Misfit by the same author and remember it being deep with a layer of snark on top. It’s like crème brûlée. You gently break through the top to get to the filling – but really, it’s just all delicious. Her writing is wonderful. Lyrical, languid and jazzy, all at once. Plus her vocabulary would make Noah Webster actually want to smile in one of his portraits.Not once did I really know where this novel was going to take me, but I absolutely was going along for the ride. The Fall of Butterflies by Andrea Portes was published May 10, 2016 by HarperTeen. Ink and Page picked this book up from the library, so everybody wins. Rating: 4Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction Contemporary Romance

Actual Rating: 3.5 starsI enjoyed reading this book though some parts I really don't like that much. This book is about Willa and Remy's friendship and being able to follow what you love and not to become a follower. I like Willa's sense of humor and her loyalty towards Remy, even though Remy is a half good and horrible friend. The romance in this book is very cute but also brief. It focuses more on Willa and Remy's friendship. I will end this review with the tagline of this book because it suits perfectly. "When the one you love has wings, how can you keep them from flying?"

That was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I literally read it in one sitting. It did not go where I thought it was going to go and it was just brilliant, the characters, the writing, the setting, everything. I highly recommend this book.

** spoiler alert ** First of all, this book realy really mean to me and got into me. This book deals with a lot of things such as friendships, anxiety, social life etc. Well, I actually didn't expeft that this book has a drug part on it. Okay here it goes:Friendship means a lot to me like some of my closiest friends knew that and I have a reason for that. So I was expecting that I can relate to this book and heck yeah! It did. I love the lessons this book gave me."You should never change yourself to be friends with or to be liked by other people."You should never pour yourself into troubles, small or big, just to be with them or just to play along with them. Yeah, for the age of the characters on the book, peer pressure is a thing but I'm glad that Willa did the right thing. Yes, their ages that time is probably the hardest stage of their lives. We knew that Remy and Milo and others were rich. Example, when Milo brought Willa to an private island, it's lkke Milo just makes money to help him impress Willa but that's not the thing. It is obvious that the lifestyle of Willa's friends is far from her lifestyle."Money can't buy happiness, friendship nor love."Well, as you can see, Willa's mother is rich but obviously Milo and Remy's family is richer. Remy's world revolves around herself. As per Willa, she is spoiled, like literally spoiled in abway that she never attend classes because her father is one of the board member of Pembroke. See? She just do whatever she wants without thinking what are the consequences of her doings. Plus!! She slept with her teacher and that is illegal. Milo also not like Remy uses money but somehow he manipulates people for his own happiness. Willa was just helping Milo with his issues but Milo dumped her instead. See? Spoiled assed brats."Drugs can give you happiness temporarily and impression permanently."Yes, you read it right. They use drugs to escape their problems, to past their time and to find happiness. It can't be helped for Willa because she has no choice, they're her friends so she felt that she had to do that to be friends with them. Especially Remy is her bestfriend and Milo is her boyfriend. The character development of Willa when she choice not to do drugs anymore, it was a big step for her and that is an excellent choice."Put yourself and your family first."Willa has been declining the callls of his father because she is too busy with her studying and her friends. Eventually, she realized that she misses his father and miss the bind he had with him. She manage to overcome the problem and rehnited with his father. Ms. Ingal, her teacher/adviser, helped Willa to apply for universities because she saw the potential of Willa. Greatly, Willa decided to accept the help of Ms. Ingal and fortunatelt, Willa got accepted to her chosen university. Her father got her acceptance letter and she was delightful that she manage to reunite with her father, have a good grades, got accepted to her chosen university and chosen the right path instead of all the pressure she went thru at Pembroke and her friends.19 December 20198:46pm

Originally reviewed on Pretty Little Memoirs. This book was given 4.5 stars!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!

A great story about farm girl Willa becoming friends with a rich teen Remy. The characters are so different and well defined and the story blossoms as it focuses on such an unlikely friendship and real youth issues. Narrated by Willa (the protagonist) it feels as though Willa is talking directly to you as the reader. I found Willa’s ability to remain calm and strong during some very crazy events with her newly best friend Remy (who is a teen spiraling out of control) radiated through the pages. When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything yet for Remy, everything comes at a price and she feels her life is spinning out of control. However, Remy is one of those girls who simply doesn’t want to be saved – she is “a person with wings”.This heartfelt novel explores the meaning of friendship, new beginnings, and the joy and devastating pain of finding home in a new place. It also explores the effects of what elicit drugs can have on close friendships. It’s such a moving story and you find it to be a tear jerker but you draw strength from strong characters to get to the end of the story. This is truly a book you just have to read for yourself to understand the feels of this book.Special thanks to Harper Collins Publishers for sending me an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for my honest review.- Crystal

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't so bad to be myself. Okay... I thought it was just gonna be another story about a girl who will commit suicide and then one day she's gonna meet someone who would change her life forever and then be BFFs with that person afterwards. No, not the latter at least.The thing I love the most about this is her POV. She's funny and witty and I continuously opens my dictionary to look up what that fucking word means haha seriously. I am so proud of you, Willa. And all the Willa(s) out there who didn't gave in, who stayed, who tries to be happy and find meaning in this cruel world. But I wished that you didn't gave up on Remy, Willa. She needed you and she told you that everyone who gets close to her, tries to stay away from her in the end. I hope you stayed even if it was agonizing to watching her do that evil thing again and again.PS: Remy, you broke my heart into million pieces. I've met you irl, someone who just won't let themselves to be saved. It's an arduous process but I'll keep on trying until I know how.