Naomi's earliest memory is of herself as a ten-year-old running naked in a strawberry field. She runs towards migrant workers who take her to a sheriff.
Twenty years later, Naomi is a thirty-year-old private investigator trying to find a child who has disappeared while out on a family trip. Naomi has become a private investigator to atone, as she puts it, to "atone" for her past.
The child she seeks to save, however, has been lost for three years in a remote part of Willamette Valley. There's no evidence to suggest that the child is alive. The case is inactive and its assumed she has perished in the snow.
Naomi learns from each case and this case gives her most valuable insight yet. Glimmers of the past return as she finds the living conditions of the girl, a cave in a remote claim.
Denfeld, a former private investigator, writes a taut, psychological mystery with details that ring true.
A harrowing work of psychological fiction set in Oregon's Willamette Valley where fur trapping is still commonplace in remote towns. In one such town, a mysterious figure lives in obscurity. Years ago, he had been kidnapped and tortured by someone he calls simply "The Man."
Could this be mysterious figure be tied to the missing girl?
As Naomi reaches out to her foster bother, some of her lost memories return. After solving the case of the missing girl, called the "Snow Girl," Naomi vows to solve a more personal missing person case.
The Butterfly Girl is the second novel in the Naomi Cottle series.
https://renedenfeld.com/author/
This atmospheric, creepy novel uses a superb narrative technique. The story is told through the eyes of Green, a young girl who has grown up in an artists commune at Foxlowe.
She has no parents and all is shared equally in the family in a pile called the Jumble. Green thinks, however, she belongs to Freya Marsh. Freya, the de facto leader, is an affectionate tormentor who loves and tortures Green.
The family's actions are compared to a shoal of fish; none of them wants to be "edged" or ostracized. Green feels being "Edged" is worst than taking the Spike Walk--a horrid punishment that Freya invented.
Though the family think they have retreated into safety, real danger lurks through the halls of the ancestral home. Freya takes a baby away from her mother. The family seems unable to sense the growing moral uncertainty.
Instead of checking her authority, the family goes along with whatever Freya decides. Thus, when Freya arrives with an infant, the family never questions her origins. They simply welcomes the infant as a new family member. Curiously, Green names the infant Blue.
In order to feel safe from the outside world, the family performs numerous rituals. During the Winter Solstice they perform the Scattering--a line of salt is poured around the house to protect the house from outsiders. Green, in a fit of jealous, puts the infant outside the salt line, an action that will have serious repercussions .
Green, Blue, and Toby grow close in the years that follow. The grown believe that they have provided the children with the most magical childhood. They don't go to school and are not subjected to society's rules.
The ungrown are not given access to the most basic things e.g. mirrors and cannot leave the grounds or talk to strangers. Green in never given a chance to leave Foxlowe until a tragedy occurs.
Psychologically damaged, Green may never be able to integrate into society. One of the growns who became a Leaver is determined to give her a chance. Can he help her or will he only make things worst?
Green is a fascinating yet unreliable narrator in this novel that is both complex and frightening.
In this novel, two teenagers avoid each other at school yet are also fiercely, strangely attracted to one other.
The two come from different worlds. Marianne has a much higher socioeconomic status than Connell. Her parents are barristers whereas Connell is raised by a single Mom. Connell's mother is, in fact, a housekeeper for Marianne's parents.
Due to some quirk on her part, Marianne has a lower social status in school than he does. Connell is a popular football player while she is lonely and ostracized.
In spite of this, the two teenagers come together for secret trysts. Terrified, though, that anyone would find out about their affair, Connell treats Marianne coldly. He invites someone else to the Debs.
At Trinity University, the pair become friends and lovers once again. She is now more popular than he is yet they still struggle to communicate. Their relationship continues to be passionate, volatile, and heart-breaking.
After a misunderstanding, the two start seeing other people. Marianne, intelligent yet damaged psychologically by her family, seeks out boyfriends that are cruel to her.
Connell feels Helen is a better choice until a funeral at his home town bring his illusions crashing down.
This novel, which was long listed for a Man Booker prize, will soon become a 12-part half-hour drama on BBC3.
