misssusan's review
3.0
this is not the kind of story i was looking to read today but i still dug it enough to read it all the way through so you go perez, another win for you
so here's the set up: azael wakes up in juvi. he can't remember exactly how he got there - he was in a fight with his boys maybe? - and the set up is weird as heck, they're not even giving him his one phone call. instead he's told to secretly observe this girl lexi in another cell. meanwhile the narrative jumps back and forth from this (current) to the past, filling in details of azael's life and how he ended up where he is. it worked for me. azael's got a strong voice and the more you learn about him and lexi the more you care. these kids got handed the poor end of the box when it came to choices but this book's ultimately pretty hopeful that they still did have choices. 3 stars
so here's the set up: azael wakes up in juvi. he can't remember exactly how he got there - he was in a fight with his boys maybe? - and the set up is weird as heck, they're not even giving him his one phone call. instead he's told to secretly observe this girl lexi in another cell. meanwhile the narrative jumps back and forth from this (current) to the past, filling in details of azael's life and how he ended up where he is. it worked for me. azael's got a strong voice and the more you learn about him and lexi the more you care. these kids got handed the poor end of the box when it came to choices but this book's ultimately pretty hopeful that they still did have choices. 3 stars
dani005's review against another edition
5.0
THE ENDING?!? WTF. By the last chapter or so... I knew what was happening, and I didn't want to accept it anymore than Azael wanted too.
The suspense in this book was masterfully interwoven into the interchanging scenes from Azael's present and past. This idea of time running out only made me ask more questions. I was in the same boat as Azael. All we knew was that he had to make a decision but we knew nothing about what this decision was except that it somehow correlated with this other girl who is locked up with him. Somehow, these two unlikely people are connected by an event in their pasts, and Azael seems to be the only one who can't remember and the girl doesn't want to talk about it.
It creates this feeling of panic for Azael as people start to disappear from the cells around him, as people "move on" but he doesn't know where. This book had me up untill six in the morning just so that I could find out what happened, and what was going to happen to these two characters.
This wasn't a book based on action. It had a couple great fight scenes, after all its dealing with gangs, but this book was more than just about rumbles between gangs. This was a book built off characterization. Liza and Azael are two really messed up characters who've had shitty lives that just results in one shitty move to another. these kids don't have a lot to live for in life, and not a lot of people rooting for them to excel. As humans, so many of our actions are based off of the feedback we get from both those we do care about and even those we don't care about at all. But when everyone is in the same shitty situation as you, and the only feeling of unity you can achieve with these peers is to join them in a gang... it makes it hard to choose to live a straight life. For Azael, this is his reality. He's only got his brother. His sister moved away, his mother died and his father's gone. HIm and his brother turn to their friends, turn to a gang even if it means risking their lives in rumbles. With a life based off of aggression and violence, it makes it hard to choose the compassionate action, the one where no one gets hurt. For both Liza and Azael, so many of these choices based off of aggression have led up to this moment. Its at this point that a decision has to be made that will dictate their lives from now on. A decision that could be founded out of the hurt and pain of the past or founded in the hope for the future.
For them, it becomes a choice between the knife and the butterfly, no matter how hard that choice might be.
The suspense in this book was masterfully interwoven into the interchanging scenes from Azael's present and past. This idea of time running out only made me ask more questions. I was in the same boat as Azael. All we knew was that he had to make a decision but we knew nothing about what this decision was except that it somehow correlated with this other girl who is locked up with him. Somehow, these two unlikely people are connected by an event in their pasts, and Azael seems to be the only one who can't remember and the girl doesn't want to talk about it.
It creates this feeling of panic for Azael as people start to disappear from the cells around him, as people "move on" but he doesn't know where. This book had me up untill six in the morning just so that I could find out what happened, and what was going to happen to these two characters.
This wasn't a book based on action. It had a couple great fight scenes, after all its dealing with gangs, but this book was more than just about rumbles between gangs. This was a book built off characterization. Liza and Azael are two really messed up characters who've had shitty lives that just results in one shitty move to another. these kids don't have a lot to live for in life, and not a lot of people rooting for them to excel. As humans, so many of our actions are based off of the feedback we get from both those we do care about and even those we don't care about at all. But when everyone is in the same shitty situation as you, and the only feeling of unity you can achieve with these peers is to join them in a gang... it makes it hard to choose to live a straight life. For Azael, this is his reality. He's only got his brother. His sister moved away, his mother died and his father's gone. HIm and his brother turn to their friends, turn to a gang even if it means risking their lives in rumbles. With a life based off of aggression and violence, it makes it hard to choose the compassionate action, the one where no one gets hurt. For both Liza and Azael, so many of these choices based off of aggression have led up to this moment. Its at this point that a decision has to be made that will dictate their lives from now on. A decision that could be founded out of the hurt and pain of the past or founded in the hope for the future.
For them, it becomes a choice between the knife and the butterfly, no matter how hard that choice might be.
jeanwk's review against another edition
3.0
Ending was interesting, but the story did not keep me connected.
clarkco's review against another edition
4.0
The characters aren't very likable, but the story itself is well done.
heykellyjensen's review against another edition
2.0
2.5.
Not my kind of book at all, but once I got into it, I liked it more than I thought I would. The end was a twist I didn't see coming (maybe I would have, though, had I been invested earlier on).
That said, I have to give Perez so much credit for writing these kinds of stories -- about the hardened kids, the city kids, the kids who are dealing not only with life at home but all of the baggage that comes with being Latino -- because these are stories we need more of. There is a huge readership for this book and I hope it finds those readers.
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/02/knife-and-butterfly-by-ashley-hope.html
Not my kind of book at all, but once I got into it, I liked it more than I thought I would. The end was a twist I didn't see coming (maybe I would have, though, had I been invested earlier on).
That said, I have to give Perez so much credit for writing these kinds of stories -- about the hardened kids, the city kids, the kids who are dealing not only with life at home but all of the baggage that comes with being Latino -- because these are stories we need more of. There is a huge readership for this book and I hope it finds those readers.
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/02/knife-and-butterfly-by-ashley-hope.html
foreveryoungadult's review against another edition
Graded By: Erin
Cover Story: Simple And Spot-on
BFF Charm: Nay/Yay
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Straight Up
Bonus Factors: Gang Life, H-town's Many Facets, Kickass Gram Award
Relationship Status: Thinking About Marrying Into The Family
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Simple And Spot-on
BFF Charm: Nay/Yay
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Talky Talk: Straight Up
Bonus Factors: Gang Life, H-town's Many Facets, Kickass Gram Award
Relationship Status: Thinking About Marrying Into The Family
Read the full book report here.
swirlnswing's review against another edition
4.0
This review will also be available at Mostly ReadingYA.
===
This is not a book I would have picked up to read on my own. It’s nothing personal: it just doesn’t fall into my preferred genres (paranormal/sci fi/fantasy). But, when I received this ARC, I found myself interested for a short list of reasons. First, the title is a juxtaposition that is kind of lovely in my brain. THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY. Danger and delicacy. Violence and peace. It evoked curiosity, to be sure. Second, the description on the back of the ARC – “the knife cut, but somehow it also connected” – made me want to know what happened to make that so. And third, though it took reading the introduction the book to learn this, the protagonist lives in a poor area of Houston, Texas. Being from Texas myself, I wondered how well Ms. Perez would handle that, both in dialect and setting.
The story is primarily narrated from the point of view of Azael, a poor kid in Houston who is a member of MS-13, one of the largest, most dangerous gangs present in the United States and other Latin countries. He’s young – still in high school – and spends his time tagging the walls of his city, getting high, fighting rival gangs, and trying to look out for himself and his brother, orphans because of an unfortunate mix of immigration laws and the death of their mother.
He’s an interesting kid, to be sure. Simmering just beneath his slang and profanity lies what is very clearly an intelligent mind. (For the record, Perez does a killer job with the dialect – having spent a large amount of time in Houston as a child, I could actually “hear” Israel’s voice in my mind.) He’s methodical, logical in an extreme, save for the loyalty he shows his gang, which brings him trouble at every turn. The fight mentioned in the synopsis occurs just before Chapter 1 begins.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY opens with Azael locked in a sort of solitary confinement. He learns that his “job” is to watch a girl – a girl he has never met in his life – as she goes about her business in her cell, which is more of a bedroom than anything, much more comfortable than the place in which Az is confined. When he attempts to get information out of the two gentlemen he sees somewhat regularly regarding why he’s being held – one that brings food and the other who is a caseworker, or so it seems – all he can gather is that something went down, he’s in trouble for some reason that is wrapped up in Lexi, and that he can’t leave until he remembers.
The only problem is that Az can’t remember anything.
The novel chronicles his attempt to draw the story out – how is his story tied to Lexi’s? What did he do? Did he do anything? Why didn’t he clean up his life when he had the chance? Why is he being held here for so long, without reason?
To be honest, there are several variables held within the plot of THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY that I absolutely did NOT see coming, including Perez’s twist at the end, which I found to be extremely smart and engaging. But I won’t spoil it, because I found it so satisfying that I believe you, as a reader, deserve the same elements of surprise that I was able to experience. This book is harsh, gritty, and quietly dark. But it’s real.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY will be published in February 2012. Don’t miss it!
===
This is not a book I would have picked up to read on my own. It’s nothing personal: it just doesn’t fall into my preferred genres (paranormal/sci fi/fantasy). But, when I received this ARC, I found myself interested for a short list of reasons. First, the title is a juxtaposition that is kind of lovely in my brain. THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY. Danger and delicacy. Violence and peace. It evoked curiosity, to be sure. Second, the description on the back of the ARC – “the knife cut, but somehow it also connected” – made me want to know what happened to make that so. And third, though it took reading the introduction the book to learn this, the protagonist lives in a poor area of Houston, Texas. Being from Texas myself, I wondered how well Ms. Perez would handle that, both in dialect and setting.
The story is primarily narrated from the point of view of Azael, a poor kid in Houston who is a member of MS-13, one of the largest, most dangerous gangs present in the United States and other Latin countries. He’s young – still in high school – and spends his time tagging the walls of his city, getting high, fighting rival gangs, and trying to look out for himself and his brother, orphans because of an unfortunate mix of immigration laws and the death of their mother.
He’s an interesting kid, to be sure. Simmering just beneath his slang and profanity lies what is very clearly an intelligent mind. (For the record, Perez does a killer job with the dialect – having spent a large amount of time in Houston as a child, I could actually “hear” Israel’s voice in my mind.) He’s methodical, logical in an extreme, save for the loyalty he shows his gang, which brings him trouble at every turn. The fight mentioned in the synopsis occurs just before Chapter 1 begins.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY opens with Azael locked in a sort of solitary confinement. He learns that his “job” is to watch a girl – a girl he has never met in his life – as she goes about her business in her cell, which is more of a bedroom than anything, much more comfortable than the place in which Az is confined. When he attempts to get information out of the two gentlemen he sees somewhat regularly regarding why he’s being held – one that brings food and the other who is a caseworker, or so it seems – all he can gather is that something went down, he’s in trouble for some reason that is wrapped up in Lexi, and that he can’t leave until he remembers.
The only problem is that Az can’t remember anything.
The novel chronicles his attempt to draw the story out – how is his story tied to Lexi’s? What did he do? Did he do anything? Why didn’t he clean up his life when he had the chance? Why is he being held here for so long, without reason?
To be honest, there are several variables held within the plot of THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY that I absolutely did NOT see coming, including Perez’s twist at the end, which I found to be extremely smart and engaging. But I won’t spoil it, because I found it so satisfying that I believe you, as a reader, deserve the same elements of surprise that I was able to experience. This book is harsh, gritty, and quietly dark. But it’s real.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY will be published in February 2012. Don’t miss it!
koby's review against another edition
3.0
Azael wakes up after a gang brawl in juvie. Or at least he thinks it's juvie. But this time, it's different. He has to watch this girl, Lexi, and he doesn't know why - she's in some kind of detention center, too. He figures there must be some kind of connection between him and this girl, but he doesn't know what it is. Piecing together their relation is what keeps the reader going. Well, that and the voices of the narrators.
Azael and Lexi have voices that are both their own and realistic representations of kids in their kind of sitations. This book isn't fake sounding, and it's not full of easy answers. It's also inspired by a true story, which I discovered at the end - pretty neat.
This was a quick, interesting read. It's not a feel-good, but it is an interesting slice of life/big questions kind of book. I could see these being really well-received by kids who don't typically like reading.
I'm bordering on wanting to give it 4 stars, but I'm not quite there yet.
Azael and Lexi have voices that are both their own and realistic representations of kids in their kind of sitations. This book isn't fake sounding, and it's not full of easy answers. It's also inspired by a true story, which I discovered at the end - pretty neat.
This was a quick, interesting read. It's not a feel-good, but it is an interesting slice of life/big questions kind of book. I could see these being really well-received by kids who don't typically like reading.
I'm bordering on wanting to give it 4 stars, but I'm not quite there yet.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I took a huge risk on THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY and gave it the benefit of the doubt. This whole gang, thug life thing, totally not my bag in the slightest. And characters like this? I pretty much don't give two shits about. But I am SOOOOO glad I took the chance because it ended being worth it and then some just for the ending. Like to the point of me being winded and speechless and not even moving worth it.
Azael is a thug. He's entrenched in gang life and quite frankly, until he really started breaking down in his prison cell and we start delving into his past I didn't feel much for him. He's a punk, someone that's starts ridiculous fights over some imagined blast to his or his friends' pride. At first I was really worried this would be a first for me: the first Carolrhoda Lab book I really didn't like. But once Perez started chipping away at the surface and really started getting into who Azael really was under that whole thug facade it became interesting. His life with MS-13 ended up being akin to addiction. Throughout the book he kept coming back to his girlfriend Becca and how he wanted to get clean for her, actually using those words. But it was always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I ended up feeling bad for him because he is so young (15) and once his mom died his childhood pretty much sucked thanks to a selfish father that couldn't get over it enough to take care of his kids.
And then you have Lexi. I found the blurb just a touch misleading because I thought it was going to alternate POVs between Azael and Lexi but it sticks with Azael the whole time although we learn everything about Lexi through him and her journal. We don't really NEED to be in her head because we already kind of are when Azael is doing his observation.
What really bothered me was how quick Azael was to discount Lexi's problems because she's white. That really got under my skin and I wanted to slap him for it. Just because she's fair doesn't mean her life doesn't suck, and it certainly sucked. She was basically pseudo-raised by a mom in denial that had a revolving door of boyfriends, some of which abused her. She acted the only way she really knew how, through sexuality, and the gang life she sought provided her a bit of protection that she couldn't get at home with her mom. They were family where she didn't have any, except for her grandmother, who really tried. That's who Lexi warmed up to the most, that's where she looked to for encouragement or whether she should feel disappointed. Her mom didn't matter but her grandmother did.
The ending was so insanely sudden for me and hit me so profoundly that I actually gasped, my hands started shaking and I didn't know what to do with myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not even halfway decent at picking up on twists in plots early in the story so I didn't see it coming AT ALL. And you know what? I'm glad. Because it took me aback so much that I think if I'd guessed before had, it would have ruined the story for me. It would have kept the story an okay story instead of launching it into FUCKING PHENOMENAL territory as it wrapped a rubber band around the whole thing and brought it all together. The ending really did it for me. If it had not ended the way it did I wouldn't have liked the book nearly as much. In fact I can't really imagine it ending any other way because it wouldn't have had nearly the same impact. Flabbergasted. Seriously.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY is not for the faint of heart. It's told through the eyes of a male MS-13 member (for those that don't know, it's a brutal gang based out of Los Angeles) and Perez is not shy about language, sexual innuendo or violence. It's all there, raw and uncensored for you to read and absorb. But she's written it so well that you'd think an actual member wrote it, that the story was coming from someone really living it. And in a way it did as it was inspired by actual events. Perez made me feel for someone that I would rightly brush aside, whose story I wouldn't have even considered before and I thank her deeply for that. Now I'm pretty much screwed because Azael's story was so phenomenal that I don't even know if anything else will compare. I don't know if I want it too.
Azael is a thug. He's entrenched in gang life and quite frankly, until he really started breaking down in his prison cell and we start delving into his past I didn't feel much for him. He's a punk, someone that's starts ridiculous fights over some imagined blast to his or his friends' pride. At first I was really worried this would be a first for me: the first Carolrhoda Lab book I really didn't like. But once Perez started chipping away at the surface and really started getting into who Azael really was under that whole thug facade it became interesting. His life with MS-13 ended up being akin to addiction. Throughout the book he kept coming back to his girlfriend Becca and how he wanted to get clean for her, actually using those words. But it was always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I ended up feeling bad for him because he is so young (15) and once his mom died his childhood pretty much sucked thanks to a selfish father that couldn't get over it enough to take care of his kids.
And then you have Lexi. I found the blurb just a touch misleading because I thought it was going to alternate POVs between Azael and Lexi but it sticks with Azael the whole time although we learn everything about Lexi through him and her journal. We don't really NEED to be in her head because we already kind of are when Azael is doing his observation.
What really bothered me was how quick Azael was to discount Lexi's problems because she's white. That really got under my skin and I wanted to slap him for it. Just because she's fair doesn't mean her life doesn't suck, and it certainly sucked. She was basically pseudo-raised by a mom in denial that had a revolving door of boyfriends, some of which abused her. She acted the only way she really knew how, through sexuality, and the gang life she sought provided her a bit of protection that she couldn't get at home with her mom. They were family where she didn't have any, except for her grandmother, who really tried. That's who Lexi warmed up to the most, that's where she looked to for encouragement or whether she should feel disappointed. Her mom didn't matter but her grandmother did.
The ending was so insanely sudden for me and hit me so profoundly that I actually gasped, my hands started shaking and I didn't know what to do with myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not even halfway decent at picking up on twists in plots early in the story so I didn't see it coming AT ALL. And you know what? I'm glad. Because it took me aback so much that I think if I'd guessed before had, it would have ruined the story for me. It would have kept the story an okay story instead of launching it into FUCKING PHENOMENAL territory as it wrapped a rubber band around the whole thing and brought it all together. The ending really did it for me. If it had not ended the way it did I wouldn't have liked the book nearly as much. In fact I can't really imagine it ending any other way because it wouldn't have had nearly the same impact. Flabbergasted. Seriously.
THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY is not for the faint of heart. It's told through the eyes of a male MS-13 member (for those that don't know, it's a brutal gang based out of Los Angeles) and Perez is not shy about language, sexual innuendo or violence. It's all there, raw and uncensored for you to read and absorb. But she's written it so well that you'd think an actual member wrote it, that the story was coming from someone really living it. And in a way it did as it was inspired by actual events. Perez made me feel for someone that I would rightly brush aside, whose story I wouldn't have even considered before and I thank her deeply for that. Now I'm pretty much screwed because Azael's story was so phenomenal that I don't even know if anything else will compare. I don't know if I want it too.
randyribay's review against another edition
3.0
intriguing story, but the cliche ending was a let down.