New Release Spotlight: Color Me Butterfly

Color Me Butterfly by L.Y. Marlow

In L.Y. Marlow's debut novel, Color Me Butterfly, Marlow traces four generations of women who have endured abuse and overcome overwhelming obstacles. Set in Philadelphia and based on a true story, the book showcases the ways these women dealt with physical and emotional abuse inflicted by different male figures of the family.

Color Me Butterfly not only employs strong female characters, it also tackles powerful subject matter. Based on a true story, it is a brave story to tell. At times, however, the narrative feels cliché; generic phrases are used to describe feelings that should be character specific. Along the same vein, it is difficult to see where the abuse in the family begins and why it began in the first place. In part one, we see the patron of the family, Isaac Bingham, start off as an interesting character who wants to make a new life for himself. Yet by the end of the section, he has become a monster incapable of feeling. While it is understandable that a victim may not understand her abuser's rationale, Isaac's transformation would work better if we could understand the reasons behind this dramatic change; instead we are left with a one-dimensional character. More insight into Isaac's childhood is needed to understand this abrupt personality switch.

In some ways, the premise of this book is a bit too ambitious, as time tends to go by too quickly. This prohibits the reader from developing relationships with the characters, instead seeing a general overview of all of them. We also see the same roles being played throughout the book as each daughter in turn is abused by a male figure, usually spurred by alcohol. While these scenes are tragic, the characters at times feel flat, simply adhering to their roles of victim or abuser. They aren't given the room to move beyond those definitions. As with Isaac, more background information would be helpful to see how these men became such terrorizers.

All in all, Color Me Butterfly is a powerful story, filled with courageous female characters who are able to overcome their dire circumstances. The fact that it is based on a true story is remarkable, and this type of story clearly deserves to be told. Yet at times, I wanted the characters to move beyond their prescribed roles to surprise me more than they did. With such a sensitive topic, this book will undoubtedly find its audience, but I worry that many may feel they have read this book before.

Review by Andrea Deeken, Indigo Editing, LLC