"The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up" by Evanna Lynch, Review

Recently, I've found myself really enjoying reading memoirs. The opportunity they provide me, to peep into another's intimate, private, secret life - I find this opportunity invaluable. As a thoughtful person, always keen on building deep connection and understanding the behaviour of others, memoirs have become good friends of mine.

"The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting" first crossed my radar during a school book fair. I immediately recognize the name of the authress to be "Luna Lovegood" and hence I quickly intrigued. After flipping through a few random pages I felt quite nausausted and decided it was best not to read this book quite as yet, because I deemed it too triggering.

A few weeks back, my Christmas present arrived in the post - a beautiful pink kindle! And I decided I needed an excellent, emotionally-provoking book to start off my journey, being a kindle user. "The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting" came to mind, and so, this was the first book to grace my kindle.

I found that I relate to Evanna in many ways - the feeling of worthlessness and incompetence in light of others' beauty, the fear and dread towards the inevitable reality of growing up, the delicate and beautiful relationship towards the mother figure. In fact, I've highlighted numerous quotes that resonate profoundly with me. One notable one being; "someday, someone who wasn't my mother would have to love me, and I wasn't sure they ever would".

It is such a special and surreal feeling, to feel yourself being represented in a piece of art - be it literature, song, or theatre. It bring such a serene sense of safety. This is what this book was for me, and I can only describe it as utterly healing and wildly cathartic.

I do have some criticisms, though. At some points the novel felt excessively dragging. Beyond the point where the Harry Potter films had wrapped up filmed, all the nit-picky descriptions felt tedious and tiring. And please, reader, don't interpret this the wrong way but at certain times Evanna came across as an insufferable character and I'd had enough with her negative thought spirals. But maybe that's the whole point? That's the message she's trying to convey? To show what a disorder can do to a person?

This book feels ... Unfinished. It did not end with the protagonist healing. With the protagonist finding love for her body. With the protagonist revealing some great truth about the meaning behind her life and existence. It just felt like the protagonist is trapped in a limbo of eternal hatred. So it was a bit odd - because I couldn't really find the point of this novel, perse. I'm a bit confused all in all.

3/5 stars 🌟