Content levels
Positive tags
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Synopsis
Singapore, 1972: Newly independent, a city of immigrants grappling for power in a fast-modernizing world. Here, gangsters are the last conduits of the gods their ancestors brought with them, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place where magic has not been assimilated and legislated away. Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo–she discovers she’s far from alone. Ang Tian is a Red Butterfly: one of a gang of girls who came from nothing, sworn to a fire goddess and empowered to wreak vengeance on the men that abuse and underestimate them. Adeline’s mother led a double life as their elusive patron, Madam Butterfly. Now that she’s dead, Adeline’s bloodline is the sole thing sustaining the goddess. Between her search for her mother’s killer and the gang’s succession crisis, Adeline becomes quickly entangled with the girls’ dangerous world, and even more so with the charismatic Tian. But no home lasts long around here. Ambitious and paranoid neighbor gangs hunt at the edges of Butterfly territory, and bodies are turning up in the red light district suffused with a strange new magic. Adeline may have found her place for once, but with the streets changing by the day, it may take everything she is to keep it.
When They Burned the Butterfly: content & age rating
Intended for adult readers (18+).
This adult urban fantasy contains significant gang violence, murder investigation, and revenge themes set against 1970s Singapore's criminal underworld. Features a sapphic romance subplot and explores complex themes of cultural erasure and found family among dangerous circumstances.
What to know going in
This book has strong violence, mild sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include domestic violence, murder, death of parent, and grief (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Adult readers will be drawn to the richly atmospheric historical setting, the fierce found family of gangster girls sworn to a fire goddess, and the mystery surrounding a murdered mother.