Knight, Deidre - Butterfly Tattoo

[oyceter]

Michael Warner is still grieving for his partner, killed in a car crash, but their daughter Andie is as well, and Michael can't seem to reach her. Meanwhile, he meets Rebecca O'Neill, a former celebrity scarred by a stalker fan's attack, and Rebecca's growing relationship with Andie has the two seeing each other more.

This is a contemporary that I feel is actually set in a world I live in: Michael is bisexual and dealing with his attraction to a woman after many years loving a man; Rebecca is still coping with the aftermath of the attack that scarred her; they have families and friends and jobs, and nothing in the relationship comes easy.

I have qualms about Michael being attracted to Rebecca after his romance with his partner Alex. I very much like that there's a bi hero and that the author and book give a lot of weight to his questions about his own sexuality. Bonus points for not playing into the promiscuous bisexual trope. However, because the romance genre is so heterosexist, I continue to feel uneasy. That said, I've very glad Knight doesn't demonize Alex at all, and part of why the book is so good is because Michael's grief and his difficulty moving on is so real.

I am usually anti cute kids in romance, but I love the friendship between Rebecca and Andie, particularly as Rebecca bonds with Andie over her scars from the stalker attack and Andie's scars from the car accident. I thought Knight was very good at portraying how the attack had affected Rebecca's life: she still has some problems breathing, there's pain, and the scars aren't romance pretty.

This is a very touching and atypical romance about two very hurt people finding each other and healing, and I almost never felt as though the angst was shoehorned in for angst's sake. Instead, the characters all feel very real, and I love how all the changes in the relationship are fueled by character and not the usual romance hijinks.

Comments

[tevere]

Huh, I remember seeing a positive review of this elsewhere (Smart Bitches?) and thinking it sounded interesting-- but obviously not that interesting, since I never followed it up. You've tipped the scales towards a possible purchase (or loan), should I see it around. Thanks!

[oracne]

I enjoyed this, but didn't lovelovelove it. Maybe because I don't tend to love contemporaries, anyway.

[oyceter]

I think Dear Author also reviewed it positively, though I put it off for a while because of the bi hero going from male partner to female. Will be interested to see what you think!

[oyceter]

I really liked it, though it was a push to get myself to read it, since I was in a historical period for a while.

[lenora_rose]

I've been wondering for a while if there's actually a way to tell any story about a bi person going from (Same Gender relationship) to (Opposite Gender relationship) that CAN'T be considered problematic / trivializing the alternate sexuality angle / "se was never really into their own sex, and here's proof". I think having the first partner dead and genuinely grieved helps a lot in this case (And your book rec got me to the library to pounce), but what about breaking up because people don't work out?

Unfortunately, for me this isn't an abstract question, as Current Book seems to be pointing that way.

[oyceter]

I don't know? I think it's especially hard in the romance genre because the genre skews so very heteronormative and has so many evil gay villains. I suspect for me a lot of it lies in not demonizing the other partner, although normal caveats re: me not being bi etc.

[daedala]

Hm. Thanks for reminding me about this issue for the book I'm working on. (I didn't think of it before, I think, because the setup takes care of about 75% of that, but I should reinforce the "really it's ok even though it is a hanving offense in your time and place.")

[lenora_rose]

I dislike stories which demonize exes of any gender without providing a good reason*. But yes, it's much worse when the trope of the ebil gay exists.

Actually, I seem to have answered my own question for this case with; have a whole second plot thread with the lesbian ex as heroine, which will eventually tie in and let her help kick ass at the end. (I didn't think this was physically possible before, but it seems to be). Not a universal solution, alas, not every story ahs room for such a thing, but so few solutions are.


* ON the het side, Jennifer Crusie tends to get away with it better than many, because rather than have the heroine and her girlfriends talking about him, the ex usually shows up enough to demonstrate his flaws.

[lenora_rose]

This making it look easy ain't easy as it seems. :P

Of course, that goes for so much of writing.

[daedala]

Argh, I meant hanging offense. :)

I am totally going to have one of the hero's ex partners show up.

[oyceter]

I'm totally with you on demonizing exes, although yeah, Crusie manages to do it by showing them to be complete jerks. Also, I think I tend to have less of a reaction to demonized guy exes than girl ones, but that's mostly because a lot of romances I've read in the past demonize the female exes by slut shaming. Grrr.

Also, oooo, I like the secondary plot thread idea! It lets her have her own romance and be awesome! (I am kind of a giant fan of having the left-out party of the romance get their own happy ending, a la some kdramas, so I am biased, heh.)

[daedala]

The library finally brought this to me, and I liked it a lot. I'm not fond of contemporaries and often really dislike first person present, and they both worked for me. Thanks a lot for the rec!

[oyceter]

I am glad it worked for you! Yeah, contemporaries and first person often don't do it for me, but I really enjoyed this book.

[daedala]

First person, I'm ok with; it's first person present specifically that I usually bounce off of. It's unfair, but I think of it as the Emo Fanfic POV.

Contemporaries, though, yeah. They're not usually set in a world that has anything to do with me; at least historicals are supposed to be a different world.