Set in 1972, When They Burned the Butterfly is a tense and nerve-wracking story of magic and the tension between traditionalism and modernity in a newly independent Singapore. It opens with Adeline, a girl who chafes at the strictures of her Catholic school and middle-class life even as she hides a magical fire within her own veins. Her life is upended when a deadly house fire reveals her late mother’s most closely held secret: She was the patron of the Butterflies, a street gang of girls who derive their power from a powerful and jealous goddess of fire. Driven by grief and curiosity, Adeline dives into the underworld her mother hid from her, determined to find her mother’s killer. But even as she searches, the Butterflies are caught up in a deeper web of intrigue that threatens to tear the magical underworld—and Adeline’s new family—apart.
The adult debut from YA author Wen-yi Lee (The Dark We Know) is a breathtaking combination of character-driven historical fiction and urban fantasy. Adeline’s fascination with the underworld, an environment at odds with the rapidly modernizing Singapore her mother was so dedicated to integrating with, grows as she attempts to uncover her mother’s killer. Like any good protagonist in their late teens, Adeline can be impulsive and self-centered, acting without understanding the bigger picture or how she fits into it. While this may frustrate adult audiences expecting adult reactions to problems, Lee shows just enough of the bigger picture to clue readers in to when Adeline is in the wrong—and when she is devastatingly correct. As she dives into Singapore’s underworld and the magical conspiracy that surrounds it, Adeline slowly loses the veneer of a tough loner, metamorphosing into a woman driven by fierce loyalty to her new sisters. A fiery story of love, gang violence and magic, When They Burned the Butterfly is a darker coming-of-age tale for the modern era that will leave readers burning to get their hands on more of Lee’s work.