Proseography

The following review contains spoilers. They are hidden under tags, so beware!

Emma is hitchhiking across the United States, trying to outrun a violent, tragic past, when she meets Lowell, the hot-but-dumb driver she hopes will take her as far as the Badlands. But Lowell is not as harmless as he seems, and a vicious scuffle leaves Emma bloody and stranded in an abandoned town in the Black Hills with an out-of-gas van, a loaded gun, and a snowstorm on the way.

The town is eerily quiet and Emma takes shelter in a diner, where she stumbles across Earl, a strange little boy in a tinfoil mask who steals her gun before begging her to help him get rid of “George.” As she is pulled deeper into Earl’s bizarre, menacing world, the horrors of Emma’s past creep closer, and she realizes she can’t run forever.

To be honest, it’s now been nearly a year since I read this book. For this blog, I wanted to start with something that had really made an impression on me, and even a year later, this book is still on my mind, so I had to go with it.

Rachel Eve Moulton had me from the very beginning⎯Emma, a woman stuck in a car with Lowell, a sleazy, menacing stranger. She wants to make it to the Balands and this goal is enough for her to entertain Lowell along the way. But he’s a sleazy guy who is always borderline threatening and the looming risk of violence hangs in the stale air of his car⎯Veronica, as Emma has affectionately named it. On top of that, Emma is recovering from major surgery.

But Emma wasn’t there by accident, she had chosen him, because she had a destination and he was a means to get her there (amongst other understandable-but-also-not reasons). Though this is an anxiety-inducing opening, we get glimpses into Emma’s mind and past and it turns out she’s recovering from a hysterectomy and that she’s suspected of being involved in her stepbrother’s death. She also knows how to put up a fight.

This was enough to make me curious about what led her to being in the car with the repugnant Lowell (seriously, I despised him). And also what she’d be willing to do if he acted on his threats. The entire opening made me feel disgusted (at Lowell), worried (about Emma’s stitches bursting open and her bleeding to death before she had any other terrible fate befall her), curious (what the hell was so special about the Badlands that it was worth spending time with Lowell for?).

Once they parted ways (in a pretty surprising way), I wondered what could even follow that up. But that’s when things shifted from is she going to be murdered? to a deeper, creepier mystery.

The opening of this book was perfectly short and packed with enough dread to hook me, but the rest of it is what really kept me reading. The relief at Emma having managed to get rid of Lowell was quickly replaced with more dread⎯how would she survive the cold night? What about her wound? Wasn’t she supposed to be at the hospital?? And then, Earl.

Earl was creepy. I even wondered at his being real at all. I’m glad he was, cause I loved Earl.

At first I was right there with Emma, frustrated at his riddles and his disappearing and reappearing every five minutes. He reminded me of a cat, slipping in and out whenever he pleased or got spooked. Sometimes this constant sort of back and forth can make a story seem empty, used solely for pushing the plot forward and away from quick resolution, but in this case, it made sense for him to act so erratically. Their conversations were also very intriguing and well-written. But if anything, Earl not being able to flat out say what he needed from Emma allowed me to enjoy their banter and the truths slipped in between.

My heart broke for Earl and all he went through. To think of the hope he must have felt when Emma appeared… Now, though I did enjoy their conversations a lot, at times Earl did talk more like an adult than an eight-year-old child. This wasn’t enough to make it unenjoyable, but it did pull me out of the story a couple of times.

Click here to see a spoiler

One thing I was slightly ~ pissed ~ about was how easily they let George get out. The whole time I was screaming in my head⎯TIE HIM UP TIGHTER!!! WRAP HIM UP IN DUCT TAPE, HEAD TO TOE!!!!!! But I can’t exactly guarantee I’d be smarter if I were in their shoes.

Another character I was curious about, was Ray. I wished I had known more about him and his motives for doing what he did. I know this wasn’t his book, but he was such a big part of Emma’s story it would have been nice to get some more context. Still, the way their relationship worked and the complicated and terrible ending it had was very compelling and, though extremely sad, did not feel over dramatic to me. I think this is what drew me to Emma’s voice. She’s been through some fucked up shit and it hardened her, but she’s also still basically a teenager and her roughness coupled with Earl’s bluntness made for a really interesting balance against the overall bleakness of this novel.

Still, it was very nice to see Emma’s persistence and growth amidst the apocalyptic weather, wanting to get out but also keep Earl safe and her own mental confusion. I remember seeing some reviews talking about how it was confusing not knowing what was real and what was a hallucination for most of the novel. Personally, I enjoyed that. I don’t usually need too much clarity if it makes sense to the plot, and it felt just right to be lost with Emma in her confusion, to know only as much as she did. The deeper she went into herself and her past, the bigger the danger in her present situation and the bigger emotional payoff was.

As for the ending, I did think it was a bit rushed. The shift Emma goes through at the end felt slightly too fast, slightly too perfect.

Click here to see a spoiler

But then again, it could be argued that Earl represented a second shot at something she thought she’d never be able to have.

All in all, Tinfoil Butterfly is a book about grief and what makes (or doesn’t) someone a bad person. Emma believed she had “invited evil in”, but ultimately found redemption through Earl.

This book was shortlisted for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards and I’m not surprised at all. It was a solid, electrifying read, and I’m excited to read whatever Moulton comes out with next. Her second book, The Insatiable Volt Sisters, is on my tbr and after this one, my expectations are high (I’m getting to you, hold on!!!).

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This picture was taken with a Holga during my first experience with a medium format camera. Still unfamiliar with the viewfinder, I had a hard time with the framing. At first, I disliked the distortions and blurs I got with this camera, but they grow on me the more I look at the pictures.

For this first review, I thought it’d make the perfect illustration for first times, inexperience and this creepily lovely debut novel. The snowy scenery, coupled with my lack of experience with the camera, led to a creepy, awkwardly stretched, photograph.