In the Time of the Butterflies
Home → Visitor → Book Reviews → In the Time of the Butterflies
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
| Summary | A true story about the four Mirabel sisters living in the Dominican Republic during the dictatorship of Trujillo. The girls find that Trujillo is not at all what he makes himself appear to be, so they decide to rebel and start a force against the dictatorship. Three of the four sisters ended up dying because of their contribution to the Dominican Republic and to women. |
| Review |
This book was required reading for my English class, and I was terribly surprised to read about a true story so terrible and fragile
as the one described in this well-named book. The book is written with a preface and an epilogue, and is separated into three
groups of four chapters; each of the four chapters depicts an individual sister's experiences while the three sections are different
periods in time. The book goes in an easy-to-understand chronological order, and sometimes, the reader will be able to see the same
event told by two separate girls. Not only was the organisation exceptional, but the writing style was outstanding. Each girl had a very similar but different personality that was reflected in the book, and I found myself baffled by how Alvarez did it. She also uses good ways to inform the reader of what is going on without sounding like a narrator; for example, she uses a diary of Maria Teresa to explain what is going on in her chapters. The story is never stopped, but few times is it confusing to understand what's going on. A lot takes place during this book. Alvarez has researched well and put together a masterpiece that not only delves into the personal lives of the four young women, but puts into view the terrible yet truthful events that happened during the early- to mid-1900s. By the end of the book, one has not only gained so much knowledge on the Trujillo dictatorship but has also shed tears for the three young ladies filled with personality. I thought that this book was extremely good, and recommended it in an essay I was required to write. It not only had an amazing writing style, but also gave notice to an important event in history that cannot be ignored. |
| Recommendation | I'd recommend this book for any teenager or adult looking for historical information or entertainment. It is a seriously topic and the events are rather hard to read about, but I think that it should definitely be on every person's "to read" list once he/she gets to an appropriate maturity level. |
|
Rating (out of 5) | ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |