When They Burned the Butterfly

The Substance gets transported to 1970s Singapore in YA author Lee’s gruesome and evocative adult debut (after The Dark We Know). Contrarian teen Adeline Siow inherited her mother Kim Yen’s ability to summon fire at will, but resentfully lives by her mother’s rules to keep these blazes small and secret. She gets her thrills picking the pockets of customers in her mom’s clothing store and snooping into Kim Yen’s secrets, like her ties to the White Orchid bar, a haunt of the Red Butterfly gang. There, Adeline sees and becomes infatuated with gang member Ang Tian. After a mysterious fire destroys the Siow home and Kim Yen is burned alive, Adeline learns that her mother was the Red Butterfly’s leader. She tracks down Tian, joins the Red Butterflies, and feels a sense of belonging for the first time. Danger arises, however, from rival gang Three Steel, which has begun dealing strange pills that promise to make users beautiful but just as often transforms them into monsters. Adeline is a well-drawn but challenging heroine who constantly lashes out at everyone around her, and the close third-person POV from such a relentlessly prickly perspective can be wearying. However, those seeking a purposefully unlikable narrator and blood-drenched body horror will find much to enjoy. Lee should win a new set of fans with this. (Oct.)