I Lived on Butterfly Hill

Reader’s Review

This is highly rated book based on the author’s own experiences of leaving Chile. The main character must leave her beloved home and family in Chile to live with an aunt when a dictator takes over her country and her parents have to go into hiding. Suddenly friends can no longer be trusted, and everything is turned upside down. Slowly she adjusts to life in the US but she longs to return home and when she finally does she is desperate to find her parents. There is a lot to love about the book – the writing, the descriptions of the landscapes, food and culture of Chile, and the themes of love and loss. But there are also some graphic descriptions of protests and deaths in Chile, and the details of her father’s imprisonment, as well as an unfortunate description of the feelings she develops for a boy while in the US, making this book not appropriate for younger readers.

To look out for 

• Violence: The president of Chile is killed and the military takes over; suddenly people disappear and people are terrified. After her father returns, he tells her of his imprisonment, and being thrown off a boat and pretending to be dead, then narrowly surviving. Her mother also suffers a great deal when in hiding.
• Romance: The main character develops feelings for a boy in her class, and they hold hands. Later when he has to leave suddenly she is devastated and has a conversation with her aunt about true love.