Content warning: sexual assault, bloody violence.
'A dead body lay at my feet and all I could think was, Sailor Moon didn't prepare me for this...'
'[...] real life is nothing like a glittery children's cartoon. Wishes have consequences. Boys will be boys. And power can corrupt even the most magical of girls.'
'Butterfly Girl is [a] coming-of-rage novella full of campy fun and dark humour, perfect for fans of Bottoms, The Craft, and Jennifer's Body.'
"You either die a magical girl or live long enough to see yourself become a witch." - @dailymadoka on x.
Never have blurbs and hook-lines from a book been more accurate to its content and themes (the typo in the second-to-last above line aside, and to be fair, this indie book contains very few typos).
'Butterfly Girl' is like 'Madoka Magica' meets 'Heathers' meets 'Promising Young Woman' meets 'Less Than Zero'. It's an even darker, bloodier and more intense counterpart to 'A Magical Girl Retires' ("Magical girls exist because justice does not" has taken on a much deeper - and slasher - meaning).
It's a bizarre and unique concept of incorporating the Magical Girl genre into a feminist revenge fantasy, with sprinklings of dark humour and satire. It's like a gritty yet charming student film in novella form, if the student film can afford lots of fake blood, organs and body parts, and rich people locations. It is violent, cynical and depressing, but its passion, its anger, its content and commentary on behalf of justifiable female rage, is spot on, informative, and aims true, and thanks to good, breezy writing, it not only works, it's enjoyable to read. It can be read in a day - you will fall under its enthralling spell.
It holds nothing back, for women everywhere are mad as hell and will not take it anymore.
It's morbid, yet satisfying and cathartic.
The horrific, insidious evils of the patriarchy in real life; in the real world, that rewards monstrous, entitled men again and again; in the real world, where we are all breathing in misogyny - hatred of half the human race - like toxic fumes, unconsciously or not - it all makes murderous magical girls people worth rooting for.
The magical butterfly girls in 'Butterfly Girl' (the metamorphosis metaphor and theme is intentional, pointed and poignant) are adult college women who constantly drink all sorts of alcoholic and caffeine beverages, do drugs, listen to all sorts of songs on playlists, watch trash TV, and update on their social media accounts, such as group chats and TikTok, as makeup/arts influencers - in between and even during
ripping rapist men's (and their complicit enablers') corrupt and rotten hearts out and crushing them, as well as literally ripping them to pieces. It goes to show how real, complex, and psychologically unstable, damaged and not all there these magical girls are.
'Butterfly Girl' is not all pro-revenge, let alone pro-bloody revenge, and actions have consequences, no matter how tightknit a group of magical girl-friends - who support and protect each other as well as other women - are.
There are all kinds of POC and LBGTQA+ rep. The leader of the magical butterfly girl gang, Nana, is trans, although she is white and comes from an obscenely rich family, which is a privilege she gets called out on. The newest and more "peaceful" magical girl, Zuzu, who is no less passionate about feminism and justice (and who is, quite amusingly, introduced suddenly one hundred pages into the book, as already part of the gang), is Black. And practically nobody is straight: the POV narrator protagonist magical girl, Sabrina, aka "Riri" (who gets initiated and hazed forty pages in) is clearly questioning and attracted to Nana, her leader and "saviour".
There is no such thing as "woke" and never has been. It's a word made up and, in an insidious and intentional twist, turned into an insult by angry, bitter, bigoted, entitled, paranoid arsehole haters. Diverse stories have always existed, and people like the fictional characters in them have always existed, and as books and media such as 'Butterfly Girl' continue to demonstrate, it is always necessary, important and urgent to get the truth about the state of our world out there.
Storytelling is the most powerful of human resources. Storytelling and the spreading of messages can help protect women and girls - all women and girls - and show them they matter and they have a voice - in fact, this has been the case since the dawn of human civilisation. They can be used to remind us to hold men accountable for their actions.
Evil, predatory, criminal actions, performed by misogynists, who get away with them thanks to other misogynists who enable and even support and celebrate them. Misogynistic men - whether they actively, directly commit crimes against women, or are complicit, as part of a "boys' club" - refuse to see women as people, refuse to take responsibility, refuse to "have their fun ruined", and refuse to have their privilege challenged in any capacity. They think they are entitled to treat women like free-range meat to abuse, silence, and dispose of however they want - effectively erasing women's humanity - and, as 'Butterfly Girl' bitingly puts it, it's misogynistic men projecting their wish to have a mother they can also fuck, encouraged and normalised by the patriarchy - all in the comfort and security that they can (and, tragically, most often will) get away with it.
Because the system is fucked up and doesn't give a shit about women, and misogynists know this.
As 'Butterfly Girl' points out, and I can't believe this still needs to be said in 2025-2026: not being a rapist is the bare fucking minimum of being a decent human.
If thinking "hey, maybe rape is wrong" is the best you can muster in considering that women are, whaddaya know, people - and worse, if you remain loyal, supportive to and protective of men who are rapists, thanks to cognitive dissonance and distance, brownnosing to privilege, and thinking the whole issue doesn't affect you (it does) - and you still don't care about women and their rights, then here I am, about to burst your security bubble: you still possess misogynistic, bigoted tendencies, and you seriously need to do better.
Also consider that men, and people of all genders, can be raped, too.
Rethink your biases, standards and priorities; listen, open your mind, and expand your horizons, and finally wake up to how fucked up and wrong the patriarchal society truly is.
And while revenge is not the answer, and is a dark, dangerous slope, where there is always the risk of becoming no better than the monsters you slay, especially when you've been doing it for a long time, and have lost sight of your cause and eroded to numbness and cynicism in response to the nonstop conflict and senseless violence - you are the violence and threat now...plus it solves nothing and does nothing to challenge society's double standards and bridge or lessen division, and further the path to equality...the fantasy of retribution and punishment coming to those who definitely deserve it is an enticing and irresistible one, thanks to the real world, that continues to favour, coddle and pander to men, and leave women in the gutter and in bloody pieces, sometimes literally...
'Butterfly Girl' - proof that you shouldn't judge a book by its indie, self-published status, and its cover (sorry, but I think the art is ugly). Brilliant also that it assures you at the beginning that no AI whatsoever was used in its creation, to go along with its content/trigger warnings.
Some letdowns in its feminism, however, are its causal use of the word "bitch", and PMS as a punchline. And its open, ambiguous end might be setting up for a sequel...? But it's an effective end to a magical realism, magical girl standalone story, regardless.
Deliciously abundant in wonderfully real, three-dimensional, distinct, and gruesome female characters (my favourite might be Booboo the ace clown magical girl), and their indulgent, human vices, to go with the feminist rage and revenge theme, I recommend this scrappy little, cult magical girl novella.
Similar Magical GirlTM reads, varying in tone and subversion:
'Magica Riot' (another modern, indie, LBGTQ+ magical girl novel)
'magnifiqueNOIR' (ditto)
'Luna Express'
'Agents of the Realm'
'Sleepless Domain'
'Save Yourself!'
Also this:
'The Magical Girl's Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil, and Save the Day with Self-Care'
Ha! Just what the Butterfly Girls need.
Final Score (for 'Butterfly Girl'): 4/5
'Butterfly Girl' is not all pro-revenge, let alone pro-bloody revenge, and actions have consequences, no matter how tightknit a group of magical girl-friends - who support and protect each other as well as other women - are.
There are all kinds of POC and LBGTQA+ rep. The leader of the magical butterfly girl gang, Nana, is trans, although she is white and comes from an obscenely rich family, which is a privilege she gets called out on. The newest and more "peaceful" magical girl, Zuzu, who is no less passionate about feminism and justice (and who is, quite amusingly, introduced suddenly one hundred pages into the book, as already part of the gang), is Black. And practically nobody is straight: the POV narrator protagonist magical girl, Sabrina, aka "Riri" (who gets initiated and hazed forty pages in) is clearly questioning and attracted to Nana, her leader and "saviour".
There is no such thing as "woke" and never has been. It's a word made up and, in an insidious and intentional twist, turned into an insult by angry, bitter, bigoted, entitled, paranoid arsehole haters. Diverse stories have always existed, and people like the fictional characters in them have always existed, and as books and media such as 'Butterfly Girl' continue to demonstrate, it is always necessary, important and urgent to get the truth about the state of our world out there.
Storytelling is the most powerful of human resources. Storytelling and the spreading of messages can help protect women and girls - all women and girls - and show them they matter and they have a voice - in fact, this has been the case since the dawn of human civilisation. They can be used to remind us to hold men accountable for their actions.
Evil, predatory, criminal actions, performed by misogynists, who get away with them thanks to other misogynists who enable and even support and celebrate them. Misogynistic men - whether they actively, directly commit crimes against women, or are complicit, as part of a "boys' club" - refuse to see women as people, refuse to take responsibility, refuse to "have their fun ruined", and refuse to have their privilege challenged in any capacity. They think they are entitled to treat women like free-range meat to abuse, silence, and dispose of however they want - effectively erasing women's humanity - and, as 'Butterfly Girl' bitingly puts it, it's misogynistic men projecting their wish to have a mother they can also fuck, encouraged and normalised by the patriarchy - all in the comfort and security that they can (and, tragically, most often will) get away with it.
Because the system is fucked up and doesn't give a shit about women, and misogynists know this.
As 'Butterfly Girl' points out, and I can't believe this still needs to be said in 2025-2026: not being a rapist is the bare fucking minimum of being a decent human.
If thinking "hey, maybe rape is wrong" is the best you can muster in considering that women are, whaddaya know, people - and worse, if you remain loyal, supportive to and protective of men who are rapists, thanks to cognitive dissonance and distance, brownnosing to privilege, and thinking the whole issue doesn't affect you (it does) - and you still don't care about women and their rights, then here I am, about to burst your security bubble: you still possess misogynistic, bigoted tendencies, and you seriously need to do better.
Also consider that men, and people of all genders, can be raped, too.
Rethink your biases, standards and priorities; listen, open your mind, and expand your horizons, and finally wake up to how fucked up and wrong the patriarchal society truly is.
And while revenge is not the answer, and is a dark, dangerous slope, where there is always the risk of becoming no better than the monsters you slay, especially when you've been doing it for a long time, and have lost sight of your cause and eroded to numbness and cynicism in response to the nonstop conflict and senseless violence - you are the violence and threat now...plus it solves nothing and does nothing to challenge society's double standards and bridge or lessen division, and further the path to equality...the fantasy of retribution and punishment coming to those who definitely deserve it is an enticing and irresistible one, thanks to the real world, that continues to favour, coddle and pander to men, and leave women in the gutter and in bloody pieces, sometimes literally...
'Butterfly Girl' - proof that you shouldn't judge a book by its indie, self-published status, and its cover (sorry, but I think the art is ugly). Brilliant also that it assures you at the beginning that no AI whatsoever was used in its creation, to go along with its content/trigger warnings.
Some letdowns in its feminism, however, are its causal use of the word "bitch", and PMS as a punchline. And its open, ambiguous end might be setting up for a sequel...? But it's an effective end to a magical realism, magical girl standalone story, regardless.
Deliciously abundant in wonderfully real, three-dimensional, distinct, and gruesome female characters (my favourite might be Booboo the ace clown magical girl), and their indulgent, human vices, to go with the feminist rage and revenge theme, I recommend this scrappy little, cult magical girl novella.
Similar Magical GirlTM reads, varying in tone and subversion:
'Magica Riot' (another modern, indie, LBGTQ+ magical girl novel)
'magnifiqueNOIR' (ditto)
'Luna Express'
'Agents of the Realm'
'Sleepless Domain'
'Save Yourself!'
Also this:
'The Magical Girl's Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil, and Save the Day with Self-Care'
Ha! Just what the Butterfly Girls need.
Final Score (for 'Butterfly Girl'): 4/5
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