Suitabook

The fall of butterflies

Andrea Portes

Reading: Consider reading alongside the young person, checking in after passages involving suicidal thoughts, depression or drugs. Discuss the friendship’s boundaries and the contrast between Willa’s humour and the story’s increasingly serious direction.
Themes: Belonging across social worlds: Willa moves from Iowa to an exclusive school and sees Remy as a route into an unfamiliar, wealthy world. The contrast appears to value Willa’s distinct perspective while also showing the attraction and social power of Remy’s world.
Intense friendship and responsibility: Willa and Remy form a close connection, while Remy’s behaviour becomes increasingly out of control and Willa feels her slipping away. The friendship is presented as meaningful and emotionally sustaining, but also consuming and dangerous when one person’s needs dominate.
Addiction and change: Drug use and addiction are identified as central to Remy’s situation, with her privileged surroundings described as potentially enabling her decline. The treatment frames addiction as insidious and trapping rather than harmless glamour, although the surrounding wealth is part of the attraction and setting.
Worth knowing: Give particular thought to the treatment of suicidal thoughts and depression, drug use and addiction, and an intense friendship involving self-destructive behaviour. The humour and glamour may sit beside painful or tragic material.