Juan Pablo’s life is comfortable. He lives in a small town in Mexico with his abuela, his best friend Rocio and her abuelo. Thanks to Khan Academy, he’s ahead of the game academically, but his abuela also provides him with a unique education. Through her, he learns about the different healing powers that the earth provides and how the Sky People help us in difficult times. Within a day, everything changes. His town is raided by a drug cartel and his abuela and Rocio’s abuelo both suddenly die. He’s in a “do or die” situation. He and Rocio are forced to go on the run with the leader of the drug cartel right behind them. Their leader? The butterflies.

First of all, let’s take a moment to appreciate the beautiful cover of JUAN PABLO AND THE BUTTERFLIES. It’s so simple, yet so intriguing and honestly the main reason I was so interested in reading this book. This is J.J. Flowers’ first novel and, unfortunately, you can tell. While it has a promising plot, JUAN PABLO AND THE BUTTERFLIES failed to deliver.

"JUAN PABLO AND THE BUTTERFLIES did a fantastic job at showing circumstances that can lead to undocumented immigrants coming to the United States."

Characters are a big deal in any plot. Without trusted characters, the whole story falls through. Juan Pablo had a lot of great characteristics to him. He’s creative, passionate about art and questions common ideas of philosophy. With Rocio, there was almost no depth. I know nothing about her except that she’s Juan Pablo’s supposed love interest. However, while it was obvious that Juan Pablo and Rocio liked each other as more than just friends, there was no real development that would have indicated that they also loved each other romantically.

Also, I don’t remember Juan Pablo or Rocio’s age. If it was mentioned, I don’t remember it and at times when their age could’ve been mentioned, it wasn’t. I found it really hard to imagine them because of it. Sometimes they were acting like mature 17-year-olds and other times they could’ve been 10.

One of the biggest problems that I had was the story seemed so unrealistic, but not in the way you think. Unfortunately, that are countless situations like Juan Pablo’s happening right now in Mexico. Of course, this is not a reflection of the citizens of Mexico but rather how poverty affects communities. Still, Juan Pablo and Rocio’s journey seemed ridiculous. To name a few events, they hiked across a desert, sailed part of the ocean and went on a cruise.

Still, JUAN PABLO AND THE BUTTERFLIES did a fantastic job at showing circumstances that can lead to undocumented immigrants coming to the United States. Juan Pablo and Rocio were escaping life threatening circumstances and were simply looking for a safe place. The foster system for undocumented children was also highlighted, something that I wasn’t even aware of.

All in all, JUAN PABLO AND THE BUTTERFLIES has its flaws but also shows promises for J.J. Flower’s future work.