The Butterfly Effect

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by Rachel Mans McKenny


  Max stood on a bench near the center of the butterfly house. He wore his best suit. The fact that she was dating a man and knew him well enough to guess his best suit felt like a good sign. The fact that he was taking a year in another state and she hadn’t jumped ship felt like a better one. He glanced down at Greta from atop the bench. The rest of the group gathered along the path around him, with Meg and Danny squeezing through to the center spots. Max cleared his throat. “Right. Okay, so we’ll begin.”

  Max read from the sheet that came with his minister’s license, freshly e-mailed to him last week. When it came time for the main event, the couple repeated their vows. Greta noticed Meg’s voice shook, but Danny’s hands shook in hers and Greta had to figure somehow their combined unsteadiness balanced out.

  Greta liked a wedding with this few people. Danny had been nervous about a crowded wedding. They would have a brunch later with a few more friends, but he asked Meg for a simple ceremony. Instead of clambering guests, plants lined the paths like sentinels, and the dome rose above them in giant hexagonal tiles of glass. But it wasn’t perfect—not just yet.

  It wasn’t fireworks, no, but what it was made Leanne and Ginger gasp. The sudden awakening of three hundred butterflies as the sun began to warm the dome of the butterfly wing. They rose from the crevices—the rocks, the floor, the greenery, and started swooping, drinking in the sunlight. Greta could picture what Danny meant about colors and music, about colors living. Maybe it was because it was her brother’s wedding day, and maybe it was because she finally felt at home, but tears pricked her eyes. “Told you,” Greta said. “I told you. You need to be there for the morning.”

  READING GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  The epigraph of this novel asks if a love of insects can make a difference in the world. Did reading about someone who studied and loved bugs change any of your impressions of them? Is there anything that other people might find strange or unusual that is central to your worldview?

  Greta and Danny are twins but see the world—literally and figuratively—in very different ways. Who are you more like? Why?

  Greta’s independence and passion for her work define her as a character. Do Greta’s priorities change as she becomes one of Danny’s caretakers? If so, how?

  Meg and Danny start their relationship while Meg is still engaged to someone else. Martha leaves partly because of her relationship with another man. Greta finds herself still attracted to her ex-boyfriend Brandon. One of the book’s major themes is faithfulness—or the lack thereof. Do you think any of the characters are redeemable considering their actions? What’s the line with cheating? Is it black and white or shades of gray?

  Throughout the novel, many characters look for help in formal support groups. In what ways can formal support groups be different from support from friends? How do you think Greta benefitted from these relationships in the novel, if at all?

  Greta and Meg butt heads throughout the book, most obviously because Greta distrusts Meg for her infidelity. By the end, Greta accepts Meg back into her life for the sake of her twin brother, Danny, but they never speak again about how Danny was the other guy in Meg’s first engagement. How do you think Greta’s attitude toward Meg has changed and/or stayed the same?

  Greta and Max’s relationship changes over the course of the novel. If Greta hadn’t been forced to return home from Costa Rica, do you think this change would have happened? Why or why not?

  Despite Greta’s protestations, she does bear similar tangible and intangible traits to Martha. In what ways are Greta and Martha similar? Have you ever butted heads with your own parents? In what ways have you been able to find common ground with them?

  The butterfly effect states that small actions can have outsized consequences. What are some actions that radically change the courses of characters’ lives in this novel? Do you believe in the butterfly effect? Why or why not?

  From whose perspective would you want to see this story retold: Danny, Meg, Max, Martha, or someone else? What do you think that version of events might have added to the narrative?

  AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

  Rachel Mans McKenny is a Midwestern writer and humorist, recently published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Scary Mommy, McSweeney’s, and other outlets. The Butterfly Effect is her first novel.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Rachel Mans McKenny

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Alcove Press, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.

  Alcove Press and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.

  Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.

  ISBN (paperback): 978-1-64385-529-5

  ISBN (ebook): 978-1-64385-530-1

  Cover illustration by Celeste Knudsen

  Printed in the United States.

  www.alcovepress.com

  Alcove Press

  34 West 27th St., 10th Floor

  New York, NY 10001

  First Edition: December 2020

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