ABOUT THE BOOK
BROKEN BUTTERFLY
Available Now
Reality can be far more surreal—and cruel—than fiction. This is the heart-wrenching true story of Erin Gray, who was lured, held hostage by, and eventually escaped from a serial predator. Broken Butterfly delves into horror-movie territory in this retelling of a young woman’s spiral into drug addiction after prolonged exposure to brutal physical, sexual, and mental torture. Told by her mother, Wanda Gray, this first-hand account follows Erin’s journey through violent trauma, complex PTSD, drug addiction, recovery, and relentless relapses.
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While retracing her daughter’s tragically cut-short young life, the author also reckons with herself as she tries, over and over, to help Erin recover and live a full life. Told in dual point of view, Broken Butterfly follows the twists and turns of two women navigating a dangerous and terrifying road fraught with trauma, loss, and grief. Yet this cautionary tale is also full of hope and a celebration of Erin. Inspired by her daughter to write this profoundly personal memoir, Gray shares the ups and downs, fleeting triumphs and naive mistakes, and overwhelming joy and devastation.
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Parts elegy, true-crime chronicle, and self-help manual, Broken Butterfly removes the stigma from drug addiction, reminds those suffering through similar experiences that they are not alone, and provides practical resources for support amid a growing global drug-addiction crisis. It’s also a love letter to Erin Gray, the guiding light who helped write this book in spirit.
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Broken Butterfly is now available for sale from these and other major retailers online.
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What readers are saying
REVIEWS
Broken Butterfly is a powerful and emotionally charged memoir that offers a compelling and insightful look into the lives of Wanda and Erin Gray. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love, even in the face of overwhelming adversity. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of addiction, mental health, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.
—Jacqueline R. Armour, Ph.D.
On reading Broken Butterfly, I was indeed filled with a sense of understanding that the author’s account of the tragic months in this story was replete with Aristotle’s ingredients of a writer of tragedy. There are large measures of pity and fear for the reader, and even more so for the characters who bore the burden of carrying the action which ended in such a disastrous manner. The author’s writing showed clearly the deep love between mother and daughter. One is left to be consoled by the thought that there is life after death and yet, as written in the old Latin tag, “Dum spiro, spero” [While I breathe, I hope]. Indeterminate origin, (Wikipedia, 2025).
—D.S. Myall, English Teacher Extraordinaire
This book is an amazing story of undying love; of despicable, merciless cruelty; and of the complexities of addiction, which is shown to be far more than a simple brain disease caused by using addictive drugs. The author writes both in her own voice as a bereaved mother, and in the voice of her deceased daughter. Both voices speak of the dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship full both of steadfast love and of painful ambivalence and misunderstanding.
—Bruce K. Alexander, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, author of The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Erin adored animals—and then she met a beast. How can anyone understand a mother's pain from watching helplessly as a monster slowly pulls the wings from a butterfly? In this chilling recollection of anguish and perseverance, Wanda Gray recounts what she felt—and with excerpts of Erin's diary—how her daughter felt, at the hands of a brute. Broken Butterfly is both a heartbreaking story of a mother's unstoppable love for her daughter and the gripping tale of two tremendously courageous women.
—Mark Brennae, Capital Daily