The book cover for The Butcher and The Butterfly made the first cut in the 2024 Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media Best Book Design for Fiction.
We graciously thank the fabulous Emmy Lowe for the beautiful and appropriate cover art.
Recent Reviews of The Butcher and the Butterfly have been positive:
…The story of a boxer and a dancer, their lives intertwined by a city that is known for chewing people up and spitting them out. Jim Antonini weaves a tale of regret, chaos, violence, alcohol, romance and redemption. It moves incredibly swiftly, with over 100 short, sweet chapters breaking the narrative into scenes you can easily imagine being played out on the silver screen. While there’s excellent character development and storytelling going on, it’s also a bleary-eyed love letter to New Orleans, and I found myself knee-deep in nostalgia for the sights and sounds of the French Quarter due to its lovingly detailed descriptions on these pages. There is a suspense and a sense of foreboding that builds throughout the book that stuck with me until the very last page. The potential for this to end in so many different ways was on the table right up to the last sentence, and I feel like that need to find out what happens to our fighter and our ballerina really had me burning through the last few chapters in fear, excitement and anticipation. That feeling of this thing being able to go completely off the rails kept me locked in, and I was lost in it for a bit… impressed that I was so engaged up until that last moment. It was a great ride. I’m suddenly feeling the need for some plane tickets to the big easy and nice comfy stool at the first dive bar I can find in the Quarter. Maybe the Erin Rose… – 5 STARS, Amazon Review, February 15, 2025
…The latest from Jim Antonini is set primarily in New Orleans. BIG RECOMMEND. Like his other books, you’ll be rooting for some pretty rough characters. I really appreciate his eye for detail. It’s easy to tell he gathered true anecdotes to fill out the very noir plot… – Greg Leatherman, February 27, 2025
…The Butcher and the Butterfly follows several lost souls looking for connection, reconciliation and purpose. Their physical wandering of the city in search of something — whether that be an escape, a brother, or a lover — serves as the perfect metaphor for the imbalance and uncertainty in their lives. It is a quest for something to latch on to beyond the careers, misery and hurt they’ve come to know all too well.
In the characters’ journeys, readers will be witness to the rich diversity of the people and the nightlife of New Orleans, as well as the gritty underside of this historic location. In fact, Jim Antonini’s story emerged from the smoky haze of afternoons spent with his late friend Noel Rockmore at a dive bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The setting of the story provides a special kind of realism, pulling the reader into the story and endearing them to the characters… – BookTrib, Feburary 10, 2025
…The novel’s pulpy sensibility wears its references on its sleeve. There’s a little bit of Bukowski, a dash of the classic detective noir, and an array of shameless boxing-story tropes that touch on everything from Rocky to Raging Bull—at one point a character screams, à la De Niro’s Jake La Motta, “Grrrrrrrr!…I’m not an animal! I’m a fuckin’ human being.” For fans of this genre, The Butcher and the Butterfly comes through… – Independent Book Review, January 10, 2025