This book is completely gripping. I felt like I was entering a apparent time of sleepiness, where everything moved slowly. Characters are introduced and the dynamics within the household are established. There are complex webs of relationships and a mentally disturbed Lizzie. The brutality of the murders shake this picture of lace curtains and religiosity. The book is gripping and gives an admirable depiction of the great unsolved mystery of Lizzie Borden and her family in the 19th century.

This is an excellent and utterly unique novel that is sure to top the book charts! The authors writing is amazing, you are bound to sucked into this novel due to the nature of the plot, and are going to be gripping the pages for hours. Have you heard of Lizzie Borden? Most have. And if that tale intrigues you than this book is a must have!

Note: My full review of this novel will be posted on all retailers including my blog, closer to release date at the request of the publisher. Thank you!

Review at goodreads

I've long been interested in the story of Lizzi Borden, so I jumped at the chance to read this novel.
The structure takes a little getting used to; the story is told from multiple viewpoints and therefore jumps backwards and forwards in time.

As much as I wanted to love this book it lost momentum for me about a third of the way in and I found myself reluctant to return to it. It began to feel too claustrophobic and repetitive and I was willing something to happen, beyond the seemingly endless consumption of pears.

Undoubtedly the writing is good and I really enjoyed the backstories of Bridget the maid and Benjamin, a petty criminal who plays a minor role. Sadly though, these occasional highlights weren't enough to save the book as a whole.

In 1892 in Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were murdered. Lizzie was arrested for the crime but was later acquitted. The book is told from several points of view so it is a fascinating way to get more than one point of view. Sarah Schmidt has taken a well known crime and re imagined it into a fast paced mystery. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I'm floating between a two and three star rating for this book. The premise sounded interesting, and I was initially very excited to dive into this novel. In terms of overall feel and tone, the writing was descriptive and detailed. It was easy to imagine the sensory details of the surroundings- the cold mutton broth, the sickly sweet pear juice, the sickening atmosphere of the Borden household. I feel like the plot has so much potential, but the scattered quality of the plot development ultimately left me feeling like I was reading a rough draft. I never felt compelled to keep reading, and would not have been bothered had I abandoned the novel and not ever found out how it all ended. It was absent of any tension and suspense that would drive movement. On top of this, I couldn't even bring myself to care about any of the characters.

I was particularly bothered by the lack of character development in this novel. All of them seem to remain fairly static in behavior and fail to demonstrate or attain any insight into their situations. Emma is perpetually unhappy with her family, Lizzie is an oddball, Benjamin is...fairly pointless to the whole story. It felt like Schmidt scratched the surface, but failed to delve more deeply into the few parts of the plot that I found interesting. For example, Emma and Lizzie's childhood relationship to one another (Lizzie and Emma being the same 'I') seemed disturbing and dysfunctional, and I would have loved to have more information about how this relationship affected the sisters in their adult lives.

Voice bothered me, as well. Each character's voice seemed to be interchangeable with all of the others. Additionally, the voices did not seem to be consummate with the character's age or developmental level. Most noticeable to me was Lizzie's voice. Her character reads like an angsty preteen at best, but certainly does not sound like an adult woman in her thirties. Again, maybe there's something in this, but Schmidt failed to make that clear to the reader.

I was also struck by Schmidt's use of an unreliable narrator in the form of Lizzie. Whatever unreliability is established is obliterated by the fact that she offers up three other RELIABLE viewpoints. The reader doesn't have to do any guesswork and there really is no mystery to it all.

I wanted to like this book, I really truly did. It just fell short in one too many ways for me.

What a thrilling combination of crime/mystery and historical fiction!! Loved the writing and the story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

For some reason, I thought this was going to be a modern interpretation of this story. Because I went into the book thinking that was what was ahead of me, I think I was disappointed.

The chapters were not only from different characters perspectives, but also jumped around a bit in time.

I was excited to read this book, but sadly, never got super invested.

Such a fun book. Juicy pears, bone and blood splatter. All the descriptions will keep you engage in this story. I never had the urge to put the book down. Even if your slightly familiar with the book you still want to know what happened, how and why. This book walks you through some very logical answers.

Reading this book as seen per person was almost as good as a fly on the wall. You can't see what happens before it happens but you just get a feeling about what may happen but, then again no you don't really know.

You wonder the severity of the crime if it was really accomplished by one person. If due to the violent strikes if it was the result of a dispute. You also wonder how noone could have heard anything? How long did it take from start to finish? How could a women have carried out such a extraordinary task times two?

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in return for a review.

A re-imagining of a true story (one that I am aware of, but only superficially) always seems to be to be a hard sell.Speculation about the crimes still continues more than 100 years later, and is easily searchable on the internet. Yet Sarah Schmidt carries off an amazing tale that sucked me in to its claustrophobic grasp and I had to prise my way out of its clutches as I read the final words.

All is not well in the Borden house, that much is clear. Doors are kept locked, secrets kept hidden, and emotions are frowned upon. The story is told from the viewpoint of Lizzie, Emma, Bridget the maid, and Benjamin the boy who saw too much.

Bridget and Benjamin's narrative offers speculation that there is more at play and other potential suspects and that nothing is straightforward in this case.

Lizzie's voice is a tangled web of heightened emotions and wild, vicious thoughts. She is a marvellous unreliable narrator; her thoughts flit between dream and reality and her rebelling against the constrictive existence in her home, and, in part, of the time she is alive.
She is sensual and lives for pleasure, entirely selfish, she rails against anyone who stifles her pleasure seeking. She is also manipulative and knows how to make herself the centre of attention.

Lizzie is the obvious choice for murderer and Sarah Schmidt doesn't try to contradict this. Lizzie often imagines killing her father and has violent thoughts. However, there are other suspects presented in this story, and nothing is clear cut.

Emma, her sister, has a more resigned voice. She lives under the burden of her mothers dying wish to watch over Lizzie, whilst Lizzie is permitted freedoms and privileges she can only dream of. She has reason to hate her father who kept her confined to the house, having realised that time is no longer on her side, and at 42 her chance at living the life she dreamed of is gone.

The sibling rivalry between the two is summed up perfectly by Emma who recognises the game that she and Lizzie play, the eternal pushing and pulling between the pair, but knows that Lizzie will always come out on top. There is also fierce love between the sisters. Emma knows that she will always accept Lizzie without hesitation, and Lizzie is desperate for her sisters love and protection.
It was almost heartbreaking to read the relationship between the pair. Emma feels that she wished Lizzie into existence and treated her like a doll. It clearly came as a shock when Lizzie no longer behaved as Emma expected. Lizzie reacts to Emma as a hybrid mother-sister and becomes very childlike in her presence, forcing Emma into a parental role.
It is this relationship that is the real backbone of the book and became more intriguing to me than the murders.

The language and imagery throughout the book is powerful. Recurrent bird imagery reflects the sisters life. The eating of the pears hints at actions and thoughts not made explicit. The oppressive heat was almost tangible, and the smell of the mutton strew had me retching.

The phrase "See What I Have Done" could apply to any one of the characters in this book, and I think that there will be lots of different viewpoints and discussions when this book is released.

I'd never heard of Lizzie Borden before I read about this book. The topic instantly grabbed me, and I knew I had to have it. I was crossing my fingers every time I searched for it on NetGalley, and, lo and behold, it came up. And I was approved!

I love a good historical fiction, particularly one based on a true story. Lizzie Borden is famous (or infamous) for being acquitted for the murders of her father and step-mother in 1892. Told from the perspectives of Bridget the maid, a troubled young man called Benjamin, Emma the eldest daughter, and Lizzie herself, we're thrown into a whirlwind of a whodunit.

There's clearly something very strange about the Borden family. Lizzie is in her thirties, Emma in her forties, and neither of them have ever married or moved away from their childhood home. Emma, the eldest, gave up a large part of her life to care for Lizzie, when they were left motherless after their mum died. Their father married Abby a few years later, and it seems the sisters made a decision to never love their stepmother.

There are also clear signs of abuse. Andrew Borden is often violent and quick to anger, and Lizzie too has a fiery temper. Emma has escaped to her friend's house when the murders occur, and is dragged back by the tragedy. You can almost feel her desperation to cling on to her freedom. It's Emma who I identify with the most: the eldest daughter, older by a fair few years, forced to give up childhood and become a parental figure.

See What I Have Done is full of secrets, and Schmidt doesn't give them up easily. This is a triumphant debut, wonderfully written and well-researched (Schmidt stayed in the Borden house while writing this book, which is actually now a creepy hotel!). Lizzie Borden dug her claws into me and didn't let go until the very final page.

See What I Have Done is due out in May 2017, and you really don't want to miss it.

(Review will be published on 21/04 at the following link: https://dracarya.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/see-what-i-have-done-by-sarah-schmidt)

Most people are familiar with the case of Lizzie Borden. In 1892 in Fall River Massachusetts, Lizzie's father and stepmother were brutally murdered in their home with an ax. Andrew was found lying down on the couch in the sitting room, murdered while napping. Abby was found in the upstairs guest room face down on the floor. The murders shocked the whole town and Lizzie was soon under suspicion. The house was always locked from the inside and there were no signs of forced entry. The only other people in the home at the time of the murders were Lizzie and their maid Bridget. The murder weapon was suspected to be found, however it could never be 100% proven that it was the actual ax used in the killings. Lizzie was tried and acquitted of the crime, however she lived under a cloud of suspicion for the rest of her life.

The premise of this book was intriguing to me and the first half did not disappoint. I think any unsolved crime, especially one so brutal, interests people greatly. There were interesting details I had not heard before. The family was apparently very stomach sick in the days leading up to the murders. The suspected cause was mutton broth which was repeatedly reheated and thought to have spoiled. This was mentioned so much in the book it actually started to make me nauseous. The thick brown broth constantly being eaten day after day while just sitting out on the stove was so disgusting to me. I'll be happy to never hear the words mutton broth again. The family also had a visitor for a couple days during the time of the murders, although he was out of the house during the killings. Lizzie's uncle John (her mother's brother) was paying a visit and discussing business with Andrew.

The book was told from alternating viewpoints. Each chapter was told from the perspective of Lizzie, Bridget, Emma (Lizzie's sister), and Benjamin (Uncle John's friend). Towards the second half of the book I started to get tired of the atmosphere. The whole book takes place within 3 days. Bridget is so miserable and wants to go back to her home in Ireland so badly, it was very depressing to read her chapters. The constant talk of stagnant air, reheated mutton broth, such close quarters, hot breath, stomach sickness, I could go on and on. It turned very dark and depressing for me and made me not want to revisit the story. The trial wasn't covered at all and the ending was a little unresolved much like the murders themselves.

Boy, I struggled with this one. At first I thought it was because I am not very used to Historical Fiction and the little I read the prose was not quite so lyrical and random, so I took it as a challenge to read something different and try to enjoy it. However, the more I read the less invested I felt.

I have read quite a lot of books where the narrative jumps back and forth and if done well it adds a new dimension to the story and I feel very involved in it, wanting to know what happened both back then and present day. But here it was just confusing. There are a lot of flashbacks in the middle of chapters so even when they were dated I never knew what was going on or when. One minute a character is having a pretty straight thought, then she thinks of something else and there's paragraphs and paragraphs of that and by the time that was done I had to really make an effort to remember what she was doing before and catch the thread of the narrative again.

The prose could be absolutely enthralling. Some descriptions were extremely vivid, reaching out to all our five senses and making me feel like I was there. On a couple of occasions where things got pretty gross I was actually sick to my stomach. But good writing is just not enough when nothing much seems to happen and it gets really tiring after a while. Sure, the characters were peculiar and the writing was very good, but after a while that is just not enough.

To this day I don't get why people kept eating a stew that was obviously spoiled. It felt like they had it for days but then again maybe it was just that one day.

And the worst part is I could not even get closure. The more the book approached the end the more enigmatic and riddled with innuendo the prose got. (view spoiler)

I was extremely disappointed at See What I Have Done. I do think others will enjoy it if they are okay with this prose and not getting closure at the end of the book. It's one of those I classify under read it for the journey, not the destination, although I am sure even the ending will please folks who love lyrical writing.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this book just wasn't a good fit for me. I struggled to get to grips with the story, the 'pre' felt too long as rambling, the 'post' far to short and unexplored, and the end just came out of the blue and seemingly answered nothing. The descriptions of the setting seemed to focus endlessly on the stifling heat, rotten smells and sticky pears - and the endless talk of rotten mutton stew was really repetitive.

Im sure it will be enjoyed by many, and good luck with the release - I just didn't enjoy it i'm afraid.

Having grown up in Massachusetts, I learned very young the Lizzie Borden song. We use to sing this as kids while having absolutely no knowledge of who Lizzie Borden was, or why there was a song.
The song for those who don't know....
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother 40 whacks
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41

As I got older, I thought the story was based on an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with no factual basis. Only into adulthood did I learn this was an actual murder. So when I saw this book on Netgalley, I was intrigued and was anxious to read it. What really surprised me is that I was 5 years old in 1962 when we were singing this song, 70 years after this landmark murder and kids are still singing the little rhyme/song.

I loved the book. The writing is exceptional. The author did a fantastic job of making the reader understand that Lizzie was more than just a little off. The chapters are told in several alternating voices; Lizzie, her sister Emma, the maid Bridget, Lizzie and Emma's Uncle John, and a mysterious person that adds a twist to the story. All of the characters are well developed and the reader gets invested in each character whether they are like able or not.

The book was just long enough to get the story told and wasn't drug out, which has been the case with so many books I've read lately. I was enthralled from the first chapter and couldn't put the book down. There is an event timeline at the end of the book for review.

Big thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A slightly creepy account of the historical fiction surrounding the life of Lizzie Borden. Written in an atmospheric manner that puts one inside Lizzie's head, this interpretation of what led up to the horrific events on that fateful day leaves readers not just a bit unsettled. Fans of Hannah Kent's 'Burial Rites' should give this one a read.

I love me some true crime. The case of Lizzie Borden fascinates me & is something I've looked up before. It was interesting to read from not only Lizzie's point of view, but of other key players as well. This book is extremely well written & so worth the read!

This was a complimentary electronic galley from NetGalley.

I became very excited when I saw their was a new novel coming out this year about Lizzie Borden, and HAD to read it--grateful for getting a copy from NetGalley! It seems gruesome that I'd be interested in this story, but I've always watched any documentaries I've seen about the murders and unsolved mystery shows. Maybe because the rhyme is ingrained in most American's psyches. And even though these shows and the many articles written about the murders are quick to point put the Borden's were not killed with 40 swings of an axe, I think any axe whack over 1 is pretty much excessive and very angry! Interestingly, I have never read any book, fact or fiction, based on the murders.

I guess there is no need for a spoiler alert here since we all know what happened. Mr and Mrs Borden--Lizzie's father and stepmother--were found murdered one hot summer morning. Sarah Schmidt does a good job here with not only giving us all the available information, but presenting it in an interesting way, and even injecting an additional air of mystery via a fictional character, Benjamin, a murderous drifter who may have been hired by John Morse (Lizzie's uncle and the brother of her deceased mother) to actually kill the Andrew and Abby Borden. The Borden household was tense: Lizzie is portrayed as a spoiled, often unhappy young woman, annoyed that her father who though wealthy was so frugal; she seems to have had issues with everyone else in the household, from her stepmother, and her sister, to the Irish maid. They did not live in the very best part of town where other businessmen i stalled their families, but in a more mixed socioeconomic area. Lizzie's uncle was staying with them the day that the murders occurred. There's lots of room for other suspects, including Uncle John, complete strangers robbing the home, and someone with an axe to grind (excuse the expression!) with Andrew Borden, a tough businessman. But the excess of the whacks points to someone who really felt passionate about what they were doing, and Lizzie was mostly alone in the house with Abby that day, and certainly had opportunity.

So Benjamin is the fly on the wall in the story, but he isn't innocent or "good" or unbiased; he's almost another aspect of Lizzie, hiding outside in the barn loft, watching and waiting. Schmidt tells the story with an almost teasing air, making you think that it is possible someone else may have committed this horrible act. Most of the evidence against Lizzie was circumstantial, and while people hated to think she had done this, it put people's minds at ease that a deranged homicidal killer was NOT lurking about breaking into homes randomly, although Benjamin is the foil for that theory.

AN interesting and well written, fast paced historical fiction, if you have ever had an interest in the Bordens, this is a book you'll want to try. Part thriller, part physiological study, part fictional memoir, part historical fiction, there's something here to appeal to most anyone.

I loved the premise for See What I Have Done. The Lizzie Borden case fascinates American readers just as Jack the Ripper fascinates English ones. Sarah Schmidt's novel is a fictionalised account of what transpired in the Borden home one day in August 1892. According to Lizzie Borden her father and stepmother were brutally murdered and mutilated with an axe by an unknown intruder. When no signs of a break in were found Lizzie herself was accused of the killing but was sensationally acquitted by a jury of men who didn't believe a woman was capable of such a horrendous act.

It is a very atmospheric read, which is in its favour, and the characterisation is strong. However, I did not enjoy the many different points of view or time ,frame switches, which made the novel hard to follow hence I have given it only three stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for the opportunity to read and review the novel.

This book proved to be a little gem and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I tore through it in a just a matter of days.

The writing is great and drew me into the story, Sarah Schmidt invoked to me a sense of claustrophobia in the Borden household and a menacing atmosphere with her writing.

After reading the book, I immediately jumped onto the web to find out more about Lizzy and her crimes.