See What I Have Done

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
~Leo Tolstoy

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, Sarah Schmidt's debut novel, examines one of the most infamous true crimes in American history: the axe murders of Andrew and Abigail "Abby" Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts on August 4, 1892. Andrew's younger daughter Lizzie was charged and tried for the murders of her father and her step-mother. Schmidt's literary historical thriller is a superb work of realism and naturalism, filled with the kind of details which can lead the reader to learn what actually happened at 230 2nd Street that sweltering summer day. The novel starts with a vengeance, with Lizzie, in the first person, yelling, "Someone's killed Father."

The story unfolds in chronological order, but Schmidt also uses reverse chronology so that the reader can know which events lead up to the murders. Our unreliable narrators, and potential suspects, are, in alternating chapters, four characters: Lizzie (32), Emma Borden (41), Lizzie's sister, Bridget Sullivan (26), the Borden's Irish maid, and Benjamin, a man who has come to Fall River at the behest of someone close to the Borden family. Lizzie is clearly an unstable child-woman still trying to please her father and her step-mother, but also misbehaving and acting in a suspicious manner. Emma has spent her life taking care of her troubled younger sister, giving up any chance of love and marriage, and an escape from her father's gloomy and parsimonious household.

There have been times when Lizzie was away from home that I nursed absence. Always two ways of feeling: relief and loneliness.

Bridget is one of all "the Bridget's," young Irish women who fled Ireland during the 19th century famines and came to work as domestics in the United States. She is overworked and underpaid, and privy to nearly all details of the Borden household. There was a great deal of anti-Catholic nativism occurring in the United States, so Bridget would have been suspected simply for being an Irish immigrant. Benjamin is a mystery man and, perhaps, a dark horse. Could he be the person who broke into the home and stole some mementos a year before?

The novel's pacing, too, depicts the excitement, the horror and the tedium which happens in every crime investigation--and in every unhappy family. The plot evolves firmly from accurate historical accounts of the Borden family, the crimes, and the subsequent trial. The author knows that the devil is in the details. Andrew Borden is wealthy yet frugal. He is sparing with his love as well. Emma and Lizzie are two adult daughters living at home, spinsters in a time when middle-class women were married and living with husbands and children in their own homes. Abby is Andrew's second wife, and her relationship with her step-daughters is difficult. There are too many hens and impotence rules the roost. Money could easily have been the main motive, but the ever-present tension in the household could have driven someone to murder.

Yet, of course, this is a work of fiction, of literary fiction and of crime fiction. Schmidt's lyrical and beautiful prose captures both the striking and the mundane which occur before, during and after the murders. Her powerful interpretation of these people and events is fueled by a deep understanding of how petty conflicts and co-dependence accumulate until there is a need for some sort of resolution, release and relief. Unfortunately for Andrew and Abby, the catharsis resulted in their deaths.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE is an extraordinary novel which shines light on the iconic crime, the darkness within families and the human soul, and the banality of evil. Sarah Schmidt is a gifted and intelligent writer. She is a major new talent, and I await her next novel eagerly.

Highly Recommended.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this novel through NetGalley. SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE was published in the United States on August 1, 2017. SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE UK

See What I Have DoneSee What I Have Done

Well hello there, Sarah Schmidt. I love it when a debut novel really nails it. See What I Have Done is one of my most highly anticipated reads for the year. I've always been absolutely fascinated with Lizzie Borden and couldn't wait to read a fictionalized account of her story. I didn't know if it was going to deal with the events leading up to the murders, the murder itself, or the trial that took place thereafter, but I didn't mind going in relatively blind. I was pleased that it really covered a little of everything, but focused mainly on the events that happened in the days leading up to and after the murder. The story is told from 4 different perspectives: Emma, the older sister, Bridget, the Irish Maid, Benjamin, a stranger with nefarious intentions, and Lizzie herself.

The writing was so evocative! There's a lot of imagery (specifically, food and smell imagery. That damn mutton soup!)  It was a slow burn and the story took me a bit to get into, but Schmidt had my full attention when she began to describe the state of the bodies. This book is not for the faint of heart. When I'm faced with gruesome imagery, it surprises me and makes me laugh. (Like, ahh very good author- you got me!) I had that feeling several times throughout this book. That said, if you are not into gore, you should probably skip this one. It was a very atmospheric story, and I am typically not one for "flowery" writing. I like character development and solid plot, and I want you to describe what's going on to me clearly, thank you. However, because of the 4 differing viewpoints, the author got a chance to really play with style without sacrificing the story. Emma was the most straightforward character; she is an older sister who is beholden  to her needy younger sister, Lizzie. Lizzie wants nothing more than the entirety of Emma's love: "I thought about..stalking into Emma's bed like the moon and lying by her side, growing tentacles and wrapping them around her until our breathing matched." Yeah. Lizzie is definitely creepy. 

Emma's chapters are often really sad, both because her parents have been murdered and because she knows this now means she'll never get away from her burdensome sister.  Lizzie's chapters creeped me out the most. Her narrative feels cloudy and anxious. I thought it was genius how the author played with words to get Lizzie's madness across. "I wanted to feel better. I forced my fingers onto my arms and forced them to march like ants". There was definitely something off with her and I have no trouble believing this character could have murdered her parents. 

The maid, Bridget, who "did things and did things", is the voice of reason. She sees the family members for who they really are... and she wants out. She's been saving up her earnings for a trip back home, but when Mrs. Borden finds out, she steals her money. She's at least 10 years younger than Lizzie, the youngest Borden, but she often seems like the only adult in the room. She is a maid who emigrated to America from Ireland with the hopes of earning her own way and chasing the American Dream, and I really enjoyed reading about the pains she went through and the sacrifices she made to get to the U.S. 

Benjamin is a man that's hired by the girls' uncle to teach their father a lesson. He ends up getting inside the home and ends up having a very interesting perspective on the murders. He gives me a real droog from Clockwork Orange vibe. I really enjoyed his addition to the story, as it gave us another angle to consider. 

Overall, I found this to be a quite enjoyable read. We are given a real timeline of events at the end, and it seems like the author followed the actual events very closely. It's fiction but it sounded like a reasonable explanation for the unsolved case to me. I do wish we could have gotten more information about what happened during the trial, but I still feel like we were given a resolution to the story. The characters were well fleshed out and complex and I walked away feeling like I had a good sense as to the type of people the Bordens were.  I think this could make a very disturbing HBO adaptation, a la Big Little Lies. Read her dedications, seriously. Especially the part dedicated to Lizzie... 

Lizzie Borden took an axe; And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done; She gave her father 41.

So goes the popular children’s skipping-rope rhyme, based on the real case of the 1892 unsolved murder of Lizzie Borden’s father and step-mother, albeit with a total of 29 whacks with an axe rather than 81 purported in the jingle. Lizzie Borden was identified as the prime suspect within days of the crime. She was later famously acquitted in the 1893 double murder trial, based on a lack of direct evidence and likely a belief that a woman could not possibly have committed such a horrendous act.

Sarah Schmidt has breathed new life into this case with her fictional account, based on extensive research, of the time surrounding the murders.

And ooh it was good!

The Borden’s were a well known and wealthy family in Fall River, Massachusetts, where Andrew lived with his second wife Abby and his two unmarried adult daughters, Emma the eldest, and Lizzie, nine years her junior. The sisters had a tense, icy relationship with their stepmother, who married their father when Lizzie was only three years old. Andrew was unpredictable, distant and violent at times, and Emma resented the favouritism he directed towards Lizzie as they were growing up.

The other resident was Bridget, the family’s 26-year-old Irish maid who show obvious discomfort when witnessing altercations between family members. Her voice was perhaps the only trustworthy one in the book, as she played quiet witness to the Borden’s dysfunctional relationships.

The best, but also the most disturbing, part of this book for me was the portrayal of Lizzie’s character and her relationship with Emma – this is one character I won’t forget in a hurry! Lizzie is one of the most manipulative characters I have read; she was cruel, she lied, she didn’t have a conscious or any sense of empathy, and was just so childish. It was near impossible to remember whilst reading this book that she was a grown woman, 32 years old, when these murders took place. In my mind’s eye she was a selfish eight year old brat.

Lizzie had a pathological dependence on Emma, who smothered her younger sister whenever she demanded attention and love. There was strong dislike, anger and resentment between the two, and Emma longed to leave the family home to establish a life of her own. She was unable to escape the clutches of her sister, however, who would use guilt magnificently to coerce her to stay. Disagreements between the two would often result in Emma holding Lizzie and stroking her hair, promising to always love her and never leave her, much like a mother soothing an upset toddler.

The book was incredibly atmospheric, in a dark, tense and uncomfortable way. Schmidt’s use of all five senses to evoke a strong sense of the scene was masterful, although not always pleasant for the reader. The mysterious illness that struck selected members of the household in the time leading up to the murders raised suspicions of poisoning, and gave opportunity for frequent and vivid descriptions of the days-old mutton broth sitting in the kitchen, and the end result of many upset stomachs.

The writing was suburb; tight and evocative. The narrative was told from the point-of-view of four characters and moved between events of the past and the present, which was easy to follow.

See What I Have Done is a captivating reimagining of the time surrounding a true, and quite horrendous, crime, with one truly fascinating and unforgettable character.

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy true crime or crime/ thriller fiction, or if you find disturbing characters and relationships intriguing to read about!

[2.5 stars]

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

I love books about crime. I love fiction based on real people and/or events. I love books about dysfunctional families. See What I Have Done is all of these things, but I didn’t love it. Most of the story centers around the Borden family dynamics (each family member has their own motives to have possibly killed Abby and Andrew Borden) and the days immediately following the murders. Oddly for a story involving crime and a dysfunctional family, it moved slowly and I got bored around the 40-50% mark. I kept expecting things to move along to Lizzie’s arrest and the subsequent trial (the part of the story I find most intriguing), but that didn’t happen until three quarters of the way through. And, when we finally did hear about it, it was covered only briefly and on a surface level (we never even got to hear about the evidence that led to Lizzie’s arrest). When I finished, I felt like I didn’t know much more about the murders than I did before I read the book.

Check out my blog, Sarah's Book Shelves, for more reviews.

Something is not right in the Borden house. In See What I Have Done, first-time novelist Sarah Schmidt reimagines the famous axe-murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. And, of course, daughter Lizzy sits at the center of the tragedy that takes place in this dysfunctional household.

The events leading up to the murder unfold slowly as the story shifts forward and backward in time and between narrators to expose troubled relationships and possible motivations for murder. There are not a lot of characters to like in this story, but Schmidt does a good job of bringing the drama to life and tries to answer some of the lingering questions surrounding this historic case.

This is a visceral novel that is difficult to read at times as it proceeds toward the inevitable conclusion. But it’s also difficult to put down as you try to determine which of the books narrators are the most unreliable. And which are telling the truth.

The historical true crime case has fascinated public interest since the day Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home on August 4, 1892. Australian author Sarah Schmidt adds a unique spin to the Borden case, with her fictional storytelling narratives by Lizzie and others connected to the case, in her engrossing debut novel: “See What I Have Done”.

The ending of the 19th century was portrayed estremely well, from the detailed description of the Borden home, the foods eaten, speech, and clothing worn. Later, the home funeral in the parlor, and a horse drawn hearse that carried the bodies to the cemetery. In addition, the sheltered life of Lizzie (and her sister Emma) Lizzie’s mental illness and dark obsessions were highlighted —from chewing food, licking lips, sucking breath between her teeth, wishing to bite others, self-talk or moving lips without sound, hand to the mouth, vomiting-- also the ticking.. ticking.. ticking.. of the mantle clock. Lizzie was lovingly dedicated to the care of her pigeons, (one pictured on the cover of the book). There was a symbolic meaning, suggesting the emotional connection she didn’t have with her father and step-mother were substituted by her fondness and maintenance of the birds. In view of this, we never learn why the birds were destroyed; readers were exposed even further to Lizzie’s eerie edge of dysfunction and madness. After the deaths, Lizzie was treated like a child by those around her, no suspects were seen coming or going from the house.

Though Andrew was a wealthy man, the large spacious family home located in the best neighborhood, did not have indoor plumbing. The family ate as poor people-- reheated mutton broth for supper, Andrew was known for his frugality. Andrew suspected Lizzie of stealing. Lizzie always referred to Abby (her step-mother) as “Mrs. Borden”. Abby seemed mean-spirited with Lizzie and their maid Bridget; and took Bridget’s savings tin holding a large sum of her earnings, and ordered her to work constantly, even when ill.
Emma was visiting friends when the horrific crime occurred, and seemed to be caring for Lizzie emotionally and shielding her from stress and further scrutiny. It was obvious that Emma took a much needed break from the toxic Borden household dynamic. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Lizzie Borden case, a true crime timeline of the events and persons involved in the case was included. The Borden House has been restored and is currently a popular Bed and Breakfast destination. **With thanks to the Seattle Public Library.

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

Nearly everyone has heard this rhyme and this case. Andrew and Abby Borden were both brutally murdered in their home with an axe; Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was arrested and brought to trial for their murders. She was found not guilty and the murders are still unsolved today. Sarah Schmidt took a 10 year writing process/obsession and has brought us the fictional account of what led to the murders and afterwards with See What I Have Done.

There are four narrators in See: Lizzie, her sister Emma, Bridget the maid, and the enigmatic Benjamin who is a fictional character. Each narrator brings something different to this very disturbing story and family. It is a slow moving novel that at times can be hard to follow with the narratives. See goes back and forth within the chapters which can be confusing. I had to reread some paragraphs several times because of the confusion.

There is a timeline included at the end of the novel. I felt that would have been better used at the beginning as an introduction to see where things will go for those who don’t know many details about the case. I felt a “cast of characters” would have been helpful as Schmidt seems to assume that the reader will know who each character is.

Even knowing this novel is fictional, it all seemed very real. This comes with the in-depth research that Schmidt did. It does make you think about the case and wonder what really happened. If you are looking for a good fictional introduction to Lizzie Borden, this is the place to start. If you are looking for anything ‘new’ with the case or any conclusions as to who did commit the murders, you will not get that.

Despite the issues I had, Schimidt did a very good job with See, which is her debut novel and it is an accomplishment. Living and breathing Lizzie for 10 years must have affected her as she ‘lived’ with these real people for so long. You can see in the Author Acknowledgements where she thanks Lizzie, but asks her to move on.

I received a copy via NetGalley that I voluntarily read, thank you so much for my copy!

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks
When she saw what she had done, she gave her mother forty-one
– Old jump rope rhyme
When I was growing up in [the dark ages] 1980s Massachusetts, we still learned that rhyme. Though Fall River was over an hour south of the town I grew up in, Lizzie Borden still felt like our own homegrown boogieman. Little wonder, then, that I remain fascinated by the legend of Lizzie Borden. Even now, 125 years after the infamous murders, there is no firm concensus of what occurred that day.

Sara Schmidt brings something new and visceral to the legend. Centered around the day of the murders and the times immediately before and after, we are allowed to take nothing for granted in this tale. The story is told from four different perspectives: Lizzie herself, her older sister, Emma, Bridget, the family’s downtrodden servant, and Benjamin, a mysterious young man with a rather violent disposition. The narrative skips across perspectives and across time, slowly moving us toward what actually happened in the house on that hot summer day.

What struck me about this book was how horrible everyone was. Andrew Borden is a miserly wretch, Abby an unstable, clingy lump. Lizzie is spoiled, manipulative, and childlike. Truly, the only people in the house you feel for are Emma Borden and Bridget the maid, both trying to seek their own way out of a toxic household.

The Borden murders took place on August 4th, 1892, in an era before air-conditioning. The Borden house has no electricity or indoor plumbing, and everyone is wearing long sleeves, long skirts, and high collars. Schmidt takes full advantage of the season and makes the book feel claustrophobic and oppressive in the description of the sticky, unmoving air, the rank smells, and the congealing food. The horror of this story is less about the violence of the murders themselves, but of being trapped in a truly nightmarish situation.

In all, this was an interesting take on the Lizzie Borden legend. While it took bit to get used to the way Lizzie Borden is voiced in this book (she has a manic style of speech and thought that reminds me of the poem The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe), once over that hump I found the book impossible to put down. Fans of the Borden legend, or of the mystery and/or horror genres should enjoy this book.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting and strange. Through four different viewpoints, the reader visits the Borden household in the summer of 1892 at the time of Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother's murders. We see the home through the eyes of 30-ish year old Lizzie, her 10-years older sister Emma, the Irish housemaid, Bridget, and a man named Benjamin who'd been sent by Emma and Lizzie's uncle John to "handle a problem", though the problem is never really spelled out. It's presumed to be financial.

There are many physical descriptions and metaphors to increase the sense of oppression in the Borden household: the August heat, the ticking clock, tongues running over teeth, the licking of blood from hands. There is food poisoning from a pot of mutton soup that's been cooked and reheated all week, odors of dead rodents in the walls, and the beheading of Lizzie's pet pigeons for fear of lice. It's not a book for the squeamish.

The book was interesting because it introduces the idea that there were several people who may have had reason and desire to see the Bordens dead. Each unreliable narrator makes one wonder which one it was. If you don't know the story of Lizzie Borden, even from the childhood poem, it would likely help to read up on it before reading this book.

Lizzie struck me as either simple/developmentally delayed, mentally ill, ridiculously spoiled or perhaps some of all three. I felt sympathy for all of the characters. Even though I liked Lizzie the least because she was so difficult, I still felt bad for her.

It was a well written book, and I enjoyed the close-up exploration of the possibilities of the very sad, real life crime and characters.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

“Lizzie Borden took an axe…” I have not read about Lizzie in many, many years and except for that famous quatrain, I remember nothing else about that infamous event. In her debut novel, Schmidt has produced a creepy but elegant retelling of the story. Through the eyes of Lizzie, her sister Emma, their uncle John, the maid Bridget, and Benjamin, a murderer-for-hire, we encounter a very strange family. Lizzie is by far the strangest (I don’t believe the word sociopath was in common use at the time). Not one of the players, including Mother and Father, has a stable personality, and more than one of the characters is given a motive for murder. From visiting Fall River, she certainly has absorbed the suffocating atmosphere of summer heat. In her “Acknowledgments”, Schmidt indicates she has done a lot of original research. It is hard, however, to know what is based on the true story and what the author has embellished. For instance, I wish she had given readers a clue as to whether Benjamin was based on a real character or was created because Lizzie occasionally stated there was someone in the house. Nonetheless, as a literary device, he serves to increase the level of suspense as the potential murderer, until Lizzie beats him to it. An impressive debut novel.

Ever felt like you are never understood? Whatever you are doing in life, choices you are making and it all goes unnoticed? And when you are noticed it's for a tiny mistake that you made and everything gets blown out of proportion.

That is what it's like to live in the Borden house. Every. Single. Day.

Andrew Borden is a respectable man, one with stature in the community, one that is known for his smarts and of course for being rich. His new bride Abby is known for her love of food. Not cooking it, just eating it. Then their are his two children from his first wife. Sisters. Emma, the oldest and Lizzie, the baby. Two beautiful girls that love their family and are always side by side in everything and anything they do. Perfect family the Borden's. Many a people try and take a peak inside the Borden's home but of course there is nothing to see so why bother right?

To Emma and Lizzie, it would be a wonderful sight for people to actually look into the windows and see the goings on in the Borden house. For if ONE soul could have seen what took place day in and day out, maybe just maybe Andrew and Abby wouldn't have had to meet their maker they way they did. Maybe there wouldn't be any more turmoil. No more secrets.

If only someone would've looked.

Lizzie wakes the neighbors up with the horrible news that someone broke into her house and butchered her father in his study room. The town is a buzzin', the cops are a thinking and there sits poor Lizzie. With a sister out of town and Miss Abby gone on shopping Lizzie has to hold herself together till things start settling down. That is until someone finds Abby butchered in her room. The death of the two Borden's shakes the town more than a tornado ever could. With Emma finally home things should start calming down. That is until questions start being asked and answers don't seem all that simple anymore.

How do you make people listen to you? What are some drastic measures do you have to take to finally get acknowledged for the things that you do? This story tells the tale of the most sinister and brutal murder to ever take place in a family home by hands of an unknown name. Many times death brings people together. Other times it separates them. But if you only have each other, who do you turn to for help? Told from different points of views we see how murder can change not just one person, for a whole community and how family means everything especially in rough times. We are taught that when the going gets tough rely on family to help. But what if family isn't the safest thing to rely on?

****
What a breathtaking tale of family, murder and illness all rolled into one. The deaths of Andrew and Abby Borden is still unsolved after all of this time and there are so many speculations of what went down that unforgettable day in 1892 that it's amazing what Sarah Schmidt has done in this book. She made it so real from the first chapter all the way to the last. I loved how she had every chapter was a different point of view from different people of different class of what "could" have happened the days leading up to the murder and the days after the murder. I believe she really captured what could have happened and even left some speculation at the end of "what do you think" could have happened.

Like suspense? Like true crime? Then you will totally want to read this book.

See What I Have Done is a fictionalized account of the Lizzie Borden murders. You know - Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. Lizzie was acquitted of the murders and no one has ever been charged with the crime.

The author used an interesting technique to tell the story. It is told from 4 different points of view: Lizzie, Lizzie’s older sister Emma, Bridget the maid and Benjamin a man hired by Lizzie’s Uncle John. It mainly takes place around the time of the murders, though it does jump ahead a little towards the end.

I think that this jumping around and the story told from different points of view work really well with the story. The author paints the fabric of the family from each character’s point of view. I think it is much more effective that if the story had just been told as a straight narrative. As it is, we don’t know who of the characters are reliable narrators, if any.

I enjoyed this book, I thought it was a clever way to present a historical crime that most of us are familiar with.

I received an ARC of the book.

We all know the story of Lizzie Borden:

“Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.”

This debut novel from Sarah Schmidt describes what seems like what happened the day of the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. This book is told by four people: Lizzie, Emma, Bridget, and Benjamin. Going through each individual part, they each have their own story to tell. There are some things I actually learned from this book. I never knew that Mrs. Borden was their stepmother, for example. I liked this book, but it didn’t do spectacular things for me.

I think that Sarah Schmidt did a great job for her debut novel. This story was pretty interesting, and how she wrote it was pretty cool too. This is what she posted on her Goodreads page:

“I met Lizzie Borden in a second hand bookstore when a pamphlet about the Borden case fell off a shelf and landed at my feet. I wasn’t interested in the case whatsoever. I put it back and left the shop. That night I dreamt of Lizzie sitting at the end of my bed and she told me, ‘I have something to tell you about my father. He has a lot to answer for.’ It was one of the creepiest and most unsettling dreams I’d ever had but I ignored it, tried to go back to sleep. I had the same dream every night for a week. So I decided to write the dream down hoping it would go away. That was the very beginning of See What I Have Done. I had no idea it would take me 11 years to write it.”

This response, the synopsis, and the cover are what interested me in this book in the first place. This seems like she really thought about this book a lot, especially if it took 11 years to write.

First, the characters were all very good. I think Lizzie was the best in my opinion (as she should be). Sarah Schmidt made Lizzie come to life as a young girl who’s living with the explosive personality of her father and the spite of her stepmother. Sarah Schmidt really writes Lizzie like she is crazy, and I appreciate that so much. Emma moved out and receives the news that her father has been murdered. It seems like there is sadness there, but not too much. Benjamin is just a weird, weird guy. Every time I read his parts I thought the same thing over and over again.

I thought that the story was brilliant, but it just didn’t have the pizzazz for me. It didn’t shine like I expected it to. The writing style seemed a little slow at times, especially during the middle section of the book. There were some parts where I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. It definitely felt repetitive at times, but towards the end, it really picked up for me. I was very happy about that because I didn’t have a problem finishing the book. The ending was very, very good and I love the way Sarah Schmidt wrote it.

The last thing that I was confused on were the flashbacks and taking the reader to a different time. I feel like they were a bit out of place, and made me have to stop and go back. It stopped flowing for me a few times, unfortunately.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential and was good, but it definitely had it’s flaws. It’s expected from a debut novelist that it will have flaws, but I think Sarah Schmidt did very well. I love the story of how this ended up being written, and the cover makes me have heart eyes. I think this book is a job well done, and Sarah Schmidt should continue writing her dreams into reality!

This is a fictionalized retelling of the Lizzie Borden murders and though it gets many “meh”reviews, I surprisingly enjoyed it very much. These people are awful! They are selfish, resentful, devious and maddening in their “woe is me” entitled thoughts but I LOVED reading about their misery. And, boy, did they all live in a cesspool of misery, resentment and hate.

I do think you have to be in a certain grumpy headspace to appreciate this one and I was there. We’ve had a never-ending winter and I hurt my back so bad I had to quit a much loved workout routine probably forever. Reading this when I did was perfect timing. We were all miserable together for a short time. So moral of this sad story? Don’t read this if you’re happy or want to be happy.

The story is told from three different points of view. Lizzie, Bridget the maid and a shady male character whose name I can’t recall right now. I listened to the audio which is narrated by three different people. The women do a fine job as does the male narrator EXCEPT when he attempts to do a female voice in a painful fake falsetto. Fortunately he’s mostly narrating the man part so the cringe level is tolerable.

Many people have an issue with the grit and grue factor in this book and I can understand that. This book is an experience. You can <i>feel</i> the cloying sickness permeating these people and for me that’s the mark of good writing but it’s almost enough to make one queasy and I have a strong stomach. There is an exceptional amount of blood everywhere but almost worse is the vomit and rumbling stomachs. These gross people have been eating rotten mutton broth for what seems like weeks on end! The maid suspects it’s bad but keeps adding more salt to disguise the reek of rotten meat. I’m guessing this was because poppa Borden was too much of a cheapskate to let food go to waste. But I wasn’t there so who knows.

Many people also have issues with the way the story was told and I get that too. It jumps around in time and can be quite confusing and the people telling the story seem quite confused themselves at times. The end of the book leaves a lot of questions unanswered but still I love reading about these people. I cannot explain exactly why. Their relationships are poisonous and mean but if you’re up for that maybe you’ll love it too!

Explosive debut novel, part-crime, part-historical, and part family dynamics, Sarah Schmidt reimagines the infamous Lizzie Borden story.

We've all heard the rhyme, about Lizzie Borden taking the ax and whacking her mother and then doing the same to her father, with one more whack. If that's not chilling enough, being a nursery rhyme and all,what follows in the narrative is just as disturbing.

It's August 1892 and Fall River, Massachusetts is experiencing a major heat wave. Everyone's a bit on edge, and ill. Sarah Schmidt, an Australian debut author takes the story we've all heard bits and pieces of and breathes life into the terrible, twisted tale of Lizzie Borden and her family with deft skill at bringing the senses to life. In fact, much of why I loved this tale is because of the visceral reactions to I had during the reading experience. That's not to say a story about a grisly double murder isn't enough, but it's Schmidt's use of language that had me wincing. In this case, that's a good thing, a testament to her writing.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE (Atlantic/Grove Press, August 2018) focuses on the stepmother, Abby (it was a remarriage following Lizzie's mother's death when Lizzie was just 5), the sometimes temperamental businessman father, Andrew, and the two spinster sisters, Emma and Lizzie, and another, the enigmatic character, Benjamin.

I found the character of Lizzie so well drawn, so real; definitely a character I loved to hate. Schmidt writes her with such psychological precision, a woman who never really grew up as much of her characterizations led me to believe Lizzie younger than her stated 32 years.

Told in alternating POVs, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE focuses mostly on the days surrounding the murder, if not focusing exclusively on the day itself. We hear from several characters, their interpretations of the events, and then we also hear about bit about the trial (but not much), leading us to draw some of our own conclusions. Perhaps Lizzie didn't kill her parents after all?

In all honesty, I am not sure I've read anything exactly like this before, deserving it 5-stars for originality.

Explosive debut novel, part-crime, part-historical, and part family dynamics, Sarah Schmidt reimagines the infamous Lizzie Borden story.

We've all heard the rhyme, about Lizzie Borden taking the ax and whacking her mother and then doing the same to her father, with one more whack. If that's not chilling enough, being a nursery rhyme and all,what follows in the narrative is just as disturbing.

It's August 1892 and Fall River, Massachusetts is experiencing a major heat wave. Everyone's a bit on edge, and ill. Sarah Schmidt, an Australian debut author takes the story we've all heard bits and pieces of and breathes life into the terrible, twisted tale of Lizzie Borden and her family with deft skill at bringing the senses to life. In fact, much of why I loved this tale is because of the visceral reactions to I had during the reading experience. That's not to say a story about a grisly double murder isn't enough, but it's Schmidt's use of language that had me wincing. In this case, that's a good thing, a testament to her writing.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE (Atlantic/Grove Press, August 2018) focuses on the stepmother, Abby (it was a remarriage following Lizzie's mother's death when Lizzie was just 5), the sometimes temperamental businessman father, Andrew, and the two spinster sisters, Emma and Lizzie, and another, the enigmatic character, Benjamin.

I found the character of Lizzie so well drawn, so real; definitely a character I loved to hate. Schmidt writes her with such psychological precision, a woman who never really grew up as much of her characterizations led me to believe Lizzie younger than her stated 32 years.

Told in alternating POVs, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE focuses mostly on the days surrounding the murder, if not focusing exclusively on the day itself. We hear from several characters, their interpretations of the events, and then we also hear about bit about the trial (but not much), leading us to draw some of our own conclusions. Perhaps Lizzie didn't kill her parents after all?

In all honesty, I am not sure I've read anything exactly like this before, deserving it 5-stars for originality.

“Someone’s killed Father”

Someone indeed! Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in their home on August 4, 1892 between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m in Fall River, Massachusetts. Abby was killed first and then Andrew. Their bodies were found in different rooms - Abby upstairs and Andrew in his office. Lizzie Borden was arrested for the murders and spent 10 months in jail and after an hour and a half deliberation, the jury acquitted her of Murder.

Most people have heard the rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

**In reality Abby was only hit 19 times and Andrew hit 10 or 11 times.

In this debut Novel, Schmidt paints a picture of the not-so-perfect Borden family. Andrew Borden was a wealthy man but was extremely frugal and his family lived without indoor plumbing or other comforts he could have easily afforded. His relationship with his daughters was tenuous at best due to him getting re-married after their Mother's death. He also gifted his new wife's family with real estate which further angered his daughters. There were also issues surrounding Mr. Borden killing Lizzie's pigeons. Lizzie appears to be quite immature and at times I felt she came off as a 13 year old girl versus a grown woman. Was she immature due to living a sheltered life? Did she have mental health issues?

The Borden family comes off as quite dysfunctional with both sisters locking up parts of the home at various times. Both adult daughters spent time in Europe after arguments with their father. When home, they rarely ate meals with their father and step-mother. The book also paints the sisters as having a love/hate relationship with each other. Emma was away at the time of the murders but only by 15 miles or so. Did she suspect her sister of killing their father and step-mother?

"I looked at my sister, looked at blood. That grief inside the heart."

What is interesting is that Bridget and Lizzie were both home at the time of the Murders. Bridget was quoted as hearing Lizzie say "Quickly. Someone has killed father." Lizzie burned a dress several days after the deaths were committed. An axe with a missing handle was found in the basement but the handle was broken off and the blade was clean. Could this have been the murder weapon? Why did Lizzie give conflicting statements? Was the door in the basement unlocked? Could someone have committed the murders without anyone in the house knowing?

This book is told through the point of view of various characters: Bridget (the housekeeper/maid), Emma (the oldest daughter), Lizzie, and Benjamin (hired by Uncle John). Their POV's jump around a little so one has to keep track of when they are giving their perspective (pre-Murder vs. post murder)Who had a motive? Was Lizzie the real killer? What was going on with the food? Why was the family getting violently ill before the murders? This family does a lot of vomiting in this book! There is also a lot of talk of blood - maybe the squeamish may have an issue with it. If you are reading a book about murder it is to be expected IMO.

I thought this book was a very good fictionalization of the real life murders of the Borden family. It is evident that the Author did a lot of research and wove her tale around the real life time frame of the important events in this book. These murders are very famous - at least in the United States. The murders have never been solved and many people could have had motives for the killings. Most people believe that Lizzie did commit the murders. I believe the fascination with this "cold case" is that at the time, it was "shocking" that a woman could or would commit such a crime. I think crime and/or history buffs will really enjoy this book.

I was torn between a 3.5 and a 4 so I rounded up to a 4. I wish the ending would have been a little more exciting. I found it to fizzle rather than to end with a BOOM. Yes, I realize that the Author cannot re-write history but I would have liked to have seem more of Lizzie and
Emma's perspectives at the end. Maybe a blow out fight between them. I was left wanting something more.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Most Americans have at least a passing familiarity with the infamous 1892 Lizzie Borden murders, if only from the “Lizzie Borden took an axe…” children’s rhyme. However, many people may not know that the Borden home in Fall River, Massachusetts, is now not only a museum but also a bed and breakfast. They also almost certainly are not aware of the full realm of the story, or the cast of characters involved. Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, aims to bring the Lizzie Borden story out of obscurity (or a trivial schoolyard rhyme) and give it the subtlety and ambiguity it deserves.

In Schmidt’s version, the events of August 4, 1892 (the day of the murders) and the previous day are recounted from four different narrators. There’s Lizzie herself, of course, a woman who seems to have been emotionally stunted after the death of her mother, who fears her abusive father and is both repulsed and disappointed by her stepmother. There’s Lizzie’s sister Emma, who harbors both artistic aspirations of her own and a long-standing resentment toward what she perceives as their father’s preferential treatment of Lizzie. Emma’s recent departure from the family home seems to have added to Lizzie’s agitation and general unhappiness, as well as to the existing tensions in the home.

There’s also the family maid, Bridget, an Irish immigrant who desires to leave service for a family whose secrets she’s seen far too closely. But her intentions to depart put her at odds with Mrs. Borden, who is essentially holding her hostage financially. And finally, there’s Benjamin, a stranger from out of town whose chance encounter with Lizzie’s uncle, her dead mother’s brother with an agenda of his own, may upend the conventional understanding of the Borden murders.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE is well researched and heavily based on the documented history of the Borden murders. Like the best historical novels, though, it also finds and explores the gray areas in the story, the places not fully covered by the historical record, and that’s where the “real” story resides. The technique of using multiple narrators with overlapping points of view helps contribute to this intricacy. Schmidt’s writing also adds artistry and, surprisingly, moments of beauty to the narrative.

Schmidt focuses especially on the small sounds and tiny domestic details that characterize life in the Borden household. Unlike many historical novels, this book doesn’t provide a lot of atmospheric details about Fall River or late-19th-century New England. Instead, its attention is focused on the interiority of the Borden house, adding to the sense of claustrophobia that pervades the narrative. Thanks to Schmidt’s skillful storytelling, readers will understand why Lizzie has (perhaps) gotten a bit unhinged and why Emma and Bridget are so eager to escape. Her intimate portrait and carefully restrained approach ramp up the suspense, making the novel feel contemporary despite its century-old subject matter.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

The re-imagining of the Lizzie Borden murder case. I vaguely recall hearing about this and after reading See What I Have Done it has fascinated me further. Some of you may recognise the rhyme: Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.

Sarah Schmidt has a vivid imagination to add fiction to the ‘real’ story. August 1892 in Massachusetts, Andrew and Abby Borden are found murdered in their home, horrifically attacked with an axe. Daughter Lizzie, was accused of the crime. Did she really do it?

The Borden household was a strange one, family dynamics are slightly weird to say the least. There is an eerie atmospheric feel to the whole book, while I was intrigued it wasn’t necessarily an easy read. You need a strong stomach at times with the graphic descriptive writing.

Told from four viewpoints it can get a bit confusing in places, but curiosity kept me reading. The characters are all flawed so there isn’t much need for sympathy. Without a full knowledge of the situation I could only surmise what was actual fact or fiction. I confess I did google it and gained a wider understanding so in that respect the book has aided my awareness of history! Of course by doing this I knew how it was likely to end but I savoured the voyage of discovery.

I particularly liked the timeline of events in the back of the book .. that sums it all up quite nicely. I understand this is the debut novel by this author so it would be interesting to see what she can produce as a total work of fiction.

Thanks to the author, publisher, netgalley for my copy and Anne Cater for inviting me onto the tour. I read and reviewed voluntarily.

Most Americans are familiar with the kid’s rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe; and gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done; she gave her father forty-one”. Borden was a real person, and the murders of her father and step-mother were indeed the bloody result of multiple axe wounds. Lizzie was tried for the murders and acquitted, in large part because people back then couldn’t believe that a gentlewoman would do such a thing.

This fictionalized version of the tale starts with Lizzie yelling for the maid to come quickly, because someone had killed her father. Then we have a short recital from her older sister, Emma. From there we bounce back to the day before the murders; the different chapters are told by Lizzie, Emma, the maid Bridget, and Benjamin, a crude thug hired by their uncle to ‘do something’ to their father. The minutia of what happened that day, and the day of the murder, are seen from all points of view. From them we get lots and lots of back story, too. From them we also realize that Lizzie is most likely an unreliable narrator- very unreliable. I never did decide if she was mentally ill or just incredibly self-centered.

We are never given a rock solid case that Lizzie performed the murders, although it doesn’t look good for her. The things that made me wonder were the presence of the uncle (who seems to have a very unhealthy relationship with Lizzie, and perhaps Emma), and the thug for hire who was on the premises when the murders were done.

The most prominent thing about the book is the mood. The Borden household is claustrophobic in the extreme. The father is abusive, stingy, and a control freak. The step-mother tries, but ends up punching herself in the stomach repeatedly to vent her frustrations. Bridget the maid is normal; she just wants to earn enough money to get out of that household. Emma is a sympathetic character; she has been thwarted all her life, unable to do the things she wants, told by her mother to take care of Lizzie before she died. Lizzie is… horrible. Cruel to Emma and to her stepmother, she is almost out of touch with reality. The prose creates the hot, close atmosphere of the household, and it’s hard to take. I wanted to be away from those people; I can only imagine how much the Bordens wanted away from each other! Reading this is an immersive experience; the author describes the smells, the sounds of their bodies, the heat, the godawful food, in great detail. It’s not a pleasant read, but it is well done. Four stars out of five.

Hats off to Sarah Schmidt for being able to immerse herself into a dark, atrocious event and find humanity in these sick, twisted characters. Told in 4 alternating points of view, the book leaves us with more questions than answers about the Borden murders; in this horrible, dysfunctional, family motives for murder abounded. But the point of this book isn't to know, but to feel. I felt sadness, pity, frustration, and anger toward this real-life cast of characters. The descriptions were evocative at a sensory level: gut-wrenching renditions of dead bodies, cringe-inducing portrayals of acts of violence, even the food was repulsive. Needless to say, this book is not a light read, but the creepy darkness is appropriate for the subject matter and it is a worthy read. I will definitely be looking for Sarah Schmidt's next novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie Borden took an axe… Or did she? And who else might have done it?and who else had a motive? and if she did it, did they deserve it?

Sarah Schmidt tells the story of Lizzie Borden and her family from the points of view of Lizzie, her sister, the maid, and other participants in the family tragedy. She fleshes out the historical record with rich textural detail. Beware, nothing is as it seems!

Retellings and historical fiction occupy a large portion of space among my shelves. True crime and mysteries equally reside next to them. So picking up See What I Have Done was an effortless process. A historical re-imagining of the Borden murders offered promises of intrigue and suspense that were not to be ignored.

Schmidt provides a fictionalized glimpse into the days before, during and after the Borden axe murders that kicks off with Lizzie’s discovery of her father’s gruesome death. What ensues is a somewhat odd tale offered through multiple points of view. We are introduced to Lizzie, her family and those immediately involved through a series of narration that felt at times, unnecessary and missed the mark for me on a few levels.

I struggled with the alternating perspectives, as I found myself lacking interest when not directly engaged with Lizzie’s story. The addition of alternating PoV read more like a distraction that took from the overall effect as opposed to adding to it. I did enjoy being introduced to the remaining Borden family and maid Bridget, but I would have personally preferred to experience this tale solely through the eyes of our young protagonist.

I struggled with the relaxed pace and absence of urgency. I anticipated more excitement surrounding the heinous crime that was committed in the Borden household. I did come to appreciate the rich, atmospheric and slow burn style of story that was supplied with a truly unique prose, but ultimately encountered a few issues that hindered my time with the book. Unfortunately, my digital copy was riddled with formatting and grammatical errors that created a challenge, and I often found myself walking away in frustration.

While See What I Have Done failed to fully capture my interest, I feel the author’s original take on an infamous mystery will still offer a unique experience that many will find great value in. If you have ever found yourself fascinated in the story of Lizzie Borden, I urge you to explore this novel and form your own opinion.

*I would like to thank Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with this copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

DNF.

This was my most anticipated book for August of 2017. Unfortunately, right away I knew this was going to be a miss. The writing style for both the layout of the book and narrative itself just wasn't for me.

I have issues with varying perspectives to begin with, but sometimes authors can write them in a way that I enjoy. But here, each one seemed just like the other; there wasn't a tone or anything that really set them apart. If I set the book down in the middle of a chapter, I had to go back and see who the speaker was.

I didn't even make it to page 100 before calling this one. I was just far too bored and the storyline was all over the place. I won't be picking this one up again.

In the annals of murder and horrific crimes, one that seems to have persisted through history is the story of Lizzie Borden and the murders committed when her parents were horribly killed by someone wielding an ax.

What Ms Schmidt has done in her novel is to try to work her way into the minds and hearts of the principal characters present in that event. What she has created is an atmospheric presence of both macabre horror and the development of the principal characters that is mesmerizing and frightening.

Lizzie Borden, the younger of the two sisters, is the prime focus of both the novel and the murder investigation. The author portrays her as a manipulative person walking the line between a type of insanity and normalcy. She is a forever child even though at the time of the murders she was thirty-two. She positions herself as always being ever so demanding as if she never really went beyond the age of a seven year old. Her needs were huge and she demanded her sister Emma's attention and was resentful if others veered away from her wants.

Her father was seen as a brute, abusive and controlling while establishing a love hate relationship with his offspring and his second wife, Abby. Lizzie's relationship is cold just like the feeling one got from the way the household was structured. There was always something sinister dwelling in this loveless abode.

The characters are interwoven in this harrowing tale told from the perspectives of Bridget, the maid, Emma, Lizzie, an uncle, and a character named Benjamin who might have been the murderer or who it is forwarded was possibly hired to do Mr Borden harm.

This atmospheric novel was well done, creating the Gothic, frightening scene within the house where murder most foul was done. Did Lizzie Borden commit this atrocity against her parents or was it someone else? One perhaps will never know as Lizzie escaped prosecution largely because of her being a woman. Was Lizzie the ultimate manipulator? Was she the person who killed so wantonly? One thing is for sure Lizzie Borden's name has gone down in history as perhaps being the most vile murderess of her time. She has become a most frightening person and Ms Schmidt, in her debut novel, has done justice to a character who has occupied people's mind for quite a long time. Did Lizzie take that ax and give her mother forty whacks and then proceed to her father and give him forty-one? One will always wonder if indeed she did.

I think most everyone is at least somewhat familiar with Lizzie Borden, we’ve all heard the rhyme about what she allegedly did but I for one didn’t know much beyond that. When the opportunity to read See What I Have Done came to me I couldn’t resist, I love the idea of a historical retelling with added embellishments and Schmidt told the story of the Borden family in a haunting and unforgettable manner.

This is told from four different viewpoints and flashes back from the day of the murders to different, critical time periods as well. Lizzie, her sister Emma, Bridget the maid and Benjamin an unknown stranger all lend their voice to the story and I loved the birds eye type view this gave the book. Each character has a wholly unique and strong voice, from Lizzie with her childlike singsong behavior to Bridget the frustrated Irish maid, they all had their own version of events and were all equally captivating to me.

I honestly cannot believe that this is a debut, Schmidt’s writing style is SO gorgeous. That may seem strange given the subject matter of the book, but it really is beautiful, her descriptions are so vivid and yes, at times macabre but really well written. It was incredibly easy to conjure up a vision due to her prose, she truly brought this strange family to life in a dark, gloomy and unique way.

Great fictional book about a very famous non-fiction murder. Can anyone ever get enough of Lizzie Borden stories. I think a good write could manage to put Lizzie Borden in every genre and quite possibly come up with a hit novel. Hmmm, waiting on Lizzie in a Sci-Fi, or Zombie novel... LOL

The story is told from alternating points of view, from the famous sisters Lizzie and Emma Borden, the maid, Bridgette and from 2 other characters. The characters, locations, the sights, sounds, smells... are vividly described and brought to life in this book. For a while I thought, wow, this entire family is nothing but nut-jobs! Who actually knows? Maybe they were!

The book takes the reader back to 1892 and explores some very unusual possibilities. The book also brings to [fictional] life some very weird family dynamics.

There were several phrases written in the book that I never could really figure out what they meant. I wondered if these were common phrases spoken in the late 1800's.

And … was it just me? Did anyone else find it creepy weird how Lizzie was ALWAYS putting other people's fingers and HAIR in her mouth and as she described... “tasting them” < “tasting mother” .

This book will keep you guessing all the way through.

In her debut novel, Sarah Schmidt tackles the notorious case of Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of killing her father and step-mother (which gave rise to a renowned bit of doggerel).

Borden was cleared in her trial, but one cannot write a novel such as this without putting forward a theory of who did it, and Schmidt gives us her take on it with a convincing use of narrative and character development.

Schmidt imparts the story through four narrative voices. There are the Borden sisters, Emma and Lizzie, and their maid Bridget, all based on people involved in these events. There is also Benjamin, a violent young man driven by resentment of the father that abandoned his family for another woman, who hovers around the family at the crucial time, observing what is going on. Each of these could easily be an unreliable narrator, issuing a self-serving account of events.

The parallels between Benjamin's background and that of Lizzie and Emma are striking and, since his presence is mostly unremarked upon by other characters, it's tempting to think of him as some kind of alter-ego for one of them. I'm not sure that's what Schmidt intended, but it added a bit of additional interest to think of him in that way.

I checked this book out from the local library. All opinions are my own. ????See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. Every narrator in this story has their own issues with Mr and Mrs Borden and depending upon which character you relate to Lizzie may or may not have been the guilty party. Bridget may or may not have done it to get her money and leave forever. John may or may not have done it to protect his nieces or for revenge. Benjamin is definitely a guilty party involved but may or may not have done the murders because it seems John hired him to do it. Emma is the only one I can honestly say did not kill Mr. and Mrs. Borden. We all know that history says Lizzie did it but was never convicted for the crime. It is most definitely noticeable that Lizzie has some sort of psychological issues going on and it is quite possible she snapped because her sister was away. The family in that house was more than likely driven to some sort of insanity which contributed to the murders of Mr and Mrs Borden. The book is written in a time span of two days and was an easy story to follow.

5502. See What I Have Done, by Sarah Schmidt (read 24 Sep 2017) This is a work of fiction by an Australian writer but she has done considerable research on the Lizzie Borden case, which has long been of great interest to me. Books on the case I have read heretofore are The Girl in the House of Hate, by Charles Samuels (read 4 Jan 1955, re-read 11 Aug 1962), Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story, by Edward D. Rabin (read 11 Aug 1962), Goodbye Lizzie Borden, by Robert Sullivan (read 27 Feb 1977), and Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890's, edited by Joyce G. Williams et al, (read2 Aug 1982), Thus it is obvious that I am interested in the facts of the case. This novel jumps around in time, concentrating on the days from Aug 2, 1892 to Aug. 6, 1892--the date of the murders was Aug 4, 1892. Chapters alternate narrators between figures in the case, and there is one "figure", Benjamin, who is so far as I know entirely fictional. I admit I do not like a book where I cannot tell what is true and what is fiction. So I was often irritated as I read the book, though it ends up as a somewhat satisfying story.

I had high hopes for this fictionalized account of the murder of Andrew Borden,whose daughter Lizzie was eventually tried for the crime, as well as the murder of her stepmother. To this day the murders remain unsolved and Sarah Schmidt uses this to her advantage to create a very tense read. The bulk of the action is set on the day of the murder and the following day, with some flash backs to illustrate periods from Lizzie's childhood, and a final few chapters dealing with the later lives of Lizzie and her sister Emma. Both women are given voices in the book , with chapters told from each of their perspectives, as well as Bridget, the household maid, and the enigmatic Benjamin, a violent hobo like man hired by the girls uncle to teach their father a lesson, who finds himself caught up in the gruesome events in the Borden house on that fateful day.
While the use of different narrators was clever in terms of obfuscating what actually did happen, and who was guilty of the crime, it did make the book rather choppy to read, as did the somewhat abrupt writing style. However that said, there was a really earthy quality to the writing that I found compelling, every description bringing the sights and particularly the smells vividly to life.
While I liked the book, I found it didn't always hold my attention.
I read a review copy from NetGalley

This book had an interesting premise regarding a fictional account of the murders of Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother. The story is told in the different viewpoints of Lizzie, her sister Emma, the maid Bridget, and a man named Benjamin. The story starts off with Lizzie finding her father dead and subsequent discovery of her stepmother's death. The different viewpoints describe the events leading up to the discovery and the activities that occur in the investigation.

For me, this book was just ok. I had gone into the reading with getting a thrilling account of what possibly could have happened regarding these murders as Lizzie was subsequently acquitted of the murders. Though the overall tone was creepy (which I tend to like), the overall outline and plot development of the book did not excite me. I was constantly wishing this book would end even though it was a relatively short book.

A great spin on the Lizzie Borden tale. Schmidt builds an eerie, atmospheric psychological retelling that makes this familiar story feel new. The four narrators give perspectives into the relationships behind the story. I really enjoyed that while you can feel sympathy for the backstory Schmidt builds for Lizzie, Lizzie herself is not likeable. I left debating whether she is mentally ill or just the most self-centered being around. If you like stories that make old tales fresh again, then this is the Lizzie Borden story for you.D

Most schoolchildren have heard the ditty “Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her father forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her mother forty-one.” What else is there to know about the grizzly murders that took place in 1892? For starters, although evidence strongly suggests that Lizzie Borden was guilty, 19th century forensics wasn’t what it is today, and she was acquitted.

If Lizzie didn’t commit the crimes, who did? If she did, what was her motive? Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel, See What I Have Done, opens with the line, “He was still bleeding.” And ends with “I raised my arms above my head.” The story in between speculates on both of those questions in deliciously disturbing, gruesomely grim detail.

Schmidt presents the Bordens as a family so repressed and creepy that one can easily understand why Lizzie might have taken an axe to her father and stepmother (not mother). As Bridget, the Borden’s beleaguered Irish maid succinctly puts it, “Whole bloody family was crazy.” As well, Schmidt’s Lizzie Borden is a monstrously spoiled and emotionally stunted woman certainly capable of committing such a crime.

But did anyone back then take a look at Uncle John? He was the brother of the deceased first Mrs. Borden (mother of Lizzie and Emma and baby Alice, “who went to sleep with God”), who came to visit, coincidentally, one day before the murders. Schmidt suggests that Uncle John had a grudge against Mr. Borden for financial reasons, and perhaps a slightly overdeveloped fondness for his niece, Lizzie. You have to at least wonder.

Schmidt seamlessly weaves fact and fiction, breathing life into existing characters such as Emma, Lizzie’s older sister, whom Lizzie views as having been born to “live with disappointment.” It seems clear that Emma can’t have wielded the axe, given that she was out of town. But was she entirely innocent? She surely bears some responsibility for infantilizing Lizzie, at least according to Schmidt.

Schmidt also introduces new characters. There’s Benjamin, a killer-for-hire, as well as a handy plot device to serve as an objective narrator to witness and comment on the people and goings-on of August 3 and 4, 1892. But Benjamin also has an agenda that casts, at least initially, plenty of doubt on who cast the killing blows.

Schmidt takes good advantage of the senses, emphasizing smell and taste, thus enriching the horror of those two days: the unwashed bodies, the blood, violets, vomit, rotting pears, and the ever-present mutton stew, all simmering in the oppressive August heat.

Her prose is clever and taut and generously seasoned with nouns verbing their way into literary history: characters “big-bosom” their chests and “daughter” one another along streets. Water “whales” from fountains.

Schmidt tells what might seem a familiar tale (although how many people know the full details?) in shifting points of view, and shifting time frames, mostly the day of the murders and the day before, with occasional forays into the past and future. This keeps the reader slightly off-balance, as Schmidt builds a case against first one character, and then another. It offers her the opportunity to highlight details, which might or might not be red herrings, making reading See What I Have Done a bit like watching a replay of a controversial sports call from various camera angles in rapid succession. Is one getting a clearer view or not? Should one view be relied upon more than another?

Many readers, upon finishing See What I Have Done, will want to engage in spirited disagreements about who was responsible for the murders. But not one will ever be tempted to order mutton stew.

Katharine Britton is the author of three novels, including Vanishing Time

Interesting and disturbing, with a different writing style. Some people will love this book, and some will really dislike it. I’m somewhat in the middle.
See What I Have Done tells the story of Lizzie Borden and the murders of her father and stepmother in August 1892. August 4, 1892 to be exact! Before reading See What I Have Done, I just had a vague recollection of the story, pretty much just because of the rhyme that starts out with “Lizzie Borden took an axe”, so much of this story was new information for me. I stayed away from the Internet and didn’t look anything up about the facts of the murders until after I finished the book, and now I can say that Sarah Schmidt did a lot of research about the murders and the family, and her version of events is entirely plausible. I liked reading about the murders online and seeing how Schmidt wove certain details into her story.
Told from multiple POVs, we hear from Lizzie, Lizzie’s sister Emma, their maid Bridget, and a man named Benjamin, who is hired by the girl’s uncle “to take care of a problem”. The voices are all distinct, with Lizzie being the most compelling for me. Lizzie is an unreliable narrator, which is something I love, so I was drawn to Lizzie’s sections, as bizarre as they were. Lizzie’s sister, Emma, and also their maid, Bridget, are told in a more straight-forward way, although there is an element of back-and-forth in time (from the day of the murders to events that happen days and years before) that make it confusing sometimes. We also get to see into the mind of Benjamin, a drifter, and his sections were the worst for me. Benjamin is, uh, oddly fascinated with blood and bodies (so is Lizzie to an extent), and some of his sections were definitely gross and downright creepy. Whenever I read his sections, I was just cringing at all of the different images.
Repetitive phrasing is used throughout the book, and this type of writing is not for everyone. Sometimes this style really irritated me and I couldn’t tell if it was a typo or intentional, sometimes I could ignore it, and other times I really enjoyed it and felt it brought almost a musicality to the text.
So, if this type of writing style doesn’t bother you, then you might really love this book, as it does have a more literary feel than most historical fiction does. I went back and forth with this technique, and am still not entirely sure how I feel about it. Sometimes it was a bit much, other times I felt it really worked.
There is a feeling of uneasiness and suspicion that permeates this book. The Bordens are an odd family, and there is a definite cloud of darkness that hangs over their house. Some abuses are obvious, others I can only infer, and this really contributed to the sense I had while reading that something is very, very wrong in the Borden house.
I can’t really recommend this book to everyone as there were scenes that were incredibly disturbing and downright gross, but I was never bored while reading this. The characters are fascinating, Lizzie especially, but they are all so unlikeable that I didn’t care about any of them.
I voluntarily reviewed an eARC copy of See What I Have Done from the publisher, via NetGalley. This review first posted on my blog, luvtoread.

The book was from a different perspective, however, it was difficult to follow and I had to keep looking back at the beginning of the chapters to know what day and from whose perspective I was reading. It was choppy to me. I didn't like the fascination with blood and the biting of fingernails...weird. I prefer non-fiction for the case of Lizzie, I suppose. Not a favorite.

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.

Sarah Schmidt may be my new favorite author. In her retelling of the Lizzie Borden story, her descriptions engaged all of my senses. I smelled bad breath, unwashed bodies, stuffy rooms, spoiled mutton soup. I experienced heat in an attic bedroom, heat rising off of people, and heat decaying all kinds of things. I was very impressed with her writing. If I were still teaching composition, I would use some of Schmidt's descriptive phrases. Even if you already know the Lizzie Borden story, you will like this book.

I think everyone knows the old rhyme based on Lizzie Borden. You know...

"Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one."

Most people know the story surrounding it. It's fascinating. It's something that has fascinated people for over 100 years. Myself included. So I couldn't wait to read this version of the story!

See What I Have Done is told from 4 points of view. Getting the story from Lizzy and Emma Borden, their maid Bridget, and a stranger. Everything is condensed into mostly 3 days skipping back and forth and spanning the day before, the day of, and the day after the infamous murders.

Reading Lizzie's point of view is amazing. Sarah Schmidt wrote her so well. You can really feel the crazy in an almost uncomfortably real way. Some parts were a bit slow and boring, but then ended up making more sense and ties things together later on. It's actually kind of brilliant. I think the worst part was towards the beginning it was difficult to actually get into the different characters heads when the POV changed. Again, it gets easier the more you know as the book goes on.

Overall, this was an interesting take on such a famous story. I would recommend it to those interested in unsolved murders and historical fiction in general.

What a devilishly delightful, eerie atmospheric book, where the house feels like it is one of the characters.

Lizzie Borden took an ax… Yeah yeah we all know the song. But do we know the truth beyond a shadow of a doubt?

Not really and See What I Have Done recounts the infamous Lizzie Borden and the murder of her father Andrew and stepmother Abby. While there is shifting in time with each chapter as well as narrators (Lizzie, her sister Emma, the housekeeper Bridget and a stranger named Benjamin), it works here. In fact it works very well and I was impressed how the author kept my attention and where scenes overlapped it was great to read from the different perspectives, it gave such a broad picture of what was taking place. Did Lizzie Borden really commit these horrible crimes? We will never know the full truth but this book gives a great perspective.

See What I Have Done has garnered mixed reviews, for myself I enjoyed the writing prose I enjoyed the poetic (at times) retelling. Though the Borden's were a well respected family in the community behind closed doors they were a dysfunctional family, kinda creepy and I think the only sane one was Bridget.

I would have loved for the book to have ended with authors notes, to see the motivation behind the story, to know what was fact verse fiction and just some of the 'why' and 'how comes' that took place.

This is the authors debut and she did a great job here, I look forward to reading more, definitely a book I recommend but again only to those that would appreciate the writing style.

I really thought, when I requested Sarah Schmidt’s first novel, See What I Had Done, from Netgalley for review, that it would be the book I talked about all summer. It was compelling and entertaining certainly, but it fell short of what I had hoped for.

See What I Have Done is a fictionalised account of the sensational murder trial of Lizzie Borden, who was accused in 1892 of killing her father and stepmother. The novel is narrated from four perspectives: Lizzie’s own vague and troubled account of the day of the murders; Emma, her older sister, who has returned home and tells us about the darker side to her younger sister; Bridget, the Irish maid who has fought with Lizzie’s stepmother about her wish to leave her employment; and Benjamin, a mysterious stranger who has been watching the house.

I really enjoyed the first three quaters of the novel, as the events of the day slowly unfolded from four narrators who seem to be keeping the whole truth from us, but after taking a few days away from the book I just couldn’t get back into it. It began as creepy and compelling and though the end was strong, these qualities were not sustained throughout the novel. The book is startlingly similar in premise to Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, which is also the story of a sensational murder trial of a woman in the 19th century in America, and to Burial Rites, where the story of the accused murderess takes place in 18th century Iceland. All of these novels are strong in their own way, but since I only read them all in the past few months I felt that they were too similar, and that See What I Had Done didn’t live up to my high expectations.

After reading each POV character, I struggled with the cadence. They all sounded alike; with incomplete sentences and thoughts. I found it annoying and monotonous. Also, children might need sound effects, but adult readers do not need to be told that the clock went tick, tick. Or something went thump, thump, or rattle, rattle. Amateurish writing. I gave up after a few chapters.

This story was riveting half the time, and boring the other half. The awkward phrasing, which occurred mostly in Lizzie’s chapters, and to a lesser degree in Emma’s, was distracting and annoying. I get that it demonstrated her fractured mind, but it was fracturing my mind to read it.

I have always been fascinated by true crime stories and was surprised to learn that I didn't know much about the infamous Lizzie Borden story. On Thursday, August 4th, 1892, Andrew, her father, and his second wife, Abby, were murdered. It was a brutal axe-murder at their home in Fall River, MA, leaving more questions than answers. Through Sarah Schmidt's masterful storytelling, readers try to piece together the events of that fateful day.

The story is told via four points of view: Emma, the older sister; Lizzie, the younger sister who is later accused and acquitted; Bridget, the maid; and Benjamin, a stranger to the family. They all have varying personalities. Emma is the older, sensible one who is staying at Fairhaven with her friend, Abigail, during the murder. Lizzie, the younger, petulant one, is at home with Abby and Andrew, her pigeons. She made me uncomfortable with her behavior, some of the things she said, and her strange relationship with her father. She is clearly the baby of the family, and is used to get getting her way, even at the expense of Emma. She has a childlike temperament but some of her behavior is a little sociopathic. Getting inside her mind was certainly creepy, disturbing. Bridget is the young maid, itching to leave the family, squirreling away her money until Abby discovers the tin, keeps her from leaving. Benjamin, who has his own family trauma drama, is the mysterious stranger hired by Uncle John to get revenge for Andrew's treatment of his daughters.

Admittedly, it took me some time to get into the novel because the first half of the novel was on the slower side. There are clues dropped along the way and there is a payoff at the end, but it took a while to fully hook me. I also would have liked more from Lizzie and why she was the one accused. We don't get into much detail regarding that and the trial at the end.

The writing is dark, gritty, poetic. There is a strangeness to the characters, to the house even. These are nasty, spiteful, mean people, which is fine. Glancing at some of the reviews, people seemed to be upset that these characters were off-putting, dislikable people but let's face it, nice people don't take an axe to their family.

Originally I marked this as 5 stars but I think I'm going to have to downgrade to 4 - the slow beginning is a big thing for me. It took me nearly a month to finish, but what a great debut.

The Lizzie Bordon story is one that continues to fascinate even 100 years after it's occurrence. Who did it and why? We probably never will know. Sarah Schmidt presents a number of people who could have hacked the Bordon's to death. I respectfully disagree with other reviewers who believe that that Ms. Schmidt is vague about who committed the crime. I think she very squarely and accurately places the murder on the shoulders of person it belongs Its probably the grisly, confusing, repetitive prose Schmidt reverts to, when writing from Lizzie's point of view that obscures the reader's ability to follow the author's well crafted tail.

Schmidt also does an excellent job of recreating the stifling August heat beating down int the cramped and filthy house where the Bordons live without real indoor plumbing. Two sets of stairways lead to locked bedrooms, filled with secrets and dirty clothes.

Lizzie's step mother Abby Bordon has spent years bearing the brunt of her step daughters' wrath. It is apparent that Abby tried hard to to connect with Lizzie and her older sister Emma. Emma never liked Abby and Lizzie, may have turned away from her because of a financial rift. Abby, trapped in a house with a resentful, mopey step daughter has nowhere to turn except to the Irish maid Bridget, who just wants to return to Ireland. When Abby discovers Bridget's plan to escape, Abby stills Bridget's life savings prohibiting Bridget from buying a ticket home. Andrew Bordon is portrayed as remote vicious and unpredictable. Above all, this wealthy man is a miser who holds his purse strings so tight that Lizzie is reduced to stealing. The same mutton soup is reheated and reheated until the reader feels like the odor has wafted out of the book and into their own living room.

What is otherwise some excellent descriptive writing is marred by Ms. Schmidt's very obvious "retreat" language, as if she is trying to be experimental and post modern. An odd contradiction when writing a historical novel. It is almost as if Schmidt has conjured up Gertrude Stein with the repetition of adjectives particularly when discussing teeth, bone and partial skulls. I kept wishing the language away.

The writing smacks of immaturity and what appears to be the overt desire to please some unknown snotty lit professor up in the Poconos. This flawed technique makes the writer seem almost as childish as Lizzie Bordon.

In See What I Have Done, author Sarah Schmidt puts the reader right inside of the Borden house on the day of the murders – the famous 1892 case in which Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and her step mother with an axe. This version not only allows us to view the story from the inside but from different perspectives of those closest to the case.

The story unfolds through the viewpoints of Lizzie, her sister Emma, the maid Bridget and one outsider, Ben. Although in the beginning I was confused about how Ben’s character would fit into the story, I found that he plays a huge part in how the author has chosen to wrap up the story and what happened after the murders. What I absolutely loved about this story is that, besides Emma, the other characters are all presented as possible killers and very unreliable narrators who have their own reasons to want the Borden’s dead. What a hostile environment the household was to live in!

Lizzie herself is full of zest! She is dramatic, haughty and cunning – the type of person you will love to hate. She was absolutely my favourite character with Bridget coming in a very close second because of her views of how the Borden’s ran their household and the kind of messes she was always left to clean up. Then there was Emma the oldest and put-upon daughter who only wants to find a love of her own and a life outside the home.

I really enjoyed the pacing of the story and how well the characters were adapted. They all had their own very true voices that played well in this engrossing story line of those fateful hours leading up to the murders. I was very entertained the whole time and found it a joy to jump into this secretive setting of the Borden household.

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
~Leo Tolstoy

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, Sarah Schmidt's debut novel, examines one of the most infamous true crimes in American history: the axe murders of Andrew and Abigail "Abby" Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts on August 4, 1892. Andrew's younger daughter Lizzie was charged and tried for the murders of her father and her step-mother. Schmidt's literary historical thriller is a superb work of realism and naturalism, filled with the kind of details which can lead the reader to learn what actually happened at 230 2nd Street that sweltering summer day. The novel starts with a vengeance, with Lizzie, in the first person, yelling, "Someone's killed Father."

The story unfolds in chronological order, but Schmidt also uses reverse chronology so that the reader can know which events lead up to the murders. Our unreliable narrators, and potential suspects, are, in alternating chapters, four characters: Lizzie (32), Emma Borden (41), Lizzie's sister, Bridget Sullivan (26), the Borden's Irish maid, and Benjamin, a man who has come to Fall River at the behest of someone close to the Borden family. Lizzie is clearly an unstable child-woman still trying to please her father and her step-mother, but also misbehaving and acting in a suspicious manner. Emma has spent her life taking care of her troubled younger sister, giving up any chance of love and marriage, and an escape from her father's gloomy and parsimonious household.

There have been times when Lizzie was away from home that I nursed absence. Always two ways of feeling: relief and loneliness.

Bridget is one of all "the Bridget's," young Irish women who fled Ireland during the 19th century famines and came to work as domestics in the United States. She is overworked and underpaid, and privy to nearly all details of the Borden household. There was a great deal of anti-Catholic nativism occurring in the United States, so Bridget would have been suspected simply for being an Irish immigrant. Benjamin is a mystery man and, perhaps, a dark horse. Could he be the person who broke into the home and stole some mementos a year before?

The novel's pacing, too, depicts the excitement, the horror and the tedium which happens in every crime investigation--and in every unhappy family. The plot evolves firmly from accurate historical accounts of the Borden family, the crimes, and the subsequent trial. The author knows that the devil is in the details. Andrew Borden is wealthy yet frugal. He is sparing with his love as well. Emma and Lizzie are two adult daughters living at home, spinsters in a time when middle-class women were married and living with husbands and children in their own homes. Abby is Andrew's second wife, and her relationship with her step-daughters is difficult. There are too many hens and impotence rules the roost. Money could easily have been the main motive, but the ever-present tension in the household could have driven someone to murder.

Yet, of course, this is a work of fiction, of literary fiction and of crime fiction. Schmidt's lyrical and beautiful prose captures both the striking and the mundane which occur before, during and after the murders. Her powerful interpretation of these people and events is fueled by a deep understanding of how petty conflicts and co-dependence accumulate until there is a need for some sort of resolution, release and relief. Unfortunately for Andrew and Abby, the catharsis resulted in their deaths.

SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE is an extraordinary novel which shines light on the iconic crime, the darkness within families and the human soul, and the banality of evil. Sarah Schmidt is a gifted and intelligent writer. She is a major new talent, and I await her next novel eagerly.

Highly Recommended.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this novel through NetGalley. SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE was published in the United States on August 1, 2017. SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE UK

See What I Have DoneSee What I Have Done

In 1892, Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were murdered. That case is the subject of this book, the majority of which takes place on August 4 1892 (the day of the murders). The point of view moves between four characters: Lizzie, her elder sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget and a drifter named Benjamin.

This is not a pleasant book to read. The Borden household was a hideous place. None of the inhabitants could stand one another. Emma and Bridget were both desperate to escape. The house reeked of rancid food, rotting animals, vomit. Blowflies and pigeons flew around the place. The book transports you there very skilfully but it's not a nice place to be. I actively disliked reading large sections of this novel and I'm finding it difficult to decide how much that has influenced my assessment of how well it works.

You do get a sense of who these people were, what happened on that day and who the author thinks is responsible for the deaths. But it feels very hastily wrapped up at the end with a big download of information that doesn't emerge naturally. Ultimately, I was relieved to finish this.