It Will End Like This

December 1, 2021
Lizzie Borden's story gets a contemporary reimagining. Sisters Charlotte and Maddi grieve for their deceased mother. They were told her heart stopped, but they find that suspicious. To make matters worse, Amber, their mother's young personal assistant, is now dating their dad and wearing their mother's jewelry. When Maddi uncovers poison in their house, the siblings start to question whether their dad and Amber had something to do with their mother's death. They share their worries with Uncle Jake, their mom's brother, and new student Lana seeks Charlotte's friendship and offers to help as well. However, Charlotte and Maddi soon learn the only ones they can truly trust and rely on are each other, and drastic measures may be warranted. Readers familiar with the true Borden story will know that murder is coming, but this novel's focus is on the mindsets and emotions of the sisters as their grief turns to anger and rage. Short chapters shift between Charlotte's and Maddi's narratives. Charlotte in particular feels like an unreliable narrator, as she constantly questions and contradicts herself, which will make readers question her mental state. The story has all the trimmings of a slow-burn psychological thriller, but the straightforward, repetitive text is dull while the twists and turns are obvious and lack shock value or are simply not believable. Main characters are assumed White. Lackluster. (author's note, resources) (Psychological thriller. 14-18)

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January 1, 2022

Gr 9 Up-Inspired by the trial of Lizzie Borden, acquitted in late-19th-century New England of murdering her parents, this novel is set in present-day Massachusetts where the mother in a rich, white, dysfunctional family has suddenly expired. Sarah's symptoms don't explain why "her heart stopped beating," the only cause of death given to her teen daughters Maddi and Charlotte. They suspect that Sarah was killed by their father Andrew and his lover Amber, a family employee. What was that bitter tea Amber served Sarah almost daily anyway, and why is there a container of rat poison hidden in a closet? Maddi sees the clues but tries to keep her younger sister Charlotte from connecting the dots too quickly, while the misdeeds of adults in the family grow darker and greedier. This is a thriller that rejects anyone over 18 as having an ulterior motive-a sentiment that will feel familiar to some readers, however misplaced. Avoiding the difficult topic of an unexplained death, the novel airs the exaggerated fantasies of a grieving teen who isolates herself with an obsession. Maddi feels a compulsive urge to validate-or disprove-her sister's diabolical theories, lest she be consumed by them herself. What either of them is guilty of, however, is anyone's guess. Warning: excessive use of the word "bitch" for all female characters. VERDICT The tension mounts in this novel as two suspicious sisters seek answers for their mother's sudden death.-Georgia Christgau

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