Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Rancid Like Week-old Mutton Soup

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

July 24, 2024 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

See What I Have Done is a work of historical fiction about the Lizzie Borden axe murders. It is without doubt the worst book I’ve read in recent memory. The story is divided into four first-person narrators: Lizzie, Lizzie’s sister Emma, Bridget the housemaid, and a totally random made-up character named Benjamin who spends most of his chapters hiding in the murder house, despite all the police and family on the scene. Benjamin’s inclusion is inexplicable–he brings nothing to the table, he didn’t exist in […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: sarah schmidt

esmemoria's CBR16 Review No:9 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: sarah schmidt ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Lizzie Borden took an axe?

April 2, 2018 by yesknopemaybe Leave a Comment

4.5 stars. I’d been eyeing this fictionalized account of the Lizzie Borden story for a while so when it was long-listed for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction, I snagged a copy from my library. After reading it, it’s easy to see why it was longlisted. Schmidt is not fucking around with her prose. See What I Have Done is an incredible piece of writing, especially considering that it’s Schmidt’s debut. This is definitely a work of fiction, but there are huge overlaps with actual […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History Tagged With: crime, Fiction, history, Lizzie Borden, mystery, sarah schmidt, See What I Have Done, Suspense

yesknopemaybe's CBR10 Review No:32 · Genres: Fiction, History · Tags: crime, Fiction, history, Lizzie Borden, mystery, sarah schmidt, See What I Have Done, Suspense ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Creepy as F****

January 25, 2018 by Jenny S Leave a Comment

I finished this book with so many conflicting thoughts/emotions and most of them were unpleasant.  First of all, I appreciate what Sarah Schmidt is trying to do—tell the story of Lizzie Borden and her whacks in such a way that you see (or more accurately feel) that the line between victimizer and victim is blurry and complicated.  Schmidt is a strong writer and by telling the story of the famous murder from the point of view of four characters and in an overlapping but nonlinear […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Lizzie Borden, sarah schmidt, See What I Have Done

Jenny S's CBR10 Review No:6 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Lizzie Borden, sarah schmidt, See What I Have Done ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Lizzie Borden took an axe…

August 11, 2017 by TheShitWizard Leave a Comment

“Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one.” Although I love history and true crime, the above summed up all I knew about Lizzie Borden before reading this book. See What I Have Done attempts to put some flesh on the story, by imagining what may have happened in the Borden household up to and around the killings. The Borden household is a pretty dysfunctional one, much to the dismay […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: crime, historical fiction, sarah schmidt

TheShitWizard's CBR9 Review No:47 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: crime, historical fiction, sarah schmidt ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments


Recent Comments

  • tamaranth
    on Among the Stars
    I think you may have misunderstood the book. Caroline was his sister, not his wife.
  • Tracy
    on I loved this book
    Me, too! Glad I'm not the only one who started to tear up at that. But then again, I used...
  • esmemoria
    on I loved this book
    This book sounds wonderful and very moving.
  • finnyfinfinn
    on I am Patient 6
    Oh my godtopus I did not even consider the lack of air conditioning. Kill me immediately.
  • Emmalita
    on I am Patient 6
    My plan in the zombie apocalypse is to be killed early, because I won’t survive an unairconditioned summer on the...
See More Recent Comments »

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