3.5 rounded to 3.

Lizzie Borden is one of those 'cultural osmosis' kind of stories - we all know something about it, but we aren't necessarily sure of the details. I have no idea how historically accurate this story is, but it's certainly involving and atmospheric. There are several graphically sickly descriptions of pears being eaten; and of pears rotting on the ground, which turned my stomach - there is something quesy about this book. I quite enjoyed it, and simultaneously didn't like it at all...

I went in thrilled to read this book. I heard so much fantastic buzz around the story & I was looking forward to a new take on an old tale. While I think Sarah's overall writing style is unique, this retelling didn't do it for me. I picked the book up three different times thinking I just wasn't in the mood for a somber tale of what I believe to be a thrilling story. Perhaps this is one of those times where my expectations are so high, it's difficult to compete. Special thanks to Sarah Schmidt, Atlantic Monthly Press & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

I am not sure where to start with this review.
I guess you could put this in the 'grit lit' category Mr.2.0 (or maybe I am misunderstanding that genre completely *shrug*)
Everything in this book creaked/smelled/bled/shrieked. The food made you sick and small animals died in the walls leaving behind a smell. Forget there being no redeemable characters, there was not one redeeming thing in this book.
I didn't much care for how Lizzy was written. You are slapped wright in the face with her narrative at the beginning. If the entire book was written from her POV I am sure I could not have finished it. The prose of her character drove me a bit batty, but then I have to go back and give the writing style some credit. I think driving the reader a bit crazy was the point, Lizzy was batty herself. I don't know that this is an honest portrayal of the true Lizzy Borden, I think there was some artistic license taken here. Historical fiction and all.
While reading the book I can't say that I much enjoyed the experience. Nearly every experience in this book was unpleasant. Looking back at the story as a whole picture. I have to say that it was well done. The wrap up was a bit abrupt though.

so what am I trying to say?
My best summation is to say it is like a really stinky cheese. Not a pleasant smell but some people can appreciate the experience. But it might give you a tummy ache.
I would give Sarah Schmidt another try.

This copy was given to me on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A captivating new take on an old tale. I found the narrative heavy going (perhaps because a number of the characters were fairly creepy) and the novel hard to connect with.

As someone who lives across the river from the city Lizzie Borden made famous, I was looking forward to hearing a new perspective on the murders. I was not disappointed.

Schmidt takes a gruesome, shocking crime and makes it almost lyrical with her lush and elegant writing style. The tense and stifling atmosphere she creates for Lizzie and her family (including her maid and confidant Bridget), really set the pacing of the book. Schmidt does a fabulous job of putting us not only inside the character's heads but also into that period of history when heat, illness, stifling Victorian clothing and lack of indoor plumbing make for truly awful living conditions, ramping up both the tension and the feeling of impending doom.

I was most impressed with how the author was able to keep me guessing from beginning to end. Did Lizzie do it? I'll never tell. Read the book!

This was an incredibly well-written book with gorgeous prose. The descriptive language created a sensory experience that made this one of the best examples of historical fiction I've ever read. Lizzie Borden is such a fascinating character and this book definitely added to the mystery. If you're looking for a haunting historical crime novel, then this is for you.

i wanted to love this book.
I also kind of expected to love it! It screamed at me that it was my type of book: 1. victorian ear setting! 2. retelling of a real event! 3. murder! 4.even better female murderer!

And it was good in many aspects...
But than there were some sections that were just horrendous to me to read about. I will never ever feel it necessary to get a detailed description of vomit. Not my thing.
give me blood and gore and horror. But i spend to many hours in my life so far hanging over a toilet to need a detailed description of vomiting in my books, especially when i try to not think about my illness!
Sure it was a small section, i am guessing that many readers will not even notice it or remember it after finishing the book.
But personal issues are sometimes a big part of what makes us enjoy, love or sadly not love a book.

All in all its a good book. Decent writing, nice story telling, good plot idea.
But with scenes that i personally have problems with and the actual plot and the way it was written just didn't work that all for me personally.

It's amazing how long a murder can stay in the public eye. The Lizzie Borden murder trial was interesting and I have read a bit about it through the years. The movie with Elizabeth Montgomery wasn't too bad either. I was disappointed by this book though. It just didn't connect with me. Lizzie Bordens family surely was dysfunctional, and the case was totally botched, but she got off; it couldn't be proved that she killed anyone, though she certainly has cause enough to....Oh, well. I am sure many readers will enjoy this book. It's covers lots of territory. It's just not for me.

the best version of the Lizzie Borden story yet.
I couldn't put down See What I Have Done.
Much better than all the recent tv shows and movies!
Should have won the Women's fiction prize.

I wanted to read this book because I remember hearing about the murders when I was in high school. Plus, there are so many documentaries and television movies about the murders. This was my first time reading this author I enjoyed the story very much. At first I was a tad bit confused because there are several points of views and that was a little overwhelming. Once I got the hang of it I could NOT put this story down. I loved the way all the points of views paralleled towards the end of the story. This story was gripping and throughly entertained me and now I have a renewed interest in the case and some theories of my own!

Having long been fascinated by the story of Lizzie Borden, I wanted to like this book. I found it to be too slow-moving. I had hoped to see characters developed into robust, engaging people who the reader can either love, hate, fear, understand...characters who elicited an emotional or psychological response of some kind. But I didn't find that to be the case.

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

This was an excellent read that kept me entranced from beginning to end. The integration of a true-crime story and a wonderfully written novel was satisfying and maintained my attention for the entirety of the novel. I felt connected to the story line and invested in the tale. All in all, excellent for anyone who is aware of the backstory, or someone wanting to know more about the situation.

If the story of Lizzie Borden doesn't give you an adequate case of the creepy crawlies, this fictionalized account of the murders will.. Artful and chilling, Schmidt leads us down the creaking hallways of the Borden home in Fall River Massachusetts. She cracks the door so we can spy on Lizzie, her parents, her sister, the maid and an unexpected guess on this oft-told of day of family horror.

Sarah Schmidt's See What I Have Done is a novel that has the advantage of having a truly titillating premise and a built-in fan base of readers who already know of Miss Lizzie Borden’s infamy

I'm thrilled that one of my favorite historical mysteries was finally successfully novelized. I couldn't put this down! Great writing and an amazing cover design are sure to make this a hit seller. A great selection for book clubs.

I wanted so bad to love this book, a pit that didn't go so well. I really tried to force me to like it but I figure out it wasn't the best idea. The mistery was good though, but it could have been so much more. I also thought the book a bit repetitive.

As a huge fan of true crime, I have always been interested by the case of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and step-mother with an axe in 1892. Although she was acquitted at trial, Lizzie remains the main suspect in the murder, and I was really looking forward to reading See What I Have Done, which is a retelling of those events. The book benefits from the fact that the events of the book are so infamous, however, because the plot is so simple in that you know what happens, there needs to be more to make the book worthwhile. which in my opinion, See What I Have Done lacked. 

In particular, as I said above, I was excited to see how Sara Schmidt presented Lizzie Borden herself, and the aspects of her character which led her to not only supposedly murder her parents, but to dominate her complicated relationship with her sister, and live the rest of her life in the very town where she allegedly committed the crime. Unfortunately, I think the book failed to make Lizzie interesting to me, and instead she was just annoying and simplistic. The Lizzie Borden in the novel is childlike in tone, throwing tantrums and manipulating those around her, but I felt like the dark side to her just wasn't dark enough. It didn't strike fear into me, and if the events of the story weren't based on real life events, I don't know that I would have suspected that she was even capable of the crime. Most of the characters had an issue along these lines for me. Apart from the set character that they were assigned in the story - Lizzie is childlike and scheming, Emma is the older sister who feels trapped by responsibility, the maid Bridget wants to go home to Ireland - there was nothing else to them. There were no grey areas or complexities, and I didn't really care about any of them. 

The second issue that I had with the book was the slow, lugging pace of the plot and the overuse of minor details. For example, I could barely tell whether the events of the book were simply focusing on the day of the murder, or the days leading up to it and after, because nothing really happened - apart from the murder itself, that is. It seemed like every single action by the characters was one of three options - eating pears, eating mutton, or struggling with food poisoning. I suppose that these details were meant to add to an atmosphere of claustrophobia in the house and increasing tension, like a ticking time bomb, but in reality it just felt repetitive and irrelevant after a time.

Regardless of the lack of action, the book could have been saved by more faceted character exploration, but as that was also lacking, I just felt like I was trudging through mud trying to finish this book. I think it could have been saved by some more character interactions, as they actually barely spoke to each other, but I suspect perhaps that Schmidt did not want to take any artistic liberties adding in events that are not historically proven. 

I think Sarah Schmidt was perhaps trying to cast doubt on the belief that Lizzie committed the murders by including the chapters with her uncle and Benjamin, a man hired to teach Mr Borden a lesson. However, she didn't really go through with it and kept with the story that Lizzie was guilty, which then just made me wonder what the point of these narrators were. I would have preferred for there to be a tighter focus on the Lizzie and her immediate family, or even just Lizzie and her sister Emma, exploring Emma's suspicions, instead of having so many narrators. This would have made the book much more interesting that simply all of these characters eating mutton and pears. 

Overall, I wish that I had loved this book, but it just failed to make me feel that tinge of terror and curiosity that I love getting from the Lizzie Borden case and other true crime stories. It was too weighted down with attempts to create an atmosphere, which simply fell flat for me and felt repetitive and boring.

Amazingly creepy, Gothic exploration of the Lizzie Borden murders. Schmidt's spare prose offers a relentless unfolding of the events and pathology that leads to such catastrophic violence. The pace is unremittingly torpid. with the lethargy of the characters only adding to the horror. Breathtaking.

I really couldn't get into this one. WAY too much exposition. I just started daydreaming and wanting to skip entire pages. I didn't even finish it. I appreciate the opportunity to read it, but this just wasn't my cup of tea.