Dawn Ius

“Startling, visceral, and heartbreaking.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From acclaimed author Dawn Ius comes an edge-of-your-seat reimagining of one of the most chilling mysteries in modern history—Lizzie Borden. Seventeen-year-old Lizzie Borden has never been kissed. Polite but painfully shy, Lizzie prefers to stay in the kitchen, where she can dream of becoming a chef and escape her reality. With tyrannical parents who force her to work at the family’s B&B and her blackout episodes—a medical condition that has plagued her since her first menstrual cycle—Lizzie longs for a life of freedom, the time and space to just figure out who she is and what she wants. Enter the effervescent, unpredictable Bridget Sullivan. Bridget has joined the B&B’s staff as the new maid, and Lizzie is instantly drawn to her artistic style and free spirit—even her Star Wars obsession is kind of cute. The two of them forge bonds that quickly turn into something that’s maybe more than friendship. But when her parents try to restrain Lizzie from living the life she wants, it sparks something in her that she can’t quite figure out. Her blackout episodes start getting worse, her instincts less and less reliable. Lizzie is angry, certainly, but she also feels like she’s going mad…

Lizzie

From acclaimed author Dawn Ius comes an edge-of-your-seat reimagining of one of the most chilling mysteries in modern history—Lizzie Borden. Seventeen-year-old Lizzie Borden has never been kissed. Polite but painfully shy, Lizzie prefers to stay in the kitchen, where she can dream of becoming a chef and escape her reality. With tyrannical parents who force her to work at the family’s B&B and her blackout episodes—a medical condition that has plagued her since her first menstrual cycle—Lizzie longs for a life of freedom, the time and space to just figure out who she is and what she wants. Enter the effervescent, unpredictable Bridget Sullivan. Bridget has joined the B&B’s staff as the new maid, and Lizzie is instantly drawn to her artistic style and free spirit—even her Star Wars obsession is kind of cute. The two of them forge bonds that quickly turn into something that’s maybe more than friendship. But when her parents try to restrain Lizzie from living the life she wants, it sparks something in her that she can’t quite figure out. Her blackout episodes start getting worse, her instincts less and less reliable. Lizzie is angry, certainly, but she also feels like she’s going mad…

Briar's Reviews

Lizzie by Dawn Ius is a unique YA take on the Lizzie Borden murders.

I was super intrigued by this book and ridiculously excited to see it show up in my mailbox. I really like reading into weird mysteries and seeing new takes on them. Seeing a YA book about it made me even more curious, because YA is such an interesting area of books and the books written for this group tend to go one of two ways.

I found this book rather boring and weird, which made me quite sad. The premise of this book sounded so good and so interesting: We follow Lizzie Borden as she lives with her dysfunctional family and meets a lovely young woman who she is potentially falling in love with. And then tragedy strikes. 

I've heard the tale many a times about Lizzie, so I really wanted this book to be a cool and unique take on the story. There was so much going for it, but I think the facilitation of it just didn't hit me right. I wanted to DNF it, but I also really wanted to support a great Canadian author. So I stuck through it, and it took quite a while.

There was tension and sadness and despair, but the plot just felt random. It was a bit jumpy and didn't catch my attention. I think with some fine tuning, this book could do really well for it's audience. I almost wanted more points of views or less jumps. It was sitting in the middle, which just didn't do it for me. With so much rich history behind this story, I think there was a lot that could have been added to give it the 'umph' that this book needed. With all of that in mind, it was just too slow for me. It didn't keep my attention, which is what I'm looking for as a reader. 

I think this book is going to be quite the niche book for it's readers. Either you will love it or hate it, and that's okay! Some books are just like that.

One out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Erin 

This book had potential, but unfortunately just didn't do it for me. The writing style is as close as I can determine to purple prose as you can possibly get. Not only that, but it is pretty graphic in some passages, not just with actual graphic events but also within Lizzie's mind. It almost gave me a headache to read because my brain felt like it was overflowing with thoughts, most of which were not cohesive. I absolutely detested Lizzie's parents. I know they're supposed to be the villains in this story, but I thought the emphasis on their abuse towards Lizzie went way over the top and made me feel awful about myself even. As if their comments came right through to my soul. I liked Bridget, but she seemed quite manic pixie dream girl to me and pretty one-sided. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about her, even though she was written in a way that we are obviously supposed to think so. 

One of the things I noticed specifically about Lizzie however was that there was so much effort to make her accurate to the real Lizzie Borden that she also seems flat and underdeveloped. It feels like the author had to throw all this information about her at us to make sure we knew who she is supposed to be. I almost feel like a few more creative liberties could have been taken. Especially with Lizzie's involvement with the church - yes, it was a part of the real Lizzie Borden's life, but it really had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the story and felt like a ton of filler that wasn't necessary. I do like the plot twist at the end however, even though I saw it coming a mile away. Everything seems to come to a fairly tidy end with no question as to how the story may play out, which I actually think is a bit of a weakness. I would like a tiny bit more uncertainty about how it is going to end, even if history tells us. 

I skimmed through most of the second half, mainly because I felt like it was taking forever for the plot to advance. Yet when it came to the climax or even other exciting plot points, it seems to move rather quickly, which I don't think is advantageous either. One of the things I did like were Lizzie’s dream of being a chef, although if she made something other than meatloaf, that would be okay. In the end, I did power through and finish this, and I do think the idea of a modern retelling of Lizzie Borden is a really cool concept, I just wish it was executed a little better.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.