Scan barcode
A review by dilchh
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
2.0
I’m a big fan of murder stories even though I’m a scaredy cat. This story was the author’s take on the Borden murder, one of the famous murder case, so why wouldn’t I not be interested, right? Because, tell you what? I am beyond excited about reading this book. I really really am beyond excited!
BUT..
Hmm where do I start? Truthfully not only does this book has an interesting premise, it also cuts into the chase, I thought I was going to spend a lot of time just to get to the murder, thankfully the author didn’t made me sit through that, but she did made me sit through endless amount of unnecessary descriptions if things that I’m sure it has nothing to do with the story. I get that I complained about author being too detailed in descriptions of things that I thing is unnecessary, but why would I need to know about things that have no relevance whatsoever to the story?
And don’t even get me started on the many unnecessary flashbacks. There would be moments where the narrator (that changes for each chapter, in total there are four narrators in the story; Lizzie, Emma, Benjamin, and Bridget) would be talking about things that happened in the present and suddenly went back into the past without so much as a clue, and it took me several sentences before it dawned on me that the narrator was talking about something that had happened in the past. And, get this, the flashbacks weren’t important. Sure, there were stuffs that might have held some relevance to the story, but more often than not, it doesn’t, and it is tiring to have read so many words all for nothing.
But, not all is lost, this book has amazing characters’ depictions. Amazing writings on the characters. To my understanding, Benjamin might very well be the only fictional characters in the story, as there are no mention of Benjamin in the cases but at the very same time, he is most intriguing. And even though I knew that Lizzie’s cause of death is pneumonia, I almost wished that Benjamin gets to kill he in the story. Am I an evil person for wishing that? But, of course it’s not entirely surprising to have Benjamin so interesting a character, since he’s a fictional person, but even Lizzie, Emma and Bridget were written interestingly.
I hated Lizzie with every fibre in me when I read about how obnoxious and selfish she was through Emma’s eyes, and I weep for Emma and Bridget. It’s amazing to feel such strong emotions for people that I don’t even know personally, it shows how amazing the author personified these people in the story. That being said, can I complain one more time?
RIGHT, THIS CAN PROBABLY COUNTS AS SPOILER, SO SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.
Overall, it wasn’t a fun reading experience for me, what with the unnecessary descriptions and details of things, but I did enjoy Benjamin’s side of the story so kudos for that, and the only reason I didn’t give this book a one star probably boils down to Benjamin’s story.
BUT..
Hmm where do I start? Truthfully not only does this book has an interesting premise, it also cuts into the chase, I thought I was going to spend a lot of time just to get to the murder, thankfully the author didn’t made me sit through that, but she did made me sit through endless amount of unnecessary descriptions if things that I’m sure it has nothing to do with the story. I get that I complained about author being too detailed in descriptions of things that I thing is unnecessary, but why would I need to know about things that have no relevance whatsoever to the story?
And don’t even get me started on the many unnecessary flashbacks. There would be moments where the narrator (that changes for each chapter, in total there are four narrators in the story; Lizzie, Emma, Benjamin, and Bridget) would be talking about things that happened in the present and suddenly went back into the past without so much as a clue, and it took me several sentences before it dawned on me that the narrator was talking about something that had happened in the past. And, get this, the flashbacks weren’t important. Sure, there were stuffs that might have held some relevance to the story, but more often than not, it doesn’t, and it is tiring to have read so many words all for nothing.
But, not all is lost, this book has amazing characters’ depictions. Amazing writings on the characters. To my understanding, Benjamin might very well be the only fictional characters in the story, as there are no mention of Benjamin in the cases but at the very same time, he is most intriguing. And even though I knew that Lizzie’s cause of death is pneumonia, I almost wished that Benjamin gets to kill he in the story. Am I an evil person for wishing that? But, of course it’s not entirely surprising to have Benjamin so interesting a character, since he’s a fictional person, but even Lizzie, Emma and Bridget were written interestingly.
I hated Lizzie with every fibre in me when I read about how obnoxious and selfish she was through Emma’s eyes, and I weep for Emma and Bridget. It’s amazing to feel such strong emotions for people that I don’t even know personally, it shows how amazing the author personified these people in the story. That being said, can I complain one more time?
RIGHT, THIS CAN PROBABLY COUNTS AS SPOILER, SO SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.
Spoiler
What was the purpose of showing the reader that Lizzie kissed Mrs Borden, even going so far as to mentioning that eventually Mrs Borden return the kiss also? Like, are we supposed to think that Lizzie might be attracted to Mrs Borden, and that is probably a trigger as to why she’s very hostile towards Mrs Borden as she grew older? Because, not only it was a waste of plot as there were no closure or significance to it, it seems like the author is going the extra mile to portray Lizzie as this very disturbed person. I don’t care for that plot at all.Overall, it wasn’t a fun reading experience for me, what with the unnecessary descriptions and details of things, but I did enjoy Benjamin’s side of the story so kudos for that, and the only reason I didn’t give this book a one star probably boils down to Benjamin’s story.