Readers will recognize the name: in a small Massachusetts town, 17-year-old Lizzie Borden works as a chef at her family’s bed-and-breakfast, beneath the punishing thumbs of her father and stepmother. Lizzie’s longing for freedom grows stronger when bright, worldly Bridget Sullivan comes to work as a maid at the inn. The girls develop a friendship that swiftly becomes more, but Lizzie suffers from blackouts, and as her parents’ abuse intensifies, she can’t always control her actions. Ius applies the same conceit she used in Anne and Henry (2015)—historical characters in a contemporary setting—to the story of Lizzie Borden. It’s an odd concept, especially as Ius mostly recreates what’s known of those days before the infamous 1892 murders. Despite the modern-day setting, much of the language still feels historical, due in part to Lizzie’s isolation and religious upbringing. Still, Lizzie’s relationship with Bridget provides a strong emotional core. More than a century later, interest in the Borden murders has not waned, and this will attract plenty of readers because of it. — Maggie Reagan

– Booklist, Jan 11, 2018

The story of Lizzie Borden, creatively reimagined and set in the 21st century.

Present-tense narrator Lizbeth Borden lives with her father and stepmother in the Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. The white 17-year-old’s life isn’t easy: her emotionally and physically abusive parents have convinced the devoutly Catholic Lizzie that she’s too fragile to survive without them. Lizzie’s intense sense of Catholic guilt prevents her from pushing back, and her older sister’s escape from their toxic home makes Lizzie’s plight all the more painful. Lizzie is mentally and physically ill; she suffers from depression and anxiety and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a chronic condition aggravated by her period. The illness makes her do strange, inexplicable—and sometimes horrific—things she can’t remember doing. Enter Bridget Sullivan, the B&B’s new maid, a lovely white girl with an Irish accent. Lizzie is attracted to her from the moment she shows up on the Bordens’ doorstep. Bridget is everything Lizzie isn’t: well-traveled, sexually liberated, and free from shame and self-doubt. As the girls’ romantic relationship deepens, Bridget’s belief that Lizzie can be more than just her “father’s silly little girl” gives Lizzie the strength to disobey her parents and the power to take control of her own life. In this page-turner, Ius adroitly combines fact and hypothesis to explore one of the most notorious and unsolved murder cases in U.S. history.

Startling, visceral, and heartbreaking. (author’s note) (Fiction. 15-adult)

– Kirkus STARRED REVIEW, 4/10/18