It Will End Like This

YA Chiller 

"Lizzie Borden took an axe,

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one."

     When she was ten Kyra Leigh, author of It Will End Like This, learned about Lizzie Borden's trial for the gruesome murder of her father and stepmother through a children's book.  Although she found the book "disturbing," she couldn't leave it alone.  As she grew up two questions inspired by the true crime story haunted her.  Did Lizzie Borden actually commit the murders? If so, why?  These questions inspired her to write the truly chilling It Will End Like This.

"Do you ever stand in the kitchen and look at the knives?  Do you ever wonder what you could do with a meat cleaver?  What about a butcher's knife?"

     Following a late term miscarriage Charlotte and Maddi's mother starts changing.  She has many fears.  She thinks she's being eaten away from the inside.  She stops eating, consuming only tea and fading away.  Her work assistant, Amber, moves onto the premises, taking on more and more of her house and parenting chores.  One day she's found dead.  People say that her heart stopped.

     The girls react in different ways.  After falling apart dramatically at the funeral Charlotte retreats to her room, shambling around in unwashed clothes.  Maddi, in contrast, keeps going to school, feeling the isolation of being the only member of the family dealing with the social drama.  

"What would it be like? To fix all of this? To end all the pain that my sister and I have?

What would happen if I just ended it?

Everything would start again.

Everything could begin again, and we'd be happy again."

     One day when Maddi has finally convinced Charlotte to return to school the girls come home to a most unwelcome surprise.  Their father and Amber are engaged.  Amber has their mother's ring.  And they're already sleeping together.  

"Sometimes when I dream, I imagine bodies.  

     Blood.  Skin.  Bones.  

     Bodies everywhere...

     All it took was a little bit of courage and a knife, a hammer, an axe.

     They're in a much better place."

     One day Maddi finds a hidden bottle of rodent killer.  The main ingredient is toxic to humans.  A Google search reveals that it can be used in homicidal acts.

     Could their mother have not died of natural causes?  Could her husband and Amber have killed her to speed up their marriage and procreation plans?  Could getting rid of his inconvenient daughters be next on their agenda for creating a perfect family?

     If twisty chillers are your idea of a good read you owe it to yourself to check out It Will End Like This.

On a purrrsonal note, this week is my  internship midway point.  So far it's been a very empowering and confidence building experience.  I'm finding out that I have more skills and connections than I ever realized.  I am feeling invincible.  (Jules)

As well they should.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to my supervisor and all the people I've built connections with.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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