It Will End Like This

Gr 9 Up–Inspired by the trial of Lizzie Borden, acquitted in late-19th-century New England of murdering her parents, this novel is set in present-day Massachusetts where the mother in a rich, white, dysfunctional family has suddenly expired. Sarah’s symptoms don’t explain why “her heart stopped beating,” the only cause of death given to her teen daughters Maddi and Charlotte. They suspect that Sarah was killed by their father Andrew and his lover Amber, a family employee. What was that bitter tea Amber served Sarah almost daily anyway, and why is there a container of rat poison hidden in a closet? Maddi sees the clues but tries to keep her younger sister Charlotte from connecting the dots too quickly, while the misdeeds of adults in the family grow darker and greedier. This is a thriller that rejects anyone over 18 as having an ulterior motive—a sentiment that will feel familiar to some readers, however misplaced. Avoiding the difficult topic of an unexplained death, the novel airs the exaggerated fantasies of a grieving teen who isolates herself with an obsession. Maddi feels a compulsive urge to validate—or disprove—her sister’s diabolical theories, lest she be consumed by them herself. What either of them is guilty of, however, is anyone’s guess. Warning: excessive use of the word “bitch” for all female characters.