Charlotte and Maddi lost their mother six months ago, and life just keeps getting more difficult for them. Charlotte—Charlie—has barely been able to get out of bed. She had been very close to her mother, loved to sit in the garden with her while she drank he tea. And she had been good friends with her mother’s assistant Amber.
Now that’s over. Her mother is dead, and Amber has stepped in and taken her place. She’s sleeping with their father, living in their house, wearing their mother’s jewelry.
Charlie may be depressed, but wouldn’t you be too? If your mother died, your father acted like he didn’t care, and he’s already moved on to a new partner—if that happened in your family, you’d want to just stay in bed too.
Maddi is worried about Charlie. She’s worried about her dad too, but she can’t do anything about that. But maybe she can still help Charlie. And then she finds gopher poison in the kitchen. Her mother would never use poison in her garden, and Maddi couldn’t think of any reason her father would need gopher killer. And why was it in the kitchen?
Is it possible that her father, or Amber, or both, killed her mother?
As Charlie’s new friend Lana offers up letters that Charlie’s mother had written to her mother, Maddi finds one of their mother’s last journals, and the two sisters try to figure out what she’d been thinking at the end, what she was feeling. What they read just makes them both more certain that she had been murdered. But they’ll need help to prove it. And Maddi needs help with Charlie. So she calls her Uncle Jake to come help. But when he and his wife get there, he’s only interested in getting the house for himself. Maddi realizes that she’s made a terrible mistake asking him to come, and she knows it’s up to her to fix things.
But instead of being able to help Charlie get some help, Maddi watches as her father decides that Charlie needs to go away, to get the psychological help she needs. But no one can break these sisters apart. And when there is no one left but the two of them, they will still be together.
It Will End Like This is a creepy thriller that takes a look inside a dysfunctional family, a family with similar dynamics to the family of Lizzie Border, the notorious alleged axe killer. Author Kyra Leigh lets her theories take on human form in this reimaging of the Borden murders, and it makes for a novel that keeps you on your toes.
I liked this book, but there is an ever-present edge that grows steadily throughout the story, making you feel like you should be looking over your shoulder as you are turning the pages. This book is an experience, and it pulls you in until you don’t know what to believe or who to trust. If you’re looking for a chilling interactive experience, then It Will End Like This is the book you’ve been waiting for. For me, it was a lot. I’m glad I read it, but I won’t want to read it again.
Egalleys for It Will End Like This were provided by Delacorte Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
