See What I Have Done (Schmidt) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for See What I Have Done … then take off on your own:

1. How would you describe Lizzie?

2. What was the family dynamic (or dynamite?) of the Borden household? Talk especially about Andrew Borden and his treatment of his daughters. Consider the sisters' strained relationship with their stepmother. How would you describe the relationship between Lizzie and Emma? What about Lizzie's remark that "None of this would have had happened if she [Emma] hadn't left me in the house." What do you think she meant?

3.  What were Lizzie's particular resentments regarding her father? Is there one that might have set her off?

4. Talk about Bridget's position in the house.

5. Schmidt blurs the voices and perceptions of characters. Did you find this confusing? Did it detract from your reading experience? Or is the blurring part and parcel of the emotional intensity that propels the novel?

6. Sarah Schmidt writes with an almost sickening physicality — of odors, vomiting, dirty under garments, or bladders full to bursting. Why might she have chosen to employ such vivid descriptions? What effect does it have on the novel's atmosphere and/or tone?

7. Good mysteries depend on suspended revelation, information withheld from readers. What information does Sarah Schmidt withhold? Consider hints at Lizzie's instability. What other hints, for instance, are leveled at Benjamin or Uncle John?

8. Speaking of Uncle John: what is his role in all of this?

9. Schmidt's novel is both a "whodunit" and a "whydunit." What makes Lizzie the prime suspect: Since she was never convicted, however, what are your thoughts on who most likely murdered the Bordens … and why?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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