What do you think?
Rate this book
Sisterly Love: The Saga of Lizzie and Emma Borden
Just after eleven, on the morning of August 4th, 1892, the peace in a modest residential neighborhood was shattered, by cries of murder. Businessman, Andrew Borden was found by his daughter, Lizzie, bludgeoned to death. Later, his second wife, Abby, was discovered, also hacked to death.
Bridget Sullivan, the house maid had been outside, washing windows, that morning. Oldest daughter, Emma, was away, and Uncle John Morse -- who'd spent the night before with the Borden's -- had a string of unshakeable alibis. That left only Lizzie.
She was arrested, imprisoned for ten months, tried and acquitted of the murders.
Lizzie thought she'd been found innocent, but Fall River deemed her guilty and treated her as a pariah for the rest of her life.
The two sisters lived together for over a decade. Then, something happened that sent Emma storming from the house. Something so awful the sisters never spoke again.
Bridget Sullivan, the house maid had been outside, washing windows, that morning. Oldest daughter, Emma, was away, and Uncle John Morse -- who'd spent the night before with the Borden's -- had a string of unshakeable alibis. That left only Lizzie.
She was arrested, imprisoned for ten months, tried and acquitted of the murders.
Lizzie thought she'd been found innocent, but Fall River deemed her guilty and treated her as a pariah for the rest of her life.
The two sisters lived together for over a decade. Then, something happened that sent Emma storming from the house. Something so awful the sisters never spoke again.
- GenresFiction
158 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2013
8 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2014
Review:SISTERLY LOVE: The Saga of Lizzie & Emma Borden
By: Jordan Bollinger (2013)
Of all the infamous characters in America's relatively short history, Lizzie Andrew Borden has to be near the top of the list. First of all, she allegedly killed her parents, not with a gun or with poison, but with an axe and in broad daylight. Mr &Mrs Borden heads were hacked almost beyond recognition . Every school child knows "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks..." (actually Abby recd 17, Andrew 10). And most of all most people know that Lizzie was ultimately aquitted.
In SISTERLY LOVE: The Saga of Lizzie & Emma Borden, Jordan Bollinger has turned the Borden tragedy we all know on it's ear. Please note, this is a work of fiction, although Bollinger has done her research and all of the trial transcripts are authentic as well as the newspaper articles cited as part of the story.
The novel opens with Lizzie, long dead but trapped in her coffin, which she seems to feel is her purgatory for long with holding the truth.
With Lizzie as narrator, we learn that she is sometimes plagued by "spells" that she tells no one of. We also learn that she is a 32 yr old spinster who lives in Fall River MA with her adored & wealthy father Andrew, her beloved older (by 10 yrs) sister Emma and her hated stepmother Abby. Her Uncle John Morse is also a frequent visitor and the Borden'd Irish housemaid Bridget aka Maggie.
Lizzie begins her tale by recounting the morning of 8/4/1893. She recalls a disagreement the morning before between her stepmother ,whom she always refers to as Mrs. Borden and her father. It seems, Mrs Borden became convinced she was being poisoned and had made haste to the Borden's neighbor (& family physician) Dr Bowen to voice her fears. About this time her husband had returned and became irate not only at the meek Abby, but at Dr Bowen. The good dr had dismissed the family stomach distress as Sunday's mutton and recommended that it be tossed out. Miserly Andrew refused, and demanded it be served for dinner once again(lunch). Later that evening Andrews friend and former brother in law Uncle John Morse (reviled by Lizzie & Emma) arrived and Lizzie's dark cloud intensified. Lizzie could hear the hushed voices if her parents & Uncle John and it became apparent to her that a plot was underway. Emma her dear sister & ally was away visiting friends.
Aug 4th dawned oppressively hot. Lizzie heard her father and John leave and also understood Mrs Borden tell Bridget to wash the windows.
After chatting w/ Bridget and eating a light breakfast, Lizzie went upstairs and discovered her stepmother murdered in the guest room. Realizing Mrs Borden is beyond help and fearing she would be blamed, she dresses & prepares to go downstreet. However, her father returns home earlier than expected. After lying to Andrew that Abby is out on an emergency errand, she goes to the barn for a brief time. Upon her return, she finds her father's murdered body.
Lizzie is insistant that she is not guilty.
Lizzie's subsequent arrest, incarceration and trial are detailed but the reader is introduced to Emma, 10 years older than Lizzie. While Lizzie seems more naive and easily led, Emma is dour, puritanical and with a highly defined sense of "us" and "them".
Upon Lizzie's acquittal, the sisters use their vast inheritance to move up the hill but while Lizzie becomes enamored of travel and theatre, Emma's disapproval and religious fervor strongly divide the sisters.
Upon their final confrontation, and Bollinger solves the murder and it's motivation in an almost unbelievable way.
SISTERLY LOVE is definitely an interesting twist on a well known story. I don't believe that any one who reads it will accept her conclusion but it does make for an interesting read. I would suggest checking it out of the library and saving your money for another book.
By: Jordan Bollinger (2013)
Of all the infamous characters in America's relatively short history, Lizzie Andrew Borden has to be near the top of the list. First of all, she allegedly killed her parents, not with a gun or with poison, but with an axe and in broad daylight. Mr &Mrs Borden heads were hacked almost beyond recognition . Every school child knows "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks..." (actually Abby recd 17, Andrew 10). And most of all most people know that Lizzie was ultimately aquitted.
In SISTERLY LOVE: The Saga of Lizzie & Emma Borden, Jordan Bollinger has turned the Borden tragedy we all know on it's ear. Please note, this is a work of fiction, although Bollinger has done her research and all of the trial transcripts are authentic as well as the newspaper articles cited as part of the story.
The novel opens with Lizzie, long dead but trapped in her coffin, which she seems to feel is her purgatory for long with holding the truth.
With Lizzie as narrator, we learn that she is sometimes plagued by "spells" that she tells no one of. We also learn that she is a 32 yr old spinster who lives in Fall River MA with her adored & wealthy father Andrew, her beloved older (by 10 yrs) sister Emma and her hated stepmother Abby. Her Uncle John Morse is also a frequent visitor and the Borden'd Irish housemaid Bridget aka Maggie.
Lizzie begins her tale by recounting the morning of 8/4/1893. She recalls a disagreement the morning before between her stepmother ,whom she always refers to as Mrs. Borden and her father. It seems, Mrs Borden became convinced she was being poisoned and had made haste to the Borden's neighbor (& family physician) Dr Bowen to voice her fears. About this time her husband had returned and became irate not only at the meek Abby, but at Dr Bowen. The good dr had dismissed the family stomach distress as Sunday's mutton and recommended that it be tossed out. Miserly Andrew refused, and demanded it be served for dinner once again(lunch). Later that evening Andrews friend and former brother in law Uncle John Morse (reviled by Lizzie & Emma) arrived and Lizzie's dark cloud intensified. Lizzie could hear the hushed voices if her parents & Uncle John and it became apparent to her that a plot was underway. Emma her dear sister & ally was away visiting friends.
Aug 4th dawned oppressively hot. Lizzie heard her father and John leave and also understood Mrs Borden tell Bridget to wash the windows.
After chatting w/ Bridget and eating a light breakfast, Lizzie went upstairs and discovered her stepmother murdered in the guest room. Realizing Mrs Borden is beyond help and fearing she would be blamed, she dresses & prepares to go downstreet. However, her father returns home earlier than expected. After lying to Andrew that Abby is out on an emergency errand, she goes to the barn for a brief time. Upon her return, she finds her father's murdered body.
Lizzie is insistant that she is not guilty.
Lizzie's subsequent arrest, incarceration and trial are detailed but the reader is introduced to Emma, 10 years older than Lizzie. While Lizzie seems more naive and easily led, Emma is dour, puritanical and with a highly defined sense of "us" and "them".
Upon Lizzie's acquittal, the sisters use their vast inheritance to move up the hill but while Lizzie becomes enamored of travel and theatre, Emma's disapproval and religious fervor strongly divide the sisters.
Upon their final confrontation, and Bollinger solves the murder and it's motivation in an almost unbelievable way.
SISTERLY LOVE is definitely an interesting twist on a well known story. I don't believe that any one who reads it will accept her conclusion but it does make for an interesting read. I would suggest checking it out of the library and saving your money for another book.
April 21, 2014
This book is about Lizzie Borden and the murder of her father and step-mother. But there is more but I am not going to tell you about it because I do not put spoilers in my reviews.
It is very good and detailed in what was going on during her arrest, her trial and time in jail.
I thought the book was well written and flowed very good. It is a short book, 172 pages; but a very powerful story.
It is very good and detailed in what was going on during her arrest, her trial and time in jail.
I thought the book was well written and flowed very good. It is a short book, 172 pages; but a very powerful story.
July 11, 2016
A work of historical fiction, Sisterly Love is the account of the highly publicized Lizzie Borden murders told from the perspective of Lizzie herself. I think the story is loosely based on fact, and overall is an interesting read, however may not be for those looking for a factual account or a forensic analysis.
January 29, 2014
I am not so sure I agree with this version of these infamous murders, but it was certainly interesting.
July 13, 2024
This book was so good. It's a really short read. It took me awhile, only because I wanted to enjoy it.
I really felt like Lizbeth was talking to me. The author did a really good job having Lizbeth tell her story. It felt real like I was sitting right next to her. I really didn't want it to end. I believe that she's innocent, no matter what anybody says.
I really felt like Lizbeth was talking to me. The author did a really good job having Lizbeth tell her story. It felt real like I was sitting right next to her. I really didn't want it to end. I believe that she's innocent, no matter what anybody says.
April 24, 2016
Excellent FICTIONAL account of the relationship between the Borden sisters
"Sisterly Love" is a work of fiction based on the lives of Lizzie and Emma Borden, covering the period from the murders in August, 1892 until their final breach in 1905, which Emma in a 1914 interview claimed was due to Lizzie's friendship with the then famous actress Nance O'Neill and her theatre company. (O'Neill made a couple of early talkies and video of her is available on YouTube.) The period of the murders and subsequent trail are not dealt with in any great depth, except for Lizzie's musings about what if this or that. Much has been written about those days, so 's. Bollinger had plenty of research material to get the facts right, although there are a couple of minor missteps. The bulk of the book concerns the pretty much undocumented period after, while the sisters shared the infamous house, Maplecroft. Emma, the more dominant personality, has Lizzie rather cowed and Lizzie fibs about trips she takes and about other things to prevent an eruption on the part of the ten years older sister who served as a surrogate mother after the girl's actual mother died when they were thirteen and three. Everything blows up when Emma goes away to the coast for two weeks with a friend. Lizzie throws a weekend house party for O'Neill and some of her acting company without telling Emma about it. Emma arrives home a few days early to find the actress sitting on the porch chatting with Lizzie. Thus begins the best part of the book, "Emma's Tale," covering about the last third of the novel. Everything has been a quiet build up to this sequence, a conversation between the sisters over the course of a single afternoon, about their entire lives to that point. Anymore would spoil the book.
Readers are again advised that this is FICTION.
This period of the sister's lives is not documented in great detail because Emma was always retiring in nature, and Lizzie became so as she was ostracized by Fall River after the trail and really only had any joy in life when she was on shopping and theatre going trips to Boston and Washington D.C. Ms. Bollinger therefore has the room to be very imaginative at the end of the novel. So little is known of the sisters' activities during this period that she can pretty much do with her characters as she likes, to stunning effect.
Those were the days of "a lady should only have her name in the papers at her birth, at her marriage, and at her death."
One has to wonder if Lizzie might not have been able to live more of the life she would have liked if she had not sat on her pride and instead left Fall River behind and moved away. Lizzie was infamous, and dared not only to try to enjoy the life that the wealth she inherited allowed, but purchase a large house. She and her sister historically broke in 1905, and both lived lonely, solitary lives. Emma chose to do so because she was always retiring g and felt after the trial that retirement was the most appropriate action. Lizzie was forced into retirement because the townspeople would have nothing to do with her, and because the papers dragged out her notoriety every August 4th with an annual rehash of summer, 1892. They died nine or ten days apart in the summer of 1927 and are buried with their father, mother, stepmother, and a sister who died as a toddler in Fall River. Lizzie's grave marker reads "Lisbeth," the name she used after the murders, her baptismal name being Lizzie Andrew Borden.
"Sisterly Love" is a work of fiction based on the lives of Lizzie and Emma Borden, covering the period from the murders in August, 1892 until their final breach in 1905, which Emma in a 1914 interview claimed was due to Lizzie's friendship with the then famous actress Nance O'Neill and her theatre company. (O'Neill made a couple of early talkies and video of her is available on YouTube.) The period of the murders and subsequent trail are not dealt with in any great depth, except for Lizzie's musings about what if this or that. Much has been written about those days, so 's. Bollinger had plenty of research material to get the facts right, although there are a couple of minor missteps. The bulk of the book concerns the pretty much undocumented period after, while the sisters shared the infamous house, Maplecroft. Emma, the more dominant personality, has Lizzie rather cowed and Lizzie fibs about trips she takes and about other things to prevent an eruption on the part of the ten years older sister who served as a surrogate mother after the girl's actual mother died when they were thirteen and three. Everything blows up when Emma goes away to the coast for two weeks with a friend. Lizzie throws a weekend house party for O'Neill and some of her acting company without telling Emma about it. Emma arrives home a few days early to find the actress sitting on the porch chatting with Lizzie. Thus begins the best part of the book, "Emma's Tale," covering about the last third of the novel. Everything has been a quiet build up to this sequence, a conversation between the sisters over the course of a single afternoon, about their entire lives to that point. Anymore would spoil the book.
Readers are again advised that this is FICTION.
This period of the sister's lives is not documented in great detail because Emma was always retiring in nature, and Lizzie became so as she was ostracized by Fall River after the trail and really only had any joy in life when she was on shopping and theatre going trips to Boston and Washington D.C. Ms. Bollinger therefore has the room to be very imaginative at the end of the novel. So little is known of the sisters' activities during this period that she can pretty much do with her characters as she likes, to stunning effect.
Those were the days of "a lady should only have her name in the papers at her birth, at her marriage, and at her death."
One has to wonder if Lizzie might not have been able to live more of the life she would have liked if she had not sat on her pride and instead left Fall River behind and moved away. Lizzie was infamous, and dared not only to try to enjoy the life that the wealth she inherited allowed, but purchase a large house. She and her sister historically broke in 1905, and both lived lonely, solitary lives. Emma chose to do so because she was always retiring g and felt after the trial that retirement was the most appropriate action. Lizzie was forced into retirement because the townspeople would have nothing to do with her, and because the papers dragged out her notoriety every August 4th with an annual rehash of summer, 1892. They died nine or ten days apart in the summer of 1927 and are buried with their father, mother, stepmother, and a sister who died as a toddler in Fall River. Lizzie's grave marker reads "Lisbeth," the name she used after the murders, her baptismal name being Lizzie Andrew Borden.
March 8, 2015
I really enjoyed reading this book, but was appalled at all of the typos and poor grammar. Even the punctuation had many errors. I find it ironic that this author had a job as a proofreader. I was convinced that this book had never been proofread.
October 17, 2014
A novel written from Lizzie's point of view. Who killed the parents? You'll be surprised to find out!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews