Another Elizabeth

Janes #2

by Elizabeth Elle Mitchell

Another Elizabeth is a gripping literary psychological crip horror novel that readers will sink their teeth into. Fans of dark humor and challenging fiction will be thrilled to delve into the mind of a deeply flawed disabled woman with a desire to kill.

Elizabeth’s life is taking a turn.
She has three jobs, a boyfriend that loves her too much, and a recent diagnosis of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. She’s coming apart at the seams. Now all she cares about is keeping her promise to her younger self before her body fails her—kill without getting caught.
Will she physically be able to satisfy her urge while maintaining her carefully built façade of normalcy? And if so, will she be able to stop with just one victim?

*This is a dark book with many graphic situations. There is no sexual assault or rape. No animals are tortured or die.

Paperback

First published March 24, 2023

About the author

Elizabeth Mitchell is a disabled author, multidisciplinary artist, and publisher who's lived many lives. Her work challenges, blends genres, explores haunted bodies, and delves into the human psyche. She's a social activist, a gamer with potato aim, and an avid reader. As a woman with several invisible illnesses, she enjoys living a semi-horizontal life with her husband and spoiled furbutts in the PNW. Her writing is also under Elle. Find her at https://www.justanotherelizabeth.com/.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I wrote this, so I'm partial to it. But there's a reason I chose to write it. Characters yell at me all the time, begging me to tell their story. Elizabeth was different. She beat me over the head with her cane. I respected that.

She said I could write this story like no one else. I have hEDS, so I could write authentically about my experiences with it (every person's chronic illness shows up differently). I'm no serial killer, mind you, but still I listened to her and wrote the novel.

As I edited, I realized how much I wanted to see chronic illness in horror—in fiction at all, really—where we are just people. I aimed to do that here. She's not just disabled, she's not just a serial killer or a woman or a person with a ton of jobs because life is expensive. She's human.

I have a few articles coming out about disability, why I wrote her the way I did, and miniature crime scenes I made of moments from the book that I'll be sharing here once they come out. I hope you enjoy both the book and the articles! :)

Oh, and there are some fun supplemental materials (like playlists and a free horror story) on my website if that sounds like something you're into. https://emitchellwrites.com

[Valerie Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a bomb. My heart is the timer. I'm just ticking down. Tick, tick, tick.

You've never met a serial killer quite like Elizabeth. A woman on the verge who yearns for more than life has given her decides to take her destiny into her own hands while she still has the time and relative control over her own body. With dark humor and a keen sense of her own mortality, Elizabeth shuttles us through the mundane and the gruesome as she goes from grocery store clerk by day to violent serial killer by night. An intimate portrayal of a woman living two lives and desperately trying to keep them from colliding, Another Elizabeth explores the nature of violence, suffering, desire, bodily autonomy, and survival--no matter the cost.

Content warning for violence and gore. But it's a book about a serial killer so you can't say you didn't see it coming...

[Lilla Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book like this, it was definitely a whole new experience for me. This book felt quite honest(?): we could get to know Elizabeth (both sides of her), her thoughts, her way of getting through life, the everyday struggles, her illness, her relationships. Knowing her bizarre thoughts was undoubtedly the weirdest thing in this story and that’s what made it so dark and gruesome.
The first half of the book felt a little flat to me, the second half was exciting, I flew through it quickly but I felt ambivalent about the ending.
It could have been 4 stars if I had liked at least one of the characters- it’s a criteria for me.
(This book was sent to me in exchange for my review.)

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really know what to expect when I sat down with this book, but I ended up really enjoying it. The protagonist, Elizabeth, is a woman with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome who also has secret desires to become a serial killer. Unfortunately, her urges lean more toward the vicious and physically violent, which makes them more difficult for her to accomplish, but she's not going to let that stand in her way!

I suspect a lot of people would consider the protagonist an unlikeable character, and maybe, being a serial killer, she should be, but I found myself almost unsettled by how much I liked her and even related to her. While I don't have her condition or her urge to kill, I am a fairly solitary and, in recent years, unsentimental person, and I appreciated seeing a woman who appreciated her space and who was the more detached individual in a male/female couple. The relationship felt very real, and I found it much more refreshing than the overly romanticized couplings found in a lot of books.

I also enjoyed the casual diversity in the cast of this novel. Our protagonist is bisexual, and several of the secondary characters were queer in some way, with two being non-binary. This honestly felt more realistic than most novels, which tend to be populated with almost exclusively heterosexuals. The way that issues of gender, etc. were handled also felt very feminist.

I only had one real complaint with this book, and that was that it broke the rule of Chekov's gun. Elizabeth was well-known for making honey butters, a honey/butterscotch-flavored hard candy, and carrying them around with her everywhere. In one scene, as she's desperate to experiment with different murder techniques, she decides to make a batch of poisoned honey butters. Then, to my utter dismay, she never uses them. She thinks about it a few times, but she never follows through, and every single time she gave an ally a honey butter for the entire rest of the book, I was filling with unjustified anxiety, assuming that this would be the time that she got them confused and accidentally gave someone a poisoned one, but no. Not a single poisoned honey butter is consumed in the entire book. Now, the honey butters do play an important role in linking her to scene of one of her crimes, but they could have done this without the distracting misdirection of the poison, and it felt like the author was making a promise that she never followed through on.

Regardless, I really enjoyed this book, and I absolutely plan on reading more by this author in the not-too-distant future.

[Thriller BingerGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

«𝕀 𝕒𝕞 𝕒 𝕓𝕠𝕞𝕓. 𝕄𝕪 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕣. 𝕀'𝕞 𝕛𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟. 𝕋𝕚𝕔𝕜, 𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕜, 𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕜.»
⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5⭐
𝗔𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗵 /𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹
𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮
This is a book of a serial killer but she is unlike any other criminal, due to her illness she will soon
won't be able to support herself and will depend on others to take care of her and her most basic needs. She's in race against her body to be able to fulfill her urge to experiencing what is like killing someone and getting away with it.
𝗘𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗵 will take us on a dark humorous ride about the struggles of her day to day life (having 3 jobs to pay rent) and the hazards of planning and executing her crimes with her deterioted condition. The book is eye opening and take the spotlight directly to the challenge of having an illness that is invisible for others. How easy is for some to judge their symptoms and dismiss them. Ignoring how hard and tiring can be to plan a life around them. Is a refreshing twist on our common crime novel, that I definitely wasn't expecting, thanks to the lovely 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹 for my gifted copy, the book will be out on a few days March 24 😉

[Eileen Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disabled serial killer

Fascinating book. A woman discovers she has Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), where her body is consuming its own collagen, resulting in joint/bone dislocations, which will get progressively worse.

Upon hearing the diagnosis, Elizabeth’s biggest concern is that she will become too weak to become what she’s always wanted—a killer.

Thus begins her quest—to kill people who deserve it in a way that causes her the least amount of pain—both during the murder and afterward.

When her boyfriend decides to become a policeman, the stakes are raised even higher.

It’s an unflinching look at the problems faced by people with this diagnosis, and the reactions of people to those with disabilities. Elizabeth is a dichotomy—caring volunteer ESL teacher and killer.

Fast read that will keep you wondering. Will Elizabeth’s body let her continue on her killing spree, will a victim get the better of her, or will she get caught? Highly recommend.

[Amanda G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recieved this book as an ARC and absolutely loved it. It's tense, it's funny, you'll get exhausted right along with and find yourself rooting for Elizabeth as you are immersed in her thoughts and life. Gripping story, diverse engaging characters, a fun, dark, and different read. Honestly think it could be turned into an excellent a TV show as well. I will be reading more books by this author for sure and vote you do yourself a favor and give this one a read!

[Alyssa Graybeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most refreshing book about a serial killer I’ve ever read.

She’s both disabled by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome AND competent? Imagine that.

[Lauren Watson]

DNF at 40%. Couldn’t get into it. So boring a d enough about teeth every other page.