It took me quite some time to get started on this book, but now that I have I cannot understand what kept me. This is such a vivid, fascinating picture of of the state of the UK wrapped in a compelling, human mystery wrapped in commentary on our need to consume true crime - it's really, really good, and entirely unputdownable.

The point of Penance was clear: social commentary on the culture of obsessing over dark true crime stories, told by a very unreliable narrator. But ultimately, I struggled with the format - a book within a book within an article with blog posts scattered throughout? And had a hard time connecting with the characters.

Penance is an ambitious book that attempts a lot in just over 300 pages. Its effort is admirable, but I don’t think it has the impact the author was hoping for.

WHAT I LIKED
–The format of a fiction book reading like a nonfiction true crime book was really inventive and Clark really committed to the style all the way through to the very end
–There were a lot of interesting threads about how society interacts with and consumes true crime content that I think would spark discussion in book clubs
–Social media does play a part in the story, primarily Tumblr. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where Tumblr has such a central role and I was impressed with how Clark so accurately described the nuances of the platform

WHAT DIDN’T WORK
–I’ll be the first to admit that I read some scary stuff. I love the horror genre and an almost surefire way to get me to read a book is to tell me it’s the darkest thing you’ve ever read. But something about portions of this were really hard to get through. There are graphic descriptions of torture and violence that felt unnecessary to the larger story and I found myself skipping over those passages because they were so vile
–This book is extremely dry and several parts of it felt like reading a textbook. There were definitely times I felt like I had to force myself to pick this one up so that I could finish it

If you enjoy literary crime novels that offer a lot of food for thought, this one might be a fit for you. But definitely check out the content warnings above, as there is a lot of difficult material in this one.

Penance is out now. Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eliza Clark's sophomore novel "Penance" is DARK, but once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down.

What led three edgy Tumblr girls to murder 16-year-old Joan Wilson? Disgraced journalist Alec Z. Carelli takes on the grueling task of countless interviews and research to find out. Whether or not you can trust his recountings is another story, but there's no denying his ability to weave a horrifically entertaining narrative. This raises the novel's questioning of the moral and ethical aspects of creating and consuming true crime content, ultimately leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Taking place in the small seaside town of Crow-on-Sea, Clark wastes no time acquainting the reader with the political inner workings and social rankings embedded in the town's history. Carelli's thorough research transforms the setting into a character of its own. That being said, "Penance" is very much a character-heavy book but still maintains suspense through the compulsive nature of its plot. The reader is introduced to a series of key players connected to or directly implicated in Joan's murder through interviews, letters, and online posts.

The central group of characters belongs to a social circle made up of painfully awkward teens navigating the tumultuous terrain of adolescence. They turn to online spaces for comfort, engaging in fanfiction, creepypastas, and modding The Sims for torture (a step up from removing the pool ladder). Unsettling? Yes. But it's all very innocent until things take a rapid turn, and then it's not.

I am currently waiting for the physical copy to arrive to re-read this but I had a hard time following overall! I loved Boy Parts and think that the digital copy just made it a bit confusing for me. I would also love to try out the audiobook. I am determined to love this book!!

I loved Boy Parts and so I expected to love Penance, but man it's for me all conflicted!

The author really nailed the grossness factor of true crime consumer culture. She screwers My Favorite Murder and The Last Podcast on the Left and it's creepy how accurate she gets it. I loved the different formats of how the story was told; I'm a sucker for a book-within-a-book! I also appreciated how fleshed out the characters seemed...I did get annoyed with the narrator a lot because well, his story is the most boring and I wanted to get back to the girls who committed the atrocities. I do think we as readers aren't supposed to like the cis-white male narrator though.

(𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 #𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬.) It pains me to say it, but 𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘 by Eliza Clark just wasn’t the book for me. I was all in for the premise which centers on a horrific murder of one teenage girl by three others. Nearly ten years later a journalist has interviewed and corresponded with dozens of people associated in one way or another with the crime. He’s put it all in a book, but with so many sides to the story, questions arise as to how much of it is true?⁣
⁣
Unfortunately, the further I went in this book the more cringey it felt. There was just too much of the girls being cruel to each other, too many trips down dark internet rabbit holes that included serial killer fandom. For me, it was less a mystery/thriller and more a very dark coming-of-age story. It really should have worked for me!

Clark has written a compelling examination of the True Crime Industrial Complex through the eyes of a fictional true crime journalist investigating the story behind the brutal murder of a sixteen-year-old girl.

This was an unreliable narrator jamboree featuring realistically portrayed (aka vicious) teenage girls, murder, and a whole lot of Tumblr feeds. I don't know that I'd recommend this to everyone, but as a (guilty) long-time consumer of true crime content, the structure of the book and it's commentary really spoke to me.

A disgraced journalist recounts the events that led up to the brutal murder of 16-year-old Joan Wilson by three teenage schoolmates in a sleepy northern seaside town on the eve of the Brexit vote. Through witness accounts, interviews, news articles, social media posts and correspondence, "Penance" provides an unflinching look at the true-crime industrial complex and its toxic relationship with the internet fandom culture.
"Penance" is an interesting concept – a fictional story presenting itself like a true crime novel. The character development of our three main characters is tremendous. Clark has expertly conveyed the hell that is being a teenage girl and all that comes with it. It's an all-consuming, compulsive read that I cannot recommend enough.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Faber & Faber for sharing this advance copy with me in exchange for my honest review.

This book tackles the true crime industry from podcasts, fandom, journalism and internet posts. Three teenage girls kill a fourth in a small town in the UK. It covers bullying, obsessions and yellow journalism. The narrator is a true rime writer that desperately needs a hit book. He scours his internet sources until he finds this murder that has had little publicity to date. He is the narrator.

The book is told through emails/texts among the girls, their tumblr stories, podcasters and more. The portions of the book that are 'written' by the girls certainly come off as authentic but for a mature reader, I was bored. I am not the target audience for this book. I can see how younger people may be captivated by this story because much of it is told in youth's vernacular. I do believe this is an author to watch and will try her other works.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper for this advanced readers copy.

This was at the top of my list to get to and although it took longer than I would have liked, I am so happy I read this. It’s hard to articulate but it’s just perfect. There is a seething rage simmering behind the words - anger at the exploitation of victims, rage at how the world generally treats young women, and an overall frustration with the ways in which the internet shapes identities until they’re beyond our control.

This is the first book I’ve read by Eliza Clark and it’s not going to be the last. Stunning from the first word. I absolutely loved this even when it was making me angry!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. Easily one of the best books I’ve read this year (perhaps even the best or top 5!).

Now that's how you do a take on the true crime industrial complex. Brilliant, subversive, well-written, emotional. All the good adjectives. Eliza Clark forever.

i can actually say with confidence that i enjoyed clark’s sophomore novel, penance, much more than her debut, boy parts.

at first penance appears to be an honest “unbiased” retelling of a chilling true crime murder amongst a group of teen girls, although lurking beneath the surface is a dissection of the viral addicting atmosphere that makes a spectacle of it all.

told through the perspective of an unreliable journalist, who at first stumbles upon the story of a murder under questionable circumstances and motives. it’s established from the beginning that this journalist has the upmost intentions of remaining as truthful to the narrative as possible for the sake of those involved. through the evidence and testimonies collected by the journalist, it is made obvious how these horrific crimes taint the lives of many and how much they continue to heavily affect those connected — a massive reminder that these stories many consume for enjoyment are those based upon real suffering and trauma. It kind of reminds me of those true crime podcasts with names like “My Favorite Murder” that demonstrate this blatant disregard and kind of glorify these tragedies. It also pegs the question of how much of these stories from these so called true crime experts are accurate? Through the process of alterations for entertainment, how much of the story remains true to the original? Is there any care left for the real lives they’re tampering with by creating these new versions? Doesn’t it just become fake news? It really becomes about monetizing others traumas.

i’m very impressed with how subtle but how impactful clark’s point is here. I highly recommend.

I loved this book. It's an interesting take on the true crime phenomenon and might be hard to get through for anyone who isn't (or wasn't) super online, but for those who have grown up on the internet, a lot of the references felt fresh and organic; often, I find that incorporations of things like social media posts and text messages in books don't feel super natural, and the voices aren't distinct enough, but these all read like very different points of view and the posts read true to the form they were supposed to be from. I enjoyed the twists this book took, and thought the commentary on the way we consume true crime was very smart and thought-provoking.

Penance was my first novel I've read by Eliza Clark and I thought this was such a unique book. The style of writing in a true crime fashion really had me immersed in the characters/family as well as the actual crime itself. I will say that because it did have a lot of information like a typical true crime book, it took me longer to finish that expected. Overall I really enjoyed it though.

A brilliant, anxiety-inducing, and totally gripping thriller whose strength lies not just in its plot but in its intricate character work. As she does in her previous novel, Boy Parts, Eliza Clark paints a disturbingly vivid portrait of female insanity and rage, but here, I feel like she goes a step further by truly humanizing her most inhuman characters. I began the book knowing the incredible act of violence that Clark's characters had committed and very skeptical that she'd be able to give them much depth. But not only does Clark successfully humanize and flesh out her characters, she brings the reader to the brink of sympathy for what led to their monstrous actions, ultimately resulting in a series of interesting character studies and a thesis buried somewhere in there about cycles of violence and the impact of trauma.

I also felt like Clark nailed the politics of middle/high school girls. Her characters were contemporary to my own time in middle school and early high school, and despite any of the U.S./U.K. cultural specifics that might have been different, I found some of her descriptions eerily similar to my own experiences. There's a timeliness to it that captures the weirdly specific way that teen girls bullied each other circa 2014 and how phones/the internet/pop culture played into that, down to the niche delusions of 2014 tumblr.

While I didn't find this unnecessarily gratuitous in its depictions of violence, it's definitely not for the faint of heart; there's extremely graphic violence and quite a few allusions to sexual assault. Steer clear if thrillers aren't normally your thing. That said, as someone really put off by true crime, this fictionalized true crime (oxymoronic, I know!) type of thing ended up working for me. I couldn't put this down in the middle of the night, so thank you, Eliza Clark, for destroying my sleep schedule.

PENANCE
Eliza Clark

I am as surprised by my rating for PENANCE as you are. Trust me, I thought I was going to love it, but ended up with tepid feelings and a middle-of-the-road rating.

In PENANCE, Clark explores the dark side and sensationalism of true crime and the exploitation of victims in the process.

PENANCE is a stunner for sure. The writing is explicit, the happenings are devastating. I was initially moved by the message. But got bogged down in the details. The conversation was worth having, however at times I felt we were having different conversations and talking about things I was overall disinterested in.

PENANCE serves as a microscope and at times you’re not sure if you are the ant under it or looking through it. Either way, if you read PENANCE, you’ll never listen to true crime podcasts the same or ever again. The next true crime documentary you watch will be tainted with perspective.

I am appreciative of that.

PENANCE is dark and unemotional. To be dark and disturbing, however, is not enough alone. And I felt all the extraneous details washed out the story and moved the target.

I gave PENANCE three stars and thought it was worth reading but wish it could have been more. Maybe next time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper for the advanced copy!

PENANCE…⭐️⭐️⭐️

An extremely astute and nuanced critique of the True Crime industry. Thoroughly entertaining to read, which itself makes a point about the voyeuristic nature of the culture it examines. Beautifully done

I love Eliza Clark's writing, and the topic of true crime and true crime podcasts is a timely and fascinating one that is under-explored in the literary fiction world. Some might criticize this for falling into the gory and exploitative nature of true crime and true crime enthusiasts but I think you have to commit to it to fully do it justice. The way this is structured also helps us live in this world of people writing about and thinking about horrible acts of violence.
I don't want to say that I enjoyed this per se because of the subject matter but I was compelled to keep reading and it kept my attention so I would recommend it.

10 years after 3 teenage girls set 16 year-old Joan Wilson on fire, Alec Z. Carelli is writing the definitive true-crime novel about the horrific incident. There's the premise, however, this book completely blew me away. It definitely reads like a real true-crime novel with bits and pieces of podcasts, interviews with family members, and even the girls themselves. It's not such a black and white crime once you read this fictional account of a horrible crime.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper for this e-arc.*