It was difficult to figure out exactly what to write about Penance after I finished; it stuck with me in a haunting way and I felt a bit changed after reading it. A fictional true crime story about the horrifying torture and murder of a teenage girl by her schoolmates in a small seaside town – hard not to leave a mark on a reader with a story so unflinchingly savage. What surprised me most were the emotional beats of the story that underscored the humanity crying out underneath all this chaos.⁣
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The allure is undeniable from the beginning – I got hooked fast and couldn’t put it down until the end. Clark’s acuity for fleshing out each main character into a complex and believable personality is praiseworthy; I found myself feeling sympathy for each one of them at some point in the story.⁣
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I also found myself marveling at Clark’s ability to subvert format throughout the writing in a way that felt mostly seamless. It did get a little unwieldy at times, and there were moments that dragged a bit, but it was equally fascinating to unearth the grim history of the town as it was to explore the psyches of the characters involved in the murder.⁣
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Overall, the book is an achievement; it feels cliché to say, but at times I felt so winded it was like I was holding my breath while reading. Penance is an addictive and compelling read that stands out among the buzziest releases of the year.

*I received a free advanced reader’s copy of Penance on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Summary: After a horrific murder perpetrated by three teenage girls, journalist Alec Carelli goes to the English seaside town of Crow-on-Sea to investigate. As he interviews family, friends, and the three perpetrators, he uncovers layers of conflicting stories. Penance is Carelli’s book, told in a collection of interviews and speculative fiction on how the events might have transpired.

Review: What this novel does well is shine a light on the exploitative nature of true crime podcasts and books. At best tasteless and at worst exploitative and cruel, true crime entertainment has exploded in the last few years. Penance empathetically shows the emotional toll true-crime entertainment can have on the victims and family members.

In the past few years, the Internet has become rife with true crime stories and horror content. In the novel, this intersection is cyclical, as the perpetuator’s obsession with murder and true crime on Tumblr fuels the ensuing murder. And later, that murder is reported on by true crime podcasters and by Carelli. Social media is a sponge for true crime content, soaking up all and any tragedy it can find, no matter the truthfulness. This process is often objectifying, turning the real perpetrators and victims of these crimes into characters of a story, tailor-made for praise or ridicule.

Clark’s novel doesn’t offer a clear-cut solution, but rather points out how disrespectful and self-serving these narratives have become.

This is a book in a book, which illustrated the themes of this novel perfectly. When we watch true crime, it is easy to forget that what we hear is filtered through a narrator, who has their own biases, meaning we may never know the “truth.” While I read, I felt like a sleuth, trying to find the inconsistencies in each interview or biased wording from the author. The entire novel is impressive because Clark had to not only construct a narrative filled with a complex plot and characters with their own motives, but then feed that narrative through the unreliable narrator’s thoughts.

From the commentary on exploitative true-crime entertainment to the structure of the novel, another question this book raises is the nature of truth. Who gets believed? What stories get told, and by who?

Even though we are aware that the novel is an amalgamation of interviews and speculative fiction chapters, it is easy to take this as the truth. I was easily lulled into a false sense of security, until the last few pages, making me question my complacency in accepting the narrative at face value.

If you are not a fan of true crime, this might not be the best book for you. Penance deals with some heavy topics and includes graphic details of violence, so definitely look up trigger warnings for this book beforehand.

But despite the violence and cruelty, I couldn’t stop reading. I was sucked into the story because I was obsessed with sifting through the sentences to find some truth: what was fact, fiction, or warped truth to fit a character’s agenda.

While the writing and storyline were detailed and well-thought-out, I struggled with the violence and the cruelty. This is 100% my fault, as I did not do enough research on the book beforehand.

But ignoring my sensitivities, this is a well-written book with an engrossing web of lies to untangle. This is a great new pick for fans of mysteries, thrillers, and true crime.

Penance will be published on September 26, 2023.

RATING: 6.5/10

The most important thing you should know before reading this review is that I only read 33% of this book.
I was really looking forward to this story and my initial interest was piqued even further in the opening lines when we learn that our narrator, a man attempting to tell the "true" story of a murder in a small town, may not be reliable. This causes the reader start this story with a level or trepidation and mistrust in the narrator, which I think was an interesting choice by our author.
This story is fiction, but it's meant to feel like you're reading a true account, which rises the steaks and makes the story feel more intense, more dire.
Unfortunately, the story started to lose me when it dove into the history of the town where the murder being discussed took place. While you're meant to gather a broad idea of how the town functions from its history, I found this section boring. It stalled the forward momentum of the story.
As I continued to read, I was unable to reinvest in the characters, especially when were were given so much detail of their immature antics as children and teenagers.
Unfortunately, at the 33% mark, I decided to stop reading this book as I was not enjoying the story and found the characters to be incredibly unlikeable.
Should I have tried to push myself to make it half way through the book to see if my opinion changed or my interest was piqued once again? Maybe, but in a world with so many incredible stories to read, I just couldn't force myself to continue with this one.
I don't rate the books that I don't finish, but for the purposes of this review, I am giving this book 1/5 stars.

This “true crime” novel-within-a-novel details the fictional murder of Joni Wilson by her teenage peers through alternating POVs and a combination of Tumblr posts, Real Person Fanfiction, text messages, interviews, and podcast transcripts. Though Joni and co. are not real, a number of real crimes are woven together to inform the book’s plot.

Between the crime itself, the narrator’s questionable reporting and storytelling, and the inherent cringe of internet and fandom culture and the transition from girlhood to teenager, I rubber-necked my way through this book, watching Joni’s eventual murder unfold like a car crash.

I won’t lie: I never felt good while reading Penance. But I think that’s the point - or one of the points - of the story. Why shouldn’t we feel disgusted and disturbed when consuming other people’s tragedies for our own entertainment?

This book is dark and twisty and full of seriously unlikeable characters who do many awful things. While some aspects of the plot felt unnecessarily drawn out, the book’s structure and organization were compelling. I’m looking forward to reading Eliza Clark’s other book, Boy Parts, and seeing how it compares.

Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for the eARC!

Written as a “true crime” novel delving into the fictional murder of Joni Wilson by her fellow high school students, Penance explores girlhood, true crime obsession and the complicated, sticky nature of the truth.

The narrative skillfully incorporates Tumblr posts and subcultures, tapping into the chaos and cringe of the era, ultimately flipping the true crime genre on its head in a thrilling and unexpected way. There is so much to unpack with this story, I find myself still thinking about it days after finishing it and suspect I will still be thinking about it for years to come.

A literal showstopper of a novel!! After finishing this one, I knew immediately I had to go out and buy Boy Parts because I cannot get enough of Eliza Clark.

I was hooked from the very beginning and found myself waking up earlier than my alarm just so I could read more in the morning before heading to work.

I will say, I wasn't sure what to think of this one at first. From other reviewers, I saw this was a book about the ethics of true crime and whether it's exploitative. I understand that complaint in itself, but I don't think this book is the right arena for its discussion since it's quite literally based on a true crime case lol. But again, that's a complaint that I have towards other reviewers, not this book itself.

I loved being able to see the insights of the four girls involved and how they spiraled into this horrendous crime. I was very familiar with the story of Shanda Sharer, whom this story is based off of, and I liked reading it from a current day POV, selfishly, because I could relate to the teenage girl in the 2000s era with Tumblr, texting, and creepy pastas.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to rate this one at first because while I loved it, I felt it moving towards random historical storylines of Crow, but I think I'm landing at a 4.75 and rounding to a 5 star!

4.5 ☆

As someone who tried reading boy parts and couldn’t get into it, I had some hesitations while starting this book. However, I was completely surprised by how much I loved it. I was swept off my feet instantly by the first chapter. While I was reading, I was genuinely in awe of Clark’s storytelling. I mean, this story really sounds like a real murder. Aside from that, I loved that the book had the atmosphere of the early 2010’s, where there was tumblr and the beginning of the social media age. Especially since I grew up in that time just like these girls were, it was fun to get swept up in that time again, but it does remind me of how brutal preteens and teens can be at those ages and I do not miss it. Clark does an amazing job bringing everything together and showing how messed up the true crime community can be profiting off of other peoples pain and suffering, and how narratives can easily be changed to bring more traction to a story. I’m so happy that this book proved me wrong and I’m excited for whatever Clark writes next!

Another absolutely knockout by Clark. This story is compelling, sick, and twisted. A perfect follow up to her hit debut that shows she has range as writer but also establishes her use of dark and twisted themes and her style.

Let me start off by saying, no one writes an unlikable character quite like Eliza clark.

Penance tells us the fictional “non fiction” tale of Joan Wilson’s death and all those who played a part in it. We learn the small sea side towns history and lore and see how that fuels the girl’s imaginations. We are taken on a twisted and compelling journey through the young girls lives as seen in real life and their blogs. We learn the toxicity and cruelty of teenage girls with social media accounts. We examine the class and hierarchy of the small town, how someone always knows someone that can take care of it for you. No one ever has to suffer consequences why should they?

This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I found myself entranced by the narrative and how tumblr posts and subcultures were painted. I was there throughout the tumblr true crime era. I know the chaos and cringe of which this book speaks. Pushing the social boundaries of not only being a teenager but also being a girl. I think penance does all of this and then some. It flips the true crime genre on its head in such a fun and exciting way. Just when you think you know what happens next, you don’t. Much like boy parts, Eliza clark knows how to wow you!

Thank you netgalley and Harper for the eARC!

This was a pretty good book and I enjoyed it for the most part. It was dark and disturbing and what I love about crime stories. There were times that I was so enthralled that I forgot it wasn’t a real “true-crime” story, but then there were other parts of the book that I felt really didn’t need to be there. For example, the history of the town and how it got its name contributed absolutely nothing to the story and just left me confused about why I needed to know this and quite frankly bored. I also felt like some of the “magical” aspects were unnecessary, too.

The characters were really well written and I was able to connect with all of them when reading their part of the story. It was Mean Girls meets Heathers but in a darker way.

I gave this 3.5 stars and I do recommend reading it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

i loved boy parts and i love eliza clark, so it's not a surprise that this book was perfect for me. such a dark and compelling narrative. clark packs so much into the book (which doesn't feel dense at all)—toxic internet culture, the dangers of true crime and the dangers of subjectivity in telling an objective story, and about girlhood as well. as someone who was deeply entrenched in the canals of 2010s tumblr, this was such an accurate representation.

Penance takes the shape of a fictional true crime novel written by controversial journalists, Alec Carelli. As Carelli details the story of the murder of a British teen, the reader is left to figure out what parts of his retelling are true, and what is not.

The premise of this book immediately intrigued me, and it definitely did not disappoint.

Eliza Clark does an excellent job detailing this horrible crime and the events leading up to it. I love the way all of the puzzle pieces of the crime start to perfectly fall into place as the book goes on. You also have the added layer of an unreliable narrator with Carelli, so even though you've just heard these super in depth details of the crime, you don't know how much of it is real. It definitely leaves you with a lot of questions, and I know I'll be thinking about this book for a while.

Between Carelli twisting the truth of this story, and the deep dive into the murderers' obsession with true crime, I think Clark did a great job shedding some light on how toxic the true crime craze can sometimes be.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As someone who loves books that play with the true crime genre, I was really looking forward to this. It fell a little flat to me for a couple of reasons. Clearly the most interesting/intriguing part of the book was the intersection of a crime with weird Tumblr fandom. The rest of the book, while imagined in painstaking and hyper-realistic detail, just wasn't that gripping to me. The book also has this extra layer of narrative, that the author within the book has a complex relationship with truth-telling. And that didn't go in an especially innovative direction for me, considering that idea is as least as old as In Cold Blood. So parts of the book were captivating and others were a bit of a slog for me. I think this book is best for readers who spent a lot of time in the weirder realms within Tumblr.

as someone who abhors true crime, i found reading this musing on how evil it can be and who has the right to tell a story and what even constitutes "true" extremely satisfying. and it does so brilliantly, through an unreliable crooked journalist narrator, through the lens of true-crime fandom, through clever workings of sympathy and fact.

A good book about a terrible crime and the disgruntled journalist determined to write about it. You'll feel uncomfortable and sad but how can you not with a crime like this?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

2.5 stars rounded up.

This book was very different from the author's other novel, "Boy Parts." While I didn't love either of them, I definitely enjoyed the other one more. "Penance" felt like a bit of a chore to read, with its crazy long chapters and meandering story. The teen girl speak was tedious and cringe at times, (though I think that was probably intentional), and the characters blended into each other.

This is one of those situations where you get the same story told repeatedly from different perspectives, with slight variations and not a whole lot of new info each time. So things get VERY repetitive. We learn about each of the main characters individually, and just when you don’t think it’s possible every single teenage girl turns out to be an even bigger “yikes” than the one before. It goes beyond simple bullying and into mentally deranged territory. (One of the girls is obsessed with a pair of school shooters, to the point of writing fanfiction about it. So gross, which is the point, but I had to speed read those sections. My skin was crawling.) But the biggest issue with "Penance" overall is that on page one, we’re told that some of the information we're given is not accurate. So, we the reader are never sure whose account we are supposed to believe. I guess this gives the book an air of mystery to it for some, but along with how awful these people were, it kept me from really caring all that much. Another thing: My eyes glazed over while reading about the history of the town where the crime took place. I know this was included for the sake of realism, but that part just wasn’t interesting to me. I totally understand why some reviewers said they felt like they had wasted their time when they reached the end. It was abrupt and unsatisfying.

I will say that I do admire all of the work that went into this novel, and the realistic world building required to write a true crime narrative. Even if I didn’t enjoy all of the backstory stuff for the town, it still took work and creativity to come up with it. And Eliza Clark is frighteningly good at writing back-stabbing, bitchy girls. She also does a great job of recreating some of the more obnoxious true crime podcasts out there that turn everything into comedy and completely disrespect the victims, and her version of people on internet forums who lust after murderers are grossly believable as well. It's a grim reminder that pieces of shit like this actually exist.

Definitely pay attention to the trigger warnings for this one, because even though it's fiction and not horror, it gets pretty rough.

TW: Bullying (to the point of violence/murder), self-harm, detailed description of a school shooting, animal harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, torture

I was immediately intrigued as soon as I read the premise for this book and couldn’t wait to dive in because this author has a tremendous reputation and writing style.
This book is a fictional story of a true crime story by Alec Carelli, who needs something to help his poor reputation. However this book ends up being about so much more.
It is the fictional story of a high school girl, Joni, who is brutally murdered by three of her female classmates in 2016 and takes us down a path of the how, why, and scary truths that led up to it. It is told through the different perspectives of those involved through interviews, letters, podcast transcripts, and re-enactments. All of which are equally disturbing yet though provoking.
This book is hard to read at times but I think the bigger story it tells is about society’s obsession with true crime in anyway it is presented. It made me think about what role that plays for us today and how that can make us ignore certain important issues and focus on the wrong details. This book was incredibly well written, educational, and one that made me think about it far after I finished .

Thank you to the Author, Netgalley, and Harper for the ARC!

Penance is Eliza Clark's sophomore novel following a fictional true crime case about four teenage girls in a seaside British town. This novel uses mixed media- podcast transcripts, journal entries, interview correspondence, and social media posts- to tell a harrowing but realistic story (a book within a book) by a disgraced journalist who it turns out is not the most reliable narrator. The story follows each teenager, all of whom are outcasts in their own right, and explores their backstory, relationships, and motivations for the murder of Joni Mitchell.

I genuinely loved this book and the use of mixed media helped the pacing of the story for me. I enjoyed the take on the true crime community and how podcasts or social media treat real victims or families of these crimes. Each character and the setting of the town is really fleshed out and leads to the feeling that makes you question if this is fiction. The discussion of how social media can affect an impressionable teenager is extremely relatable, especially for someone who grew up in the Tumblr era. Any fan of true crime, a book within a book, or unreliable narrator trope will want to read this.
**Check trigger warnings**

I started Penance believing I wouldn't finish -- stories about sociopathic teenagers are not my favorite reading -- but Clark's talent and insight soon had me enthralled. It's styled as a true crime book about a grisly murder in a wealthy English beach community. Three schoolgirls tortured a classmate for hours, then set her on fire. Ten years later, a journalist is digging out the story behind the killing and interviewing everyone touched by it, including the murderers. Along the way, class structure and rivalry between economic classes are examined and some dark history in the community is dredged up. Despite occasional overindulgence in irrelevant matters, the writing is sharp, chilling, at times psychologically brutal, and unforgettable. Second novels are expected to be disappointing, weaker than first efforts, but that isn't the case here. Clark is a star.

Masterful.

I had to pause several times and remind myself that Clark was writing in the perspective of an unreliable narrator. That this, in fact, was a work of fiction—because it all felt so real that I actually started questioning my role as a reader.

Much of the book is centered around a grisly murder involving high school social politics—which, as we come to discover, have real, horrible, and devastating effects. I admit that I didn’t know what to expect—this was my first Clark book—but going in blind honestly made for a brilliant read. Clark formulates a narrative as engaging as it is thought-provoking, writing in a style that made me both embarrassed and nostalgic for my own teenage self. She talks tumblr, reddit, and fanfiction here, in a manner akin to experiential history—this is the millennial generation in all its cringey, obsessive glory.

That said, this was absolutely masterful—a lesson in media consumption, perhaps, but also a look into the kind of mental health issues that the older generations cast aside. Through the deeply disturbing character studies (of course, take them with a grain of salt), we see how dangerous seemingly affectatious teenage trends can be; how intergenerational trauma often lends a hand in deepening their effects. Clark also explores a certain kind of classism here—moving beyond juvenile matters and touching on the kind of social separation that exists within Crow-of-Sea.

What stood out for me, in particular, was the reading experience. I devoured this book—I could not put it down. In a way, i felt myself ‘manipulated’ by the narrator, often feeling some kind of sympathy (disturbing, I know) for the different girls described in the story. Perhaps the point was to open up the discussion—to see that faults extend beyond the hand of some delusional teenage girl. Regardless, the ending scene wraps it up nicely, bringing the reader back into reality. It was a wake-up call, almost; a splash of cold water to wake the reader up from a deeply immersive reading experience.

I’m still wrapping my head around the brilliance of it all, if I’m going to be honest. This was so different and unique—a definite call for me to pick up Boy Parts as well.