Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Penance by Eliza Clark

104 reviews

bek_p87's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was dark, twisted, and thought-provoking on several levels. Presented as a non-fiction true-crime book about a horrific fictional murder in a small seaside town, this is about evil, our fascination with it, and how capitalism monetises this fascination. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Alcohol, Drug use, Homophobia, Ableism, Murder, Sexual violence, Bullying, Child death, Violence, Gaslighting, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide

bri0987's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Torture, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Suicide, Bullying, Self harm, and Sexual assault

opldxblqo's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am exactly the demographic for this book: late 20s white woman who spent considerable time on Tumblr in the early 2010s; this book would have fallen short if not for lighting up the teenage nostalgia centers of my brain with its references to the edgy internet culture of my morbid youth (No, I wasn't ever in a serial killer fandom, but I ate up true crime and occasionally looked at "pro ana" blogs with a horrified outsider's fascination). Any reader who missed out on the absolute chum bucket that was Tumblr in the early 2010s (lucky you!) will likely be bored by large chunks of this book.
Despite its heavy reliance on niche internet nostalgia, what Clark gets right in Penance is the critical look at the culture of violence entertainment in true crime media. Penance asks readers to look inward at their rubber-necking voyeurism without scolding; asks readers to question the motives of true crime content creators, and understand that this content more often than not retraumatizes victims' families. Though this exact critique has been explored many times through fiction in the last couple of years in novels such as I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (blah), and Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (five starts!), Penance does so much more thoroughly through the use of metanarrative. The sections of prose are well written and each character feels fully fleshed and complex; a delightful surprise after Clark's disappointing first novel, Boy Parts.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Mass/school shootings, Incest, Gun violence, Child death, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Murder, Torture, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, and Death

roie_23's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There was a large chunk of this towards the end that I could feel myself enjoying it less and less. We were spending too much time in stories that I didn’t find necessarily important or crucial to understanding the lead up to the murder, but that final chapter flipped the switch and wrapped everything up in a perfect bow. 

To introduce this fictional author at the very beginning as potentially untrustworthy and then to spend a full 400 more pages in the mind of this author and his self proclaimed sensitivity to the people affected by this awful crime makes you wonder when that other show is going to drop. Is he actually untrustworthy or was he actually swept up in a controversy that he had nothing to do with. And there’s signs throughout the final few chapters that Alec is losing the plot a little, like the comment about Heather wearing a full face of makeup even though she made it evident she thought he was disgusting. 

Absolutely obsessed. A brilliant critique on the True Crime genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Self harm

rhona_m's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The structure of the book was a great way of revealing the characters slowly and through different lenses. The darkness of the story was less interesting than the portrait of the young girls featured. The relationship between these relatively normal highschool girls and how the oddities and experiences of each fuelled something dark. It felt like a believable progression rather than a narrative of plain evil.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Toxic relationship, Racism, and Vomit

katerina_l's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Murder, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Homophobia, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

drrock's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Torture, Child death, Alcoholism, Deportation, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Rape, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Mass/school shootings, Drug use, and Death

cabeswaters's review against another edition

challenging dark

5.0

Tumblr was an awful website.

seriously blew me away. an insight into small town communities, tumblr in the mid 2010s, dark corners of the internet, childhood trauma, and the tension and toxicity betwen teenage girls, all filtered through a quite meta criticism of true crime storytelling. gave me some quite strong flashbacks. i want to eat it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Suicide

kitfkat's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Suicide, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcohol, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Addiction

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Dementia, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Abortion, and Xenophobia

gemin1reader's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not my usual kind of read and certainly not an easy one - because of the subject matter but also because of the sheer length and depth of it. So many characters and angles to keep track of. 

A real biting look at the true crime industry though, it definitely made its point and packs a punch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Violence, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, Racism, Self harm, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Eating disorder