Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Penance by Eliza Clark

143 reviews

ameliasbooks's review against another edition

I can see what the author is trying to do with this story and I was really interested in it. But unfortunately the writing style she decided to go for is not helpful and almost a quarter into the book the story shouldn't be that stiff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Vomit, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Racism, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Pandemic/Epidemic

hannahleewhite's review against another edition

dark reflective tense

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Mass/school shootings, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide and Torture

anissawren's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Self harm, and Stalking

noveltay's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

This felt like a documentary and a thriller movie combined. Very entertaining and a quick page turner. I googled multiple times reading to see if this was a true story, or based on a real town etc. Every character was unlikeable, minus maybe some parents.

I can’t wait for another book by this author. Her two out right now, are both 5 star reads for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bellsdixon's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Classism

a_dja's review against another edition

dark tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Torture, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Alcohol

bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Murder

signeskov's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a novel who plays with genre successfully and asks the right questions to its audience, content, and the right of the genre to even exist.

What is it that fascinates us about true crime? Why has this grown as a trend in recent years? Are the books any better than the podcasts? What role does fiction play in the account of the non-fictional? And, most interestingly to me, what does fan culture and online fellowship mean to the consumption of true crime?

As one final interviewer of the fictional author of the novel, Penance, prompted:

“You essentially made the story of her daughter’s murder into an entertaining piece of fiction. It’s like you saw a number of primary sources and had contact with people who knew the girls, and you proceeded to more or less write fanfiction about the case. How do you square that with [your] idea of [writing] emotional truth?”

I don’t have any answers to any of the questions I asked above, but I do know that this novel moved me to think critically about the true crime genre in a way I hadn’t before. I don’t consume much true crime content, but either way the premise of this novel drew me in. The fascination of three girls being able to do something so terrible warrants a human need to understand why such a thing might have happened. I even found myself googling whether this case was actually real or fictional - Eliza Clark’s case in point with writing this novel, really.

This was a really interesting read for me as someone who was around the same age as these fictional girls when the events took place. I was also on Tumblr and part of some of their more innocent fandoms like Glee. I know only too well what a ridiculous place Tumblr was in building community though intense aesthetic, fanfiction and shipping cultures. 

While I didn’t see much toxicity in the Tumblr strands I was in at the time, I’m sure that looking back now that it was. It makes you think: if I had had less of a secure childhood and teenage years, could I have become part of these dark sides of the community and have its content fuel my emotions with even more angst and anger? Most likely, yes. I imagine many young girls could have been prone to that.

The final point about a new fandom being built around Jodie’s murder really drove the nail into the coffin of Eliza Clark’s point on genre.

In the end, this book left me thinking and will sit with me for some time. That’s always a good thing when that happens. I recommend the audio book version of this as well - the characterization of the main character’s voices are something that engages you but also encourages you to stay a critical listener as well as reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

stellahadz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved how this book was written - it's a novel presented as a non-fiction true-crime book. Clark captures the voices of the teen characters so well, and as someone who grew up using Tumblr (and who was thankfully spared the genuinely horrifying sides of that platform), it was so interesting to see it explored in literature. I also loved that the characters and the setting were so well thought out; everything was described with a perfect amount of detail that tied it back to the crime. I genuinely liked this book a lot, perhaps more than Boy Parts, but there was something about it that bothered me.

As someone who has admittedly listened to and watched true-crime stories (although I try not to engage with media that is sensationalizing or disrespectful of victims and their families), I noticed almost immediately that

Joan's murder and its aftermath was practically a play-by-play of the murder of Shanda Sharer, a girl who was tortured and killed by a group of older teenagers in (I believe) the 90s. I can't help but feel that it's a little disturbing and disrespectful for the book to be *this* closely based on an actual crime against a child. There was no mention of Sharer or her family anywhere in the book notes or the acknowledgments (although I'm not familiar with all of the books that Clark referenced in writing this book.)

Maybe Clark's intention is to engage the audience through a sense of familiarity with especially famous true crime cases. While this is clever and well-executed from a writing point of view, I'm not sure how ethical it is. Again, I did like the book overall, this is just something that bugged me about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Torture, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent