Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Penance by Eliza Clark

43 reviews

brontesmovingbooks's review against another edition

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

5.0

Penance was a brutal book. 

It’s not for people with no stomach for violence. However I will say it refreshingly lacked a lot of on-screen gore or crime. Mostly it was descriptions. 

I found it a complex and deep dive into girlhood and it’s extremes. 
I also live strikingly close to and are a similar age to the fictional girls involved. So it really hit home. 
I too was a depressed teen girl on tumblr begging to fit in and never quite managing. 

 

I will say however high my rating  I did find one major flaw in the book for me personally. 
Joni. 

I still can’t decide if it was intentional by Clark or not. I believe it was based on the last section (the interview).  But I still don’t enjoy that we know more about the murderers than we do the victim. 
I believe this ties into the authors narrative around true crime and it’s community, but it was still disappointing. 



Overall wow. It was truly haunting. And I think it will stay with me for a very long time. 
I have never read such a scathing look of true crime and it was phenomenal.
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hangry's review against another edition

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

4.5

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sleaterkenneth's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-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

2.0

Like Devil House but worse. I had similar issues with Boy Parts and I think they both just need a stronger edit, granted this is an ARC but there were parts where the same thing was repeated with only slight alterations in the same paragraph. Overall... I think it lacks empathy? A decent narrator? I understand that the narrator is unreliable but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of emotional investment and teenage slang that doesn't fit the time period/era of tumblr. I did tear through it and was interested in how everything would shake out so that has to count for something, begging everyone to read Devil House yet again.
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