Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Penance by Eliza Clark

120 reviews

sandysmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.25

Dark, compelling narrative, which at times was difficult to read. Based on a story of 5 teenagers, 3 of whom torture and kill the 4th girl and the 5th girl falsely accused of being involved. It is also about the unreliable crocked narrator journalist who interviews those involved, researching the Internet, blogs, and fandoms writing about the murder, some of the writing factual, other parts a work of fiction. It was uncomfortable for me to read, which makes the rating very hard, as the book is so well written. It also made me consider the way in which things are reported, so I'm more likely to stick to fiction rather than glorified true crime reads.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Violence

krispomatic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

alright, i was shocked at how much i loved this. to put it bluntly, i loathed boy parts, but i wanted to give eliza clark a second chance — and i was pleasantly surprised.

this book had incredible worldbuilding and the characters were fleshed out, including the journalist. this is a novel about the exploitation of tragedy and the cruelty of teenage girls, and how often things can be blown out of proportion by pure hysteria.  i’m looking forward to clark’s next release.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Sexual assault

e11en's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

tallhousecookies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide

pilarlopezleiva's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bold'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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

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

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