Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Penance by Eliza Clark

161 reviews

ribbenkast's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Eliza Clark's writing is unlike anything other writing I've ever read. The way she got into a fictional sleezy crime writer's head and made this sensationalized "non fiction" book from his perspective.  It's a level of writing skill not many people posses.

Something that particularly stood out to me that deserves separate praise is just how well she captured 2014 tumblr culture around true crime. It was weird and you just had to be there to see it to believe it. 

I'm looking forward to Clark's next novel coming out this year! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Death of parent

seventhswan's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I'm struggling to articulate why I liked this book so much. The writing is technically sound but very simple, and - unlike Boy Parts - I didn't think the plot was particularly novel or surprising. After all, in terms of storyline and structure, this book isn't too dissimilar to The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, which I hated. And yet I could not look away from this story.

The attention to detail throughout the story was impeccable. I felt throughout that Clark must have firsthand experience in the communities she writes about, or else have done incredible quantities of research, as all the minor details were so true to life. The setting was a character in its own right and I questioned whether it might be a real place (it isn't). Extreme acts of violence were depicted with such simplicity and restraint that they didn't feel all that affecting - until I tried to put the book down.

A few of the references and allusions in the text felt a bit on the nose for me - either have a generic noncy character or actual Jimmy Savile, but it annoys me to read about Definitely Jimmy Savile But With A Different Name And Haircut - but I loved this book on the whole, and it's cemented Eliza Clark as an "auto-buy" author for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

lottie_oglesby's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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

4.0

This book was like nothing I’ve really read before. The true crime element of it was dark but what was scarier was the accuracy of the narrative of being a teenage girl during the same time I was. High levels of bitchiness, the beginnings of social media and the darker side of tumblr were particularly relatable. I’ve found that I’ve been questioning the unreliable narrator and mulling over the implication of the ethics of true crime journalism since I finished. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, and Murder

livres_de_bloss's review

This book could be (generously) described as a comprehensive autopsy of a fake crime. But,mon dieu, it’s so poorly written and executed that it made me angry. After reading some of the critical reviews, I feel confident that this continues and finishes unsatisfactorily so I’m calling ToD and DNF. I read to page 93 and skipped to page 399 to read the ending and UGH. I don’t want to waste any more energy on it, so take my reading notes and let’s call it done:

I hate true crime (and any fandom culture, really) so the layout, writing, and story didn’t do much for me because it’s trying to emulate true crime. Critical reviews point out this book is (not even subtly) based on a real murder, which is just gross. Any “commentary” the author was trying to make about the harmful and exploitative nature of true crime is totally undermined by her own exploitation of real victims and their families. Adding insult to injury, the author doesn’t acknowledge this “inspiration”.

The dialogue (podcast transcripts especially) was embarrassingly poor and made me wince a few times. The teenspeak was awful and not remotely relevant to the time period.

Writing didn’t work for me - very dry and flat. The ‘structure’ is basically an info dump. Abysmal pacing. Excessive filler. Spelling and grammar mistake abound. Desperately needed tighter editing. The characters were cardboard. Don’t even try and tell me this was intentional to illustrate how incompetent the journalist was… find me a single person that would choose to read a badly written, 400+ page book because iT’s ChArAcTeRiZaTiOn! It’s the authors job to make the read compelling and the editors job to make it coherent. This book is neither.

Book wasn’t sure what it wanted to be so doesn’t fully realize any of its potential on any themes. The claims of commentary on austerity/seaside towns in decline and ramifications of Brexit are patently false. A throwaway line or two isn’t critical commentary. Instead, author prioritized gratuitous violence and completely unneeded rambling tangents.

Why was it titled “Penance”? This isn’t a theme or thing in the book at all.

I came to dread picking this up and regret the time I spent with it. Waterstones recommendations always let me down. I guess it’s fair to not trust a bookshop: their priority is making money, not giving objective recs. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hard do not recommend. If you have to read it, get it from the library. Don’t spend your money on this. Lastly, a gentle reminder that DNFing a bad book is self-care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

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

nightstitch96's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings

bookwermbaby's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Difficult and brilliant and my favorite book I’ve read this year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Mass/school shootings

sstento's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

augie_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

I went into this book not knowing a thing about the author or the story. I firmly believed right to the end that this was based on a true story and from the perspective of a real journalist. It was only afterwards when I - ironically - tried to search the town that was mentioned throughout that I realised the whole thing was fiction! Excellent writing and, as many have mentioned in their reviews here, touches on a very specific cultural experience of the internet and the way it affected young people. Excellent writing but do take care reading as there is a lot of graphic content.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Xenophobia

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