Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Penance

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Penance by Eliza Clark

212 reviews

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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katerina_l's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

drrock's review

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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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karenleagermain's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

I have a ridiculous confession. I took an ARC of Penance on my summer cruise and I didn't look carefully at the cover, where it clearly stated "a novel." I was convinced that I was reading a true crime book and kept telling everyone about this shocking case in England. 1/2 way through, I realized that it was fiction. It's mortifying to admit this, however, I'm coming clean. I work at a bookstore and I even have this statement on my shelf-talker for Penance.

The book is a fast-paced force. If you do like true crime, this story will test your love of the genre, as it serves as a push back on our culture's obsession with true crime. In Penance, a group of teenagers lock a classmate in a beach shed and set the shed on fire. The girl survives long enough to accuse her attackers. The story is told through the eyes of the juvenile criminals and there is very little that they regret. We also see the story through the eyes of a true crime podcast, which flippantly talks about the case and is not dissimilar to real life popular true crime podcasts.

I was absolutely hooked by Penance and read it within a few days. I was actually quite relieved that it is a work of fiction, because the details are horrific. Eliza Clark is a fabulous writer and I look forward to reading her other books.

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