Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Penance by Eliza Clark

224 reviews

victorcrictor's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A great read. At first I thought this was non fiction like a fucking idiot, i guess that is a testament of the quality of Clarks writing.

A very meta book in the sesnse that it is about itself and its fictional author rather than what it actually is about.

A very good take on bad books, bad journalism and ethics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

livres_de_bloss's review against another edition

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

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

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

elanuruysal's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sstento's review

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

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

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