Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Penance by Eliza Clark

92 reviews

elinorrae's review

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

5.0

Incredible book!!!!! Super engaging and thought provoking. Love the critique of true crime but simultaneous fascination with it, it felt very human. Some very dark themes but will definitely reread! Really liked the conversations around fan communities

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape

em815ily's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Self harm, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Body shaming

tessa_specchio's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

woah 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Bullying, Torture, Death, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia, Gore, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Grief, Vomit, Classism, and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism, Police brutality, Eating disorder, Racism, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

esmem's review

challenging mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

jesskb's review

challenging dark sad tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A dark work of fiction modelled on true crime with a frankly crazy level of realism. This book reflects on some of the darkest aspects of human nature, what drives people to extreme acts of violence, the lingering traumas of primary and secondary school bullying and the other hidden traumas that accompany them, and the horrors of being "terminally online" in the unfiltered madness of the Tumblr era. 

Interesting if horrific, and unusual for its almost documentary style - which worked very well as an audiobook, with a true crime podcasty feel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

holk's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.0

Creatively presented. Very dark plot. I didn’t know Tumblr could be a place of such…slop for teenagers to consume. 

I struggled with wrapping my head around the modern way in which the teenagers spoke while them being in a past timeline. It took me out of the plot at several points. 

This book is heavy and full of plot points that may be triggering to some, although they are done tasteful, and I assume are well researched. 

EC has such a gift. I will definitely be reading her backlist along with her future titles. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, and Violence

notlikethebeer's review

challenging dark reflective sad fast-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

3.25

This was a quick and compulsive read - not quite one sitting, but very nearly! I really enjoyed the premise, both exploring the 'true'-ness of true crime, and the focus on the potential toxicity of teenage girls and their groups. However, I don't necessarily feel that it succeeded. The 'interview' at the end felt very tacked on, it would have been much better I think to have had explorations of that ilk throughout the book. As such, I wouldn't personally consider there to have been any great twist? I don't think I'll really remember reading this in a year or even a few months, which is a shame because it had some real promise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Murder, Torture, Child death, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

j_squaredd's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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 and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Blood, Gore, and Torture

Minor: Vomit

bionicfox666's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings

cpbindel's review

dark mysterious sad slow-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

4.25

So many twists in this true crime fandom, cancel culture-landmined investigation into an otherwise sleepy seaside British town. Who is socially in/out is seemingly more terrifying than the many ghost and witch stories that haunt the beaches. And who has the authority to tell what exactly went down? 

The story lagged for me about 4/5ths in, but the many forms (blogs and message threads, podcasts, interviews, narratives and newspaper clippings) kept me interested. A sad story with little respite.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Classism, Incest, and Child abuse