Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Penance by Eliza Clark

10 reviews

erikoo's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

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

Moderate: Suicide

opldxblqo's review

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

sarah984's review against another edition

dark funny 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

3.0

This book was fine, it captured the voices of the teens and (most of) the internet culture of the era really well, but I do think it fell into its own trap a bit in over focusing on the perpetrators without a lot of self awareness, and a few things about the internet culture of the time are inaccurate in a way that annoyed me (especially the assertion about ao3 because I think the truth actually adds to the book's point). The twist is so obvious from pretty much the beginning that the epilogue feels like a joke.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Gore, Body shaming, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent, Rape, Drug use, Racism, Eating disorder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, and Confinement

taliakdean's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Vomit, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Dysphoria, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, and Torture

Minor: Dementia, Body shaming, Racism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Grief, Abortion, Miscarriage, Outing, and Pregnancy

rachelcoconut's review

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, Confinement, Child abuse, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Death, Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

aileron's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Kidnapping, Bullying, Death, Child death, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Classism, Confinement, Racism, Self harm, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

coffeekitaab's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Alcoholism, Self harm, Violence, Body horror, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Biphobia, Blood, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Infidelity, Murder, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Vomit

iheartm4m's review

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

As a tumblr trawler of 2013-2016, this book hit home so hard. I knew girls like this, and now i dont have to imagine what would have happened to them if they took it too far. Great use of media from this decade, im obsessed with clarks use of the darkest parts of the internet that are teenage girls blog posts. Fantastic and fascinating and chilling. Could not put it down. As a person the same age as the characters, f*** me is this accurate!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Drug use, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Addiction, Kidnapping, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, Rape, Drug use, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Vomit

sleaterkenneth's review

dark tense fast-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

2.0

Like Devil House but worse. I had similar issues with Boy Parts and I think they both just need a stronger edit, granted this is an ARC but there were parts where the same thing was repeated with only slight alterations in the same paragraph. Overall... I think it lacks empathy? A decent narrator? I understand that the narrator is unreliable but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of emotional investment and teenage slang that doesn't fit the time period/era of tumblr. I did tear through it and was interested in how everything would shake out so that has to count for something, begging everyone to read Devil House yet again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Torture, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Blood, Death, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, and Death of parent