Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Penance by Eliza Clark

137 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Mass/school shootings, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Self harm

rhona_m's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

The structure of the book was a great way of revealing the characters slowly and through different lenses. The darkness of the story was less interesting than the portrait of the young girls featured. The relationship between these relatively normal highschool girls and how the oddities and experiences of each fuelled something dark. It felt like a believable progression rather than a narrative of plain evil.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Racism

katerina_l's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Murder, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Homophobia, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

lovesimon's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This was so good! Very clever structurally, good commentary, it really drew me in and all I wanted to do was listen to it until I finished it. I love anything that explores Tumblr, Internet Culture, and our cultural obsession with True Crime, so ya, this was awesome

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

sheeprustler's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Bullying, Gore, Death, and Gun violence

duhitsamanda's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia

kitfkat's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Suicide, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcohol, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Addiction

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Dementia, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Abortion, and Xenophobia

gemin1reader's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not my usual kind of read and certainly not an easy one - because of the subject matter but also because of the sheer length and depth of it. So many characters and angles to keep track of. 

A real biting look at the true crime industry though, it definitely made its point and packs a punch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Violence, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, Racism, Self harm, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Eating disorder

raisinreads's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

texasdennys's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Kind of reminiscent of Todd Haynes May December imo- i.e. when you want to write something based on a true crime but know that’s overdone and somewhat unethical and exploitative, but you still want to write a true crime novel . . . So maybe you just change the names and then make it meta and make it a criticism of true crime and that makes it okay . . . right? Genuinely I’m not sure if this book is exploitative or not. It kinda felt like Eliza Clark was trying to absolve herself with the journalist at the end criticizing the fake author asking “why not just make it a fictional novel loosely based on the true story” like does that make it any better? Truly I don’t know, but I was disappointed to find out how similar this story was to a true crime. Despite that, I really enjoyed the book. It’s rare to see media that understands how teenagers use social media (or used in 2014-2016) and how that contributes to their isolation and sense of victimization. If Eliza Clark wanted to write the Gen Z Mean Girls I feel like she could idk

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Violence