A review by wickens14
Penance by Eliza Clark

dark slow-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

5.0

this was crazy and i really liked it. for fans of makkai’s i have some questions for you. personally i love the non fiction novel, and so i liked how real and current it felt. this kind of disgusting tragedy is so depressingly common that i was googling whether these murders were real or not. there were a lot of themes and topics expertly interwoven in this novel. i liked when clark touched on the equal fetishization and fascination with depraved true crime stories… i myself have gone down the same wikipedia rabbit holes. and her portrayal of the brutality of girlhood, the complexity of female friendships, and the sickness of online forums was so real. clark captured the worst parts of 2014 tumblr so accurately i wonder how old she is. honestly some of the slang was a bit outdated but overall was done really well. i think the unreliability of the narrator was a nice touch and made me feel like my head was reeling… almost how i felt when hasan minhaj came out with the same “emotional truths” and you wonder just how much you’ve been manipulated. every character’s psyche was delved into with so much depth. i don’t know how much of that was real. but when we look at true crime podcasts/docs/wikis how much other than the irrefutable facts is true anyways?