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lianastovall 's review for:
Penance
by Eliza Clark
This is not the grand indictment of true crime, nor the “final boss of the unreliable narrator,” that people seem to think it is. I’m not buying that the poor editing and writing can be blamed on the “book within a book” trope because the errors in this book were atrocious. Some sections ran on entirely too long and did not contribute to the narrative. If that was meant to be purposeful, it was a bad choice.
It is also hard to take the criticism of true crime seriously when the author herself (by her own admission) still engages with true crime and profits from it by exploiting real cases in Penance.
Eliza Clark wrote a compelling narrative. Despite all my complaints, I finished the book. She nailed the parasocial and weird dynamic of early to mid 2010s tumblr. I just wish there had been more analysis and less virtue signaling.
It is also hard to take the criticism of true crime seriously when the author herself (by her own admission) still engages with true crime and profits from it by exploiting real cases in Penance.
Eliza Clark wrote a compelling narrative. Despite all my complaints, I finished the book. She nailed the parasocial and weird dynamic of early to mid 2010s tumblr. I just wish there had been more analysis and less virtue signaling.