Penance by Eliza Clark is a super dark portrayal of adolescent angst in a small UK town and what happens when real-life crime becomes True Crime Content. It implicates us, the reader, in perpetuating true crime culture through an unreliable narrator and salacious details. However, I struggled with the teenage voice narration - while true to life, it was difficult to endure for hundreds of pages. As someone who just missed the Tumblr era, perhaps this book was just not meant for me as an elder millennial.

I have never read a book like this in my life. This was a bone-chilling and accurate depiction of what it was like growing up on the Internet from 2012-2016. The horrors of girlhood are unmatched in this book. I also really appreciated the nuanced critiques of how popular and romanticized true crime is in our society and the ripple of harm that it creates for the individuals, families, and communities involved in real-life cases. I will be reading more from Eliza Clark - this was masterful. Solid 4.5/5 stars from me.

This book is so unique in so many ways. The format in which it is written-- many points of view oscillating between various kinds of accounts such as interviews, podcasts, news articles, etc, makes for such an interesting read! The characters are all so complex and the way we get an almost complete picture of them through the accounts of those around them is so interesting. I loved thus book even more than Boy Parts and I'm excited to see what Eliza Clark does in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

Difficult book to read at times but astute examination of true crime media, girlhood, internet culture.

No, thanks. I had a hard time finishing it; it just wasn't the right book for me. Plus, it didn't help that I heard it was based on a real case, but the author didn't mention anything about it in the book, as far as I know.

Honestly loved this so much more than I was expecting to, unreliable narrators and all! I was definitely a ~tumblr girlie~ in the early 2010s, and reading this book felt so painfully yet laughably accurate of internet culture..... yes, even the bad parts. Having also read her debut novel BOY PARTS last year (not to say that the vibe of PENANCE matches that of BP exactly or anything, because it most certainly doesn't - rest assured, both books (imho) successfully stand on their own in terms of having their own distinct voice/purpose), I can now confidently say that I think Eliza Clark is really great at writing compelling stories that shine a light on matters/situations that we, as a society, tend to gloss over, gaslight, or plain just ignore. While I personally am not a fan of true crime, the "following" it has managed to foster over the last several years - especially in conjunction with the rise of the internet - is equal parts fascinating and disturbing to me.... which is why I found PENANCE to be such an engaging (yet, at times, deeply frustrating) read, with energy akin to other works like Joseph Knox's TRUE CRIME STORY, which I also read last year, or Truman Capote's classic IN COLD BOLD. This book is also verrrry meta in the way it frames its own narrative and in how it touches on certain topics like toxic friendships (a la "Mean Girls"); what "coming-of-age" looks like for young women in the digital age; what it means to "curate your own story" versus the effects of being chronically online versus the inclination we've become conditioned to feel to turn ourselves and our lives into some sort of spectacle for public consumption..... and so much more. I would for sure recommend this book out to those looking for an interesting/timely read (especially if they fall within my same age demographic) and, while I understand her books may not be for everyone, Eliza Clark is definitely now on my radar as an author to watch out for and look forward to!

📖BOOK REVIEW📖

Penance
by Eliza Clark
published 09.26.23 by Harper
(many thanks for the advance copy)

I’ve been struggling lately to find a book that really grips me and pulls me in. This one unfortunately didn’t do the trick either. ☹️

PENANCE is the story of a group of British teenagers who murder a peer, told through the framework of a journalist’s book about the crime. Without giving too much away, I was interested in how it would wrestle with the theme of bullying, examining how cruel youth can really be to one another beyond just the typical high school mean girls scenario. I was also drawn to the exploration of that line between fact and fiction, how accurately (or not) the journalist has portrayed the facts of this case.

In the end, neither of these aspects really did anything new for me. I appreciate the novel’s structure, a multi-format approach composed of podcast clips, interview snippets, narrative retellings, and more. And Clark isn’t a bad writer. I just didn’t find myself as invested in the story as I felt warranted for the cold, dark subject matter. Could be a case of it’s me, not the book. 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you’ve read this one, I’d love to hear your take on it. Also curious if anyone has any similar recommendations that you found compelling.

Penance is an interesting take on the “true crime” story told by a journalist investigating the case of a horrific and brutal murder of a teenager by her peers with flashbacks from the perspective of the teens themselves as it is happening. The story and the structure call into question the difference between fact and fiction and it is impossible to know what is or isn’t true. This book will be a huge hit with the right reader. It is perfect for pure entertainment or pleasure reading, for someone interested in true crime, or who wants to reminisce about their tumblr days.

I believe fiction can help us learn about and immerse ourselves in things that we have not experienced first hand. I missed the tumblr era and unfortunately this book didn’t describe it in a way where I felt like I understood it well or was able to experience it in a way that I could fully grasp it. I do suspect this aspect of the book is nostalgic for someone who had been using tumblr in the same way and able relate to the experiences of the characters in the book due to first hand experience. I also had difficulty differentiating the characters. I’m not sure if this was due to a lack of depth or definition in the characters or if it was just my lack of paying close attention.

As a parent this book can be terrifying as it is a harsh reminder of how challenging it is to be growing up in the digital age and how easily people can be influenced by those around them. I found myself thinking a lot as I read, what makes someone tip from being interested in murderers to becoming a murder themselves? Even though this won't bee on my favorites list it was entertaining and I will read Clark again. Out now, thank you @harpercollins and @netgally for the eARC!

Penance is one of the darkest books I've read this year and the crime at the center of this story is exceptionally depraved. Here's a hint: if you love Megan Abbott and how she writes demented high school girls, you'll probably love Penance. The structure of this book is interesting, so hang with me. High school girl Joan Wilson was murdered 10 years ago in Crow on Sea, a British vacation town. Now that the murder is getting some attention from the true crime media, journalist Alec imbeds himself in the town to research his upcoming book…the “definitive account” of the murder and the events leading up to it. The book he publishes (called “Penance”)...is the book you’re reading, aside from Intro and Closing chapters (note that these 2 chapters are also fictional). This entire story reads like nonfiction true crime - the deep investigative journalism kind where you learn about the town, etc. Penance gets deep into high school dynamics and bullying, especially among girls. And, it covers the public's fascination with true crime. This is a "ripple effects" book, one in which the story centers on the lead-up to the crime and its impact on the participants and community rather than the crime itself. The middle dragged a bit, but this story felt fresh. Caveat: the podcast script in Chapter 2 is awful, but not indicative of the remainder of the book.

I was excited to read Eliza Clark's sophomore release after having read Boy Parts when I was getting back into reading and being swept up in the "unhinged women" trend. Whereas Boy Parts has garnered some valid critiques, Penance flips that and acts as a satisfying critique in itself of the morbid curiosity that people have in murder and crime. I've seen other reviewers talk about this book as being "compulsive" and have to agree that Clark's writing makes it difficult to turn away!

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕.

True Crime podcasts, amateur sleuths, and the muddied waters of horrific acts. This is a fictional story about three high school girls in an English seaside town and their grisly murder of a fellow student, Joan Wilson. Journalist Alec Z. Carelli’s book about the case was pulled from the shelves when accusations were made that the content wasn’t altogether truthful but “after the conclusion of relevant litigation” it is republished. Extracts of interviews from salacious podcasts follow, then a picking apart of the crime and the varying accounts of what really happened. Is this a prank gone bad or revenge? How much harm do fans of true crime and their hosts themselves commit? I’m not sure we will ever get an answer.

The reader learns of the harrowing night Joan experienced before taking her final breath. What comes off as believable is the flimsy reason her life was snatched from her and the suspects irrational behavior. Do we trust the author, a known liar? Did Alec deserve to be cancelled, dropped from his literary agency in the past? As he tells us, the story was begging to be told, and he was the first to take up the challenge. It is filled with ‘hours of tireless research’, he has all the goods! Suspect Violet Hubbard and Joan were thick as thieves once, until Joni dumped her for her former bullies, mean girls, one of which is the suspect, popular Angelica-Stirling Stewart, whose family name is all over the buildings in their seaside town of Crow-on-Sea, North Yorkshire. Angelica, Joni herself once admitted to her mother, is the friend we all hate. A “glamorous, charismatic troublemaker”, according to her teachers, Dorothy “Dolly” Hart is the third suspect and the presumed ringleader. Hailing from an unstable home with festering mental health issues, the pretty girl is cruel, rumored to have believed in the occult. How the three came together making Joan their target unfolds, sifting through fact and fiction there is a lot of stonewalling from family and friends, stories that are true and some unfounded. All we know for fact is that the three were involved in the ending of Joan’s life because Joan was still alive when they burned her and she was able to give the names of her attackers during her last moments of lucidity. Naturally, they are all guilty, but with three varying accounts of the crime and each accusing the others of being the mastermind, it is fodder for the masses and wildly unending speculation.

Was the town and an earlier incident where a fellow student died in a freak accident to blame for the birth of this crime? What causes such derangement and why the hell are we so hungry for such horrors? Is true crime media complicit in feeding the beast, enticing the vulnerable to commit atrocities? The attackers were each from different walks of life, so it isn’t simply about class. The trouble remains that fact and fiction is blended so that the explanation is beyond recognition. That’s the point.

This book is a strange tale composed of detours, there were things I liked about it but I got lost sometimes in the details. It’s a mean crime and Clark nailed the sloppiness of the fictional perpetrators. If you have ever read about non-fictional crimes, particularly committed by teenagers, it mirrors the deluded state of mind these girls were in; this make-believe world leading to violence. I understand how Clark was trying to use the town as a suspect in a sense too, begging the question does our environment lend to the building or collapse of our character. It isn’t an easy task for a writer. It was sometimes hard to stay engaged, but when I was, I chewed on thoughts about youth, violence and our addiction to understanding the minds of criminals. We are often riveted by the victim’s experience, which is more digestible at a remove. Victims don’t have that luxury.

Published September 26, 2003

Harper

Penance was a really interesting take on the fiction novel commenting on the true crime genre. I liked the storytelling and the reflection of the genre as a whole.

This was a fantastic take on the true crime phenomenon, podcasts and novels alike, ESPECIALLY as someone who was hugely into tumblr as a teen and witnessed a lot of the exact online behavior described in the book. It was so well done I forgot it was not actually nonfiction at several points. 5/5 stars- will absolutely be purchasing a physical copy and reading more by Clark.

Penance by Eliza Clark is such a disappointment after reading her book Boy Parts. The story starts with a bang as we learn about a “true crime” case of a girl being set on fire, but after the initial chapter, it turns into a monotonous, boring true crime program where they rant about landscapes in the city where the murder took place. I had to skip through multiple chapters because it was dull to get to the parts about the murderers, and even those chapters were long-winded and boring. I was expecting so much more out of this book after reading her other works

This novel is written in the form of a true crime book, and so effectively does she inhabit this space that I read the first few pages and couldn't figure out why I had picked up a true crime novel by a disgraced journalist unwittingly. Even after reassuring myself, I would find myself googling names, trying to find out what wikipedia had to say about the murder. It's an unsettling format and all the more because Clark does such a convincing job of it.

The story follows that of five girls; the dead girl, the three teenage girls who murdered her, and another girl who knew the girls involved. It is structured as a non-fiction account of a famous crime, with the addition that the author of this work of non-fiction is a disgraced journalist who is accused of having stolen personal writing belonging to some of the girls and used that to write novelistic chapters. The murder is brutal and that the killers were three teen-age girls meant that there would be media interest, although the early interest in this case was spearheaded by a few particularly lurid true crime podcasts.

Clark is covering a lot of ground with this novel, ranging from an examination of the appeal of true crime podcasts and media, the dark underbelly of which is the canonization of mass murderers as well as a sense that the public deserves entry into the lives of those involved in a crime; the fine line between non-fiction and fiction and how to maintain the divide (there is no situation in which I am willing to accept the term "true crime novel"); and, at the heart of all of this, a sensitive story about growing up in a dead-end seaside town on the east coast of England, and all the complexities involved in being a teenager.

Clark took on an ambitious project with this novel and that she pulled it off so convincingly is impressive.

It took me quite some time to get started on this book, but now that I have I cannot understand what kept me. This is such a vivid, fascinating picture of of the state of the UK wrapped in a compelling, human mystery wrapped in commentary on our need to consume true crime - it's really, really good, and entirely unputdownable.

The point of Penance was clear: social commentary on the culture of obsessing over dark true crime stories, told by a very unreliable narrator. But ultimately, I struggled with the format - a book within a book within an article with blog posts scattered throughout? And had a hard time connecting with the characters.

Penance is an ambitious book that attempts a lot in just over 300 pages. Its effort is admirable, but I don’t think it has the impact the author was hoping for.

WHAT I LIKED
–The format of a fiction book reading like a nonfiction true crime book was really inventive and Clark really committed to the style all the way through to the very end
–There were a lot of interesting threads about how society interacts with and consumes true crime content that I think would spark discussion in book clubs
–Social media does play a part in the story, primarily Tumblr. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where Tumblr has such a central role and I was impressed with how Clark so accurately described the nuances of the platform

WHAT DIDN’T WORK
–I’ll be the first to admit that I read some scary stuff. I love the horror genre and an almost surefire way to get me to read a book is to tell me it’s the darkest thing you’ve ever read. But something about portions of this were really hard to get through. There are graphic descriptions of torture and violence that felt unnecessary to the larger story and I found myself skipping over those passages because they were so vile
–This book is extremely dry and several parts of it felt like reading a textbook. There were definitely times I felt like I had to force myself to pick this one up so that I could finish it

If you enjoy literary crime novels that offer a lot of food for thought, this one might be a fit for you. But definitely check out the content warnings above, as there is a lot of difficult material in this one.

Penance is out now. Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eliza Clark's sophomore novel "Penance" is DARK, but once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down.

What led three edgy Tumblr girls to murder 16-year-old Joan Wilson? Disgraced journalist Alec Z. Carelli takes on the grueling task of countless interviews and research to find out. Whether or not you can trust his recountings is another story, but there's no denying his ability to weave a horrifically entertaining narrative. This raises the novel's questioning of the moral and ethical aspects of creating and consuming true crime content, ultimately leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Taking place in the small seaside town of Crow-on-Sea, Clark wastes no time acquainting the reader with the political inner workings and social rankings embedded in the town's history. Carelli's thorough research transforms the setting into a character of its own. That being said, "Penance" is very much a character-heavy book but still maintains suspense through the compulsive nature of its plot. The reader is introduced to a series of key players connected to or directly implicated in Joan's murder through interviews, letters, and online posts.

The central group of characters belongs to a social circle made up of painfully awkward teens navigating the tumultuous terrain of adolescence. They turn to online spaces for comfort, engaging in fanfiction, creepypastas, and modding The Sims for torture (a step up from removing the pool ladder). Unsettling? Yes. But it's all very innocent until things take a rapid turn, and then it's not.