Penance
From the author of BOY PARTS
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
'An unmissable banger that you need to preorder immediately.' ALICE SLATER
'You've never read anything like this.' JULIA ARMFIELD
'A meta-meditation on the mysteries, malice, and minutiae of adolescence.' TOM BENN
'One of the summer's most talked-about books.' SUNDAY TIMES
Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes?
Did you see the pictures of the body?
Did you look for them?
It's been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.
That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the murder - and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.
The only question is: how much of it is true?
'Deeply disturbing and hilarious.' IMOGEN CRIMP
'Insanely propulsive . . . She's a master of structure that Clark.' JENNY MUSTARD
A GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST 2023
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:
'This will no doubt be THE book of the summer. You need to pre-order this NOW.' @books.with.han
'Once again, Eliza Clark conjures her dark magic to pen something disturbing and addictive.' @mostardentlyalice
'Eliza's writing is pure brilliance and she captivates you with every page.' @zoreadsbooks
'Taking aim at our relationship with true crime, the brutality of teenage girls and classicism, it was easily my favourite read of 2023 so far.' @charlotte__reads_
'So cleverly written I am mind blown.' @jordslibrary
'Eliza Clark is a genius.' @mydarkgrace
**Eliza Clark's incendiary debut, Boy Parts, is available now**
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the uneven latest from Clark (Boy Parts), a group of high school girls murder their friend in a British seaside town on the eve of Brexit. The sordid events are related by Alex Z. Carelli, a once-principled journalist who is now writing salacious true crime. Bereaved by his daughter's suicide, Carelli sets out to write a bestseller about the Joni Wilson case, and is unafraid to massage a fact or two in the process. He moves to the fictional town of Crow-on-Sea in North Yorkshire, where Joni's murder took place, to interview various parties. First up is Joni's mother, who describes how her daughter was bullied. The reader soon learns from Carelli's interviews with friends of the killers that Joni became a vicious bully in her own right, and that most of them followed a similar trajectory. Early forms of social media play a significant role—one member of the group retreats into a Tumblr account devoted to her Glee fandom after she's bullied by the others, while another joins an online subculture devoted to infamous school shooters. Clark's depictions of Joni's murder—the friends set her on fire after torturing her for hours—are not only unpleasant but a bit puerile. She convinces, though, in her depiction of teen cruelty. Clark captures the reader's attention but gets mired in melodrama.
Customer Reviews
Clever as
4.5 stars
The author is one of “bright young things” of British literature, aka a member of the most recent Granta Best Young British Novelists list.
Body Parts (2020) was a first person narrative by a female Geordie version of Patrick Bateman. Here, Ms Clark spreads her literary wings into true crime, mixed media, metafiction, and social commentary.
It’s the night of the Brexit referendum. Three schoolgirls from a small seaside community in Yorkshire, one of whose Dad is a UKIP politician (no resemblance to Nigel F, who hails from Kent) torture a classmate then set her on fire, as you do. The barbecued chick dies. The others go to jail or psychiatric institutions.
Because the case coincided with Brexit, it escapes the media attention it might otherwise garnered until true crime podcasters take an interest several years later.
A tabloid journo turned true crime author, whose star is on the wane, sees the story as a means to reclaim his relevance and bank a sizeable pay check. He spends several months living in the town piecing things together from witness statements, news reports, podcasts transcripts, interviews with locals, tumbler posts etc. The finished work provokes a backlash from the locals, which sparks the interest of a female Guardian journalist, whose own inquiries cause the publisher to withdraw the book soon after publication. Wheels within wheels.
Ms Clark writes very well. If Mastermind was still around, her special subject could be unreliable narrators. Older readers unfamiliar with SMPOTF (social media platforms other than Facebook) might not fully appreciate how unreliable.