Penance
The 'unmissable banger' ALICE SLATER from the author of BOY PARTS and SHE'S ALWAYS HUNGRY
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4.1 • 65 Ratings
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
A Guardian Best Book of the Year
A Dazed Best Novel of 2023
'An unmissable banger.' ALICE SLATER
'A meta-meditation on the mysteries, malice, and minutiae of adolescence.' TOM BENN
'You've never read anything like this.' JULIA ARMFIELD
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 the small seaside town of Crow-on-Sea. Based on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, and even correspondence with the killers themselves, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has constructed what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the crime. It's a riveting snapshot of lives scarred by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.
The only question is: how much of Carelli's story is true?
'Deeply disturbing and hilarious.' IMOGEN CRIMP
'Insanely propulsive . . . She's a master of structure that Clark.' JENNY MUSTARD
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:
'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**
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Eliza Clark’s latest novel is a crime book within a crime book, unfolding in the voice of Alec Z. Carelli, a disgraced journalist turned true crime author who has picked up on the renewed interest in an obscure murder case in the hopes of reviving his fortunes after a series of flops. Carelli’s book, in turn, unfolds in the voice of many of the key players involved in the case, including excerpts from the podcasts that boosted the popularity of the crime, local community figures, family members and the perpetrators themselves. Clark takes a familiar, but nonetheless shocking, narrative of petty adolescent conflict escalating into irreversible horror and throws in elements of class, local politics, childhood trauma, supernatural beliefs, social media and the macabre allure of true crime fandom to build up a picture of how a teenage girl came to be murdered by three of her classmates. The ending reveals a twist that points an accusatory finger at the true crime industry and all complicit in its questionable ethics. Thankfully, Penance is merely fiction.
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
A remarkable story of violence
If some readers are not easily affected by violent situations, please read this book.
It doesn’t matter how much reality or reconstruction or invention is contained in this story. This is a book about violence and what can lead to it. I liked how not everyone was portrayed as coming from deprived poor environment and how violence in society and the media including the internet can make people blind to violence as the only way to reaffirm themselves. What has impressed me most of all is how all is so well held together by the author that the reader not only understands the degree of desperation and violence but in a subconscious way condones it all. The portrayal of rage, harassment and abuse is the most vivid I have ever read.