This was a very good read. It's quite different from Clark's first novel, Boy Parts, which I also loved, but I think I like his one more. As someone who also grew up in the peak of Tumblr's fandom era, I found this book to be a fascinating analysis of teenage online behaviour and how the line between reality and fantasy can quickly become blurred. From Tumblr anons to fanfiction to headcanons to RPF, this book feels like a relic of the online world for those who came of age in the mid-2010s. Penance resurfaced many memories of this time period that I had forgotten and forced me to reanalyze them from a new, more mature perspective. You really had to be there to understand just how strange this time was for so many teenagers growing up in a time of mass political disarray, climate change, social unrest, and the simultaneous rapid growth of the internet. Clark beautifully captures the feelings of isolation, anxiety, dread, and sorrow felt by so many young people who lived much of this time online.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Penance is a novel masquerading as a true crime book written by a disgraced journalist, exploring the murder of a sixteen year old by three other teenage girls in a run down seaside resort in North Yorkshire. Nearly a decade ago, Crow-on-Sea was rocked by the murder of Joan Wilson in a beach chalet by three girls. Now, journalist Alec Z. Carelli is publishing his book about this murder, the apparent definitive account based on staying in the town, interviewing those connected to the victim and perpetrators, and getting an insight into their lives and social media accounts. The thing is, is he really telling the true story?

After Boy Parts, it is easy to anticipate something exciting from Eliza Clark, and Penance goes in a very different direction, but definitely lived up to my expectations. It is entirely written in true crime framing, with the journalist's book and a follow up interview, and this is very effective in getting across the complexity of true crime and what counts as entertainment, research, and factual content. Carelli's book is a mixture of his descriptions of interviews and research, snippets from podcasts and social media posts, and dramatised sections that describe events as if in a novel or similar, and these all weave together to create this vision of what a writer might want to say about something so sensational. The narrative is so gripping, and Clark's writing adapts to the registers that suit each part, that you feel fully engrossed in the story even as you question why it is being told like this.

A really compelling element of Penance is the exploration of teenage girlhood and particularly elements of it that aren't usually turned into novels: strange macabre online obsessions, petty fallings out and friendship changes turning into something much more charged, what it is like to be caught in various stereotypes, particularly in a small town. It is truly a book for people who were too online in the 2000s or 2010s, and though footnotes in the book explain concepts from Tumblr and Livejournal (as if it was a middle-aged journalist explaining them), there's definitely a sense of 'if you know, you know', which is also how the characters seem to feel at times. And it is packed full of little details that make it all come together (for example, one of the girls has a harmless blog where she's obsessed with musicals and Glee, rather than an edgy blog about death or killers). Filtering this all through the journalist Carelli gives it an extra layer, this middle-aged man trying to understand teenage girls (and with his own motivations too).

Turning some of the darkest elements of teenage internet culture, serial killer fandoms, into a literary fiction novel is definitely a choice and it pays off, offering something that is disturbing but also feels like something you could definitely find online without much effort. It forces people to question some of the lines between these kinds of content—true crime books and podcasts, serial killer fanfiction, etc—to see that it isn't always an easy 'this one is okay and this one is terrible', but that everything is going to be tinged with personal opinion, motivation, and perspectives.

Also woven in are some very British elements, like in Boy Parts: the backdrop of Brexit and one of the characters having a UKIP father, the class divides in a small town, the legends and histories of a fading seaside town, abuse scandals from former entertainers. It also depicts going to a bog standard British school very well, especially in terms of how different kinds of outsiders function and how difficult it can be for the "misfits" to actually get along when all they have in common is being different (Jayde's story in particular felt packed full of elements straight out of an actual school from that time, like assumptions about your family, being seen as one of the only gay teenagers, and being into sports but not in a cool way). Similarly to in Alison Rumfitt's Tell Me I'm Worthless, there's a sense that Britain itself formed a place for everything in Penance to happen, that it was a malevolent force in some way (or at least helped form the pocket hells that the perpetrators are looking for).

Immediately gripping and also forcing you to question why that is, Penance is both a highly entertaining read and a book that poses a lot of questions, not all answered. The nature of it only being Alec Z. Carelli's book and a follow up interview means you don't really know what actually "happened", as with true crime stories, or if that even really matters. For people who haven't misspent a lot of time on the internet, it might not feel quite so real and immediate, but for me, it was like taking a 2 hour video essay on some old internet drama and turning it into a layered novel about the darkness of teenage girls, the impacts of true crime, and how anything is ever even constructed as "true" in the first place. Plus it might be the first novel I've ever read that mentions Neopets, so that is a win from me.

GOSH.

I love this!

Absolutely here for books and media that put a spotlight on the true crime fascination and just how weird it is/can become. Add in a mixed media format, different narratives, and past/present timelines - *chefs kiss*.

Penance is a book very much set in the early 2010s and Clark knows what she is talking about - for a book that is so steeped in Tumblr culture it could have gone wrong, but I'm glad to say it hit the tone exactly.

A book about bullying, popularity, idolisation, radicalisation and being a teenage girl.

My words can't do it justice.

This will be one of my favourites of the year and I can't wait to talk about it (i.e. listen to people who can properly articulate their opinions on this) on release!

I am shocked at this book. Eliza Clark is just phenomenal. I loved Boy Parts and this could not be more different. This reads like true crime and I had to keep telling myself it wasn’t. I will recommend forever.

Having loved Boy Parts since I received a proof in early 2020, I had sky high hopes for Clark’s second novel. I am so pleased to report that Penance exceeded my expectations. Its skewering of true crime fandom (particularly the fake podcasts which very obviously parody certain popular podcasts) was excellently done. Narratively this feels more sophisticated than Boy Parts, which I felt was a very self-assured debut that went slightly off the edge towards the end. Not so here, as Penance’s denouement provides a very satisfying conclusion. This deserves to be the book everyone is talking about this summer.

do you know what happened to her already? did you catch it in the papers? are you local? did you know her?

set against the backdrop of a dreary seaside town, penance recounts the shocking and disturbing murder of joan wilson, who was tortured and set on fire by three of her teenage classmates.

eliza clark is an immensely talented writer and creates an incredibly layered story through use of form. the story unfolds through interviews, podcast transcripts, emails and texts. the writing perfectly captures the chronically online teen era of tumblr, creepypasta, reddit and the impact the internet had during that time period.

penance demonstrates clark’s vast range in writing through multiple perspectives throughout the book. the characters each have such distinct and unique voices, ranging from a washed up journalist to a teenage girl writing fanfic about high school shooters. each perspective tells a different story and each story tells a different “truth” making the reader question themselves at every turn.

clark writes bold, edgy prose that is completely engrossing and impossible to stop reading.
with underlying themes of class, small town mentality, trauma, and teen angst clark tackles extremely heavy subject matters and poses thought provoking questions. do obsessive internet fandoms perpetuate cyclical systems of violence? can anyone ever properly atone for their crimes? how much of non-fiction writing is embellished and at what point does it become fictional?

penance acts as an allegory for the negative impacts and morality of the true crime industrial complex. as the reader becomes more invested in the story clark demonstrates how easily consumable this type of media is and how toxic it can be.

this book absolutely blew my mind and i cannot wait for everyone to read it.

Cheers to Eliza Clark, a second novel is usually more difficult to connect with from author to audience but I feel this one was on par with her first - Boy Parts.

Set in a small town of Crow-on-Sea in England, Penance follows an ex-journalist as he pieces together the horrific murder of Joan Wilson by her own peers. Blending all types of media, (Tumblr posts, podcasts, interviews, etc. ) this is an impressive piece of fiction set against the addictive backdrop of a faux true crime narrative.

For me, this novel was inescapable. It's messages glaringly obvious to an adult - but to a teenager wanting to be seen and heard, it's extraordinary relatable. Exploring the fathoms of internet and its suffocating depths as a naive and impressionable youth can bring out insidious traits in personality, can we blame social media for these kinds of issues? It's definitely brought the topic to the forefront of my mind.

I would have given up on this if not for loving the author's previous work and trusting something more was to come - and then unfortunately there was no twist or notable revelation. I'm glad I read it, it's well written, all of that, but I'm sorry to say I don't think it's very good in the way that I look for books to be engaging and exciting.

A really well-told mystery in the vein of Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories series.

Clark paints adolescents with empathy and understanding. She also captures the nuances of modern teenage life with aplomb.

I raced through Eliza Clark's new book. A very different take than Boy Parts the book presents itself as the 'previously unpublished' controversial true crime book by a journalist and mixes form and medium to create a patchwork of a terrible crime, teenage girlhood and small-town seaside politics. There's much to think about here from the ethics of true crime, the impact of trauma, occult online followings and Brexit politics. One I'll be thinking about for a long time to come.

Disturbing and extremely captivating novel about the murder of a sixteen-year-old girl by three teenage girls in a small seaside town in the north of England. The story is being told by a true crime journalist through historical research, interviews, podcasts, internet stuff, and correspondence with the killers themselves, Clark manages very well to draw you into this gruesome tale, but als shows excellently how complicated life can be for teenagers; with all the insecurities, wanting to belong, peer pressure, bullying, social media etc. On top of that, the ending is surprising 😊
Thank you Faber & Faber and Netgalley for the ARC.

woooow. an intoxicating second novel from eliza clark, and my favourite read of the year by far.

'penance' is a journalist's account of the gruesome murder of sixteen-year-old joni, which occured on the eve of the brexit vote, in a northern english seaside town, at the hands of three teenage girls.

constructed of interviews, witness accounts, text exchanges, tumblr posts, podcast transcripts and journalistic musings, this is a book about so many things at once. it explores the true crime industrial complex, the ethics of consuming true crime as entertainment, early tumblr fandoms that were nurtured and followed like religion, internet radicalisation, bullying, small town lore and politics, and the living hell that is teenage girlhood.

clark's research game is strooong in this one; she has constructed a world full of fleshy characters and compulsive plotlines that completely swallowed me whole.

plus, i was Very Much on the ~dark side~ of tumblr* throughout the 2010s (*defo NOT serial killer tumblr) and i'm so interested in reading about this microcosm of old gen z/young millennial adolescence, so that being so central to the narrative was so exciting to me!

i can't wait for everyone to read this book. thanks so much to faber for the arc!

THIS BOOK! I heard so many amazing things about Eliza Clark so I was ecstatic when I started reading this one. Penance is a novel written from the perspective of Alec Z. Carelli, a former journalist and failed author, writing a book about one of the most tragic and nauseating crimes committed in a small British town. But is his point of view accurate?

I am a sucker for unhinged female protagonists and Clark provides a whole collection of them in this book. The characters are done incredibly well, are extremely detailed, and seem real. The teen girls are described in detail, with all their flaws and unique interests. The novel explores in depth the internet culture, Tumblr, and the deep, dark world of the true crime industry and the toxicity that it bestows on young, not yet mentally fully developed children and teens. What I found especially interesting is the way the author provides a realistic account of the harmful romanticisation of criminals and how this affects young people, who cannot yet comprehend the sheer awfulness of these crimes. I found that the internet is a character in itself in this story. The story is set in the 2010s, which is way before major websites decided to filter their content to cause less harm, where cyberbullying was almost normalized or at least tolerated more than it is now.
Even though the sole focus of this book is the crime itself, I could not help but be in awe at the amazing portrayal of the impact of the internet on young minds and how certain interests, while unique, can lead to terrible consequences.
Please keep in mind, that this book is entirely fictional, however, I found myself researching things that are completely made up because the narrative just felt so real.

Will definitely be picking up more of Eliza Clark books.

4.5

Eliza Clark is a damn gift.
We have; unreliable narrators, true crime, small towns, the beauty of female friendships, the absolute horror of female friendships, and Tumblr in the mid 2010's.

This book didn't pack as much of a punch as Boy Parts, but it was still absolutely wonderful. Clark really understands girls and women and weirdos. As a woman, who used to be a girl, and who is absolutely a weirdo...god bless her for that.

Thank you so so much to the publishers for the e arc of this novel.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to this book! I am a big fan of Eliza Clark’s previous novel, Boy Parts, and I think that I love Penance even more! I’m absolutely OBSESSED with this book! It definitely is a contender for my favourite book of the year so far. I couldn’t stop reading it, it’s so gripping, so different, so well written. I just loved it so much and I’m so excited for the world to get to read it! Such a fab book!

I loved the author’s debut Boy Parts, and this one disturbed and entertained me just as much.

Read it if: you’re interested in the dynamic around teenage friendships, true crime and internet subcultures.

Don’t read it if: you missed the whole Tumblr fanfic era.

Many reviewers have pointed out that if you’re looking for Boy Parts 2.0, this definitely isn’t it. The narrative style of Penance is very interesting in itself, it’s essentially a fictional author’s account of a fictional true crime story, with the narration jumping between the author’s thoughts, interviews with those associated with the case and, podcast transcripts.

The case itself is disturbing and involves the murder of a 16-year old girl in a small seaside town. Her death is set at a time where school shootings dominated the news, internet subcultures such as Otherkin were in their heyday and schools were warning us about pro-eating disorder rhetoric online. As someone currently firmly wedged in the true crime podcast era, but still old enough to remember the rise of Tumblr, Twilight fan fiction, and when bloggers were our version of influencers, the subject matter really gripped me. I would say that anyone not familiar with the early decades of the noughties and the blogging culture around the period might find themselves a little confused, even thought the author helpfully provides references and definitions throughout.

The novel also deals with themes of sexual assault, internet bullying and the ethics around our obsession with true crime and veneration of serial killers.

I absolutely flew through this book. I felt it was very well researched and represented that era really effectively, and the depiction of small town life also felt very accurate. I would definitely like to read more fiction of this style.

With thanks to Faber&Faber Ltd and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Over 400 pages- too long - needed better editing to cut down what Clark has here. It wasn't an enjoyable reading experience because I just felt drowned in words that didn't seem to be going anywhere. The fragmentary narration style didn't help with this. The marketing of this novel makes a big deal of the fact that it's comprised of news articles, interviews, as well as 3rd person narration. But this actually added to my confusion. I need to be able to connect to a character, and all the noise meant I couldnt do that. Essential in the first 10% of a novel. I pressed on to the 20% mark but it didn't get any better and I bailed. After what was a mentally scarring opening scene of a teenage girl on fire but still alive, this book is troubling with little reward. Disappointing from an author who's debut novel several years ago held so much promise for her future.

I was immediately hooked by the premise and it didn’t disappoint at all, so well executed. I thought the teen girls and their relationships were so well depicted and showed how bullying, gossip and ‘mean girl’ attitudes can quickly escalate to much worse.
The window into true crime podcasts and tumblr felt really authentic and broke up the prose nicely, really enjoyed those sections.
Some parts were uncomfortable to read, but that’s to be expected given the subject matter and I don’t think it was ever gratuitous. I also loved the ‘b’ plot of the Cherry Creek shooting and could have read more of that.
Really enjoyed and can’t wait to see what Clark does next!

I am so happy that Eliza Clark has delivered another amazing, punchy and frankly horrifying novel! This was gripping, I felt I really got to know and empathise with each character and the world-building was so thorough. I'm looking forward to its release and will be making a video about it closer to the time!