Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Penance by Eliza Clark

199 reviews

shrikesong's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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withlivjones's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The girls that get it, get it; the girls that don’t, don’t. and I get it. As someone well-versed on Tumblr and its lore, this book does a really good job of recreating the darker communities that live on the site and how easy it is for its younger users (often teenagers who are isolated and lonely IRL) to be drawn in and radicalised by the content they interact with. All of the characters involved in the murder are explored in such depth that they are all somewhat sympathetic but still unsettling, and the tension builds until it seems inevitable that these three girls do something unforgivable. 

But that’s only half the story. The book (which is presented as a fictional non-fiction true crime account of the murder) also details the fictional author’s efforts to gather as much information as possible relating to the three murderers, sometimes resorting to unethical means as far as stalking and harassing their relatives for details. As his account progresses, we start to wonder how much of it is accurate and how much he has projected onto the girls himself, turning it into something akin to the school shooter RPF one of the killers wrote. That aspect of the story-within-a-story is just as intriguing. 

Dark and unsettling, not just because of the heavy, graphic content but because of how realistic it feels, this book is totally worth the read. 
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robingdorsey's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a twisty and chilling ride. I struggle with the level of violent detail in both this and BOYS PARTS—it feels gratuitous, are we readers not any different than the people Clark critiques?, etc., etc.—but I suppose my conflicting feelings are the very point. The dynamics of teenage girls can be a world unto themselves.
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breanneporter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. Penance is a clever book-within-a-book about a (fictional) true crime story in which 3 teenage girls tortured and murdered a 4th teenage girl in a small coastal English town in the summer of 2016. Obviously, given this subject matter, it’s not for the faint of the heart but I will say that it starts with the toughest/most graphic stuff and gets easier to read as it goes on. The entire book is an excellent critique of true crime as a genre, and really forces the reader to contend with how we consume these types of stories about the worst parts of someone’s life, including how much detail is filled in by the people who weren’t there but are telling us the story anyway. 

There were a couple chapters that went on a tangent about the history of the town that went on a little too long but otherwise this was a very interesting and compelling read. 
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bookmarked_by_kate's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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aimsro's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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saskiacb's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

4.0

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itselizabethclaire's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kfergy's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really interesting read, especially as someone who has dipped into the true crime genre but also feels an 'ick' about aspects of the rising interest and production within it. Excellent use of framing, given that the reader is told at the beginning that this is a sus publication. Made me glad I'm not in high school anymore and that Tumblr was in its infancy when I was. 
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