Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Penance by Eliza Clark

73 reviews

geraldine's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

picked this up because i read boy parts and liked the writing style well enough that i figured i would give her next book a go. and i liked her writing style here as well! i also liked this one better, for the record, even though it's a lot more complex. i do feel like i wanted to keep a little notebook with everyone's name and a basic summary because a few times i felt like i had forgotten who someone was, but this might just be a me problem. and by the end this was not an issue.

all other takes are spoilers from here-on out.

i hadn't remembered the synopsis when i checked out the library ebook, but the very beginning was promising to me, like the setup of the second release of a (fictional) true crime non-fiction book, i do like a commentary on true crime. and then imagine my surprise when i realized that it was not only this but specifically a commentary on serial killer fandom and RPF???????????????

i actually have a note in the kindle app on my phone (i read this on both physical kindle and phone app, for the record) from around the 57% mark when i realized she was drawing a direct parallel between what dolly was doing with her serial killer fanfiction and what alec was doing with his book. and for the record, i did think it worked.

my main complaint about this is the very end, that maybe she felt like she was being too subtle here? (she was not.) and then has that final interviewer sit down with alec and y'know... literally say out loud the thesis of the book. i feel like this was genuinely unnecessary! i don't think we needed that interview at all! i felt like the afterward up until that point, info from the editor explaining who was suing and why and who had complained etc, this was enough to get the point across. trust your readers to pick up on this even if you don't explicitly spell it out!

this also made me question one of the other things i thought i was picking up, like if she directly explained one of the things she was hinting at, does that mean that i was just reading into the other element i thought she was suggesting? or did she choose to leave that subtle and it was intended? because to me it also felt like alec was not only being voyeuristic and obsessing over the culprits here, but also that he is doing this to teenage girls, and there may be more to it than just this. he is a fifty year old man, obsessing about teenage girls. 

he includes what heather says about dolly's father and the accusations that dolly refuted on the stand, and in his fanfiction moments he has other characters allude to the accusations being true, but then when heather explains what she saw, he defends dolly's father and directly compares himself to the father. with an example where he spends hours standing watching his daughter sleep. really wondered about this one for a while. perhaps i really am reading too much into it, but still.

that's all really. i thought she did a good job integrating like... i guess online and "fandom" concepts in a way that made sense for the story she was trying to tell. and not assuming that a random reader in a barnes & noble would automatically know what the term RPF meant.

anyway, vriska homestuck gets namedropped in this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

coffeecass's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

sangsmiles's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Toxic relationship, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

plstr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

ashleighcattell's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

rosecahill's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Toxic friendship

alexander26's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

ribbenkast's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Eliza Clark's writing is unlike anything other writing I've ever read. The way she got into a fictional sleezy crime writer's head and made this sensationalized "non fiction" book from his perspective.  It's a level of writing skill not many people posses.

Something that particularly stood out to me that deserves separate praise is just how well she captured 2014 tumblr culture around true crime. It was weird and you just had to be there to see it to believe it. 

I'm looking forward to Clark's next novel coming out this year! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Death of parent

annah_'s review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

At times I questioned whether this was a young adult book because of the basic writing style and teen characters, but the themes/language made clear that it was not. Although this is an innovative style of writing, I found the book to focus too long on the unlikeable main characters, who have little to no redeeming qualities. I almost didn’t care about the back stories of the characters as I was not connected to them in any way. I found that the references to real true crime and fanfics were uncomfortable and went on too long. I felt that the pace picked up towards the end of the book but maybe I was just rushing to finish it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

nightstitch96's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings