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Wren

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Penance

by Eliza Clark

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in June 2024

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Wren said: " For some reason I didn’t read the blurb of this book before starting it! So I was really surprised at the dark nature of the first few pages. I was stunned, then intrigued.

This book isn’t really about the murder of a schoolgirl, it’s an effective cri For some reason I didn’t read the blurb of this book before starting it! So I was really surprised at the dark nature of the first few pages. I was stunned, then intrigued.

This book isn’t really about the murder of a schoolgirl, it’s an effective critique of social media fandoms and echo chambers, true crime entertainment and insensitive reporting. And it does most of this very well.

The book read mostly how you’d expect a true crime book to go. Weirdly specific details that you wonder how the author knows, emotional interviews etc. and I did find the story good. What I found better was the continued critique of sensationalised crime. The podcasts and shows making cheap, insensitive entertainment out of tragic stories. Because it’s so real- I’m actually a true crime fan but I found it all rang very true.

Another weirdly good aspect of this book is the tumblr culture. Like a lot of teenagers/ young adults, I spent most of my younger teen years on sketchy internet forums, talking to people who could have been 10 or 50, Reading dark and disturbing rants from some very sick people. You don’t get it unless you get it, and Clarke evidently also formed a personality in the depths of tumblr. I think some people might read this book and think that serial killer fandoms and fanfics and teen girls identifying with serial killers is an exaggeration, but to be honest it’s really not. It all exists and it’s alarmingly easy to find.

The book ends in a really good full-circle way. The killers gained a lot of their inspiration from an internet fandom around two school shooters, and their case ends up creating its own internet fandom and tumblr echo chambers. The central crime in this book ends up doing just that- inspiring a new generation of struggling teens to identify with the killers and create their own fandom.

The most alarming aspect is the journalist’s own hypocrisy. He himself is unreliable, dramatising the story, and therefore participating in the system he constantly criticises.

TL:DR; very clever novel by an author who obviously grew up with the less savoury side of social media! ...more "

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— Jun 05, 2024 03:50AM

Jun 05, 2024 09:19AM · see review