asterope's Book Journey

Never in my life did I expect to see the words "Vriska did nothing wrong" in literature.

Penance is an exquisitely crafted exploration of both true crime and British society. We've got deeply entrenched classism, bad times at school, a decaying conservative seaside town, a serial nonce…too realistic 😭

It's cleverly layered with Clark's various messages. At the top layer, we've got the criticism of true crime and how writers, TV showrunners and screenwriters can dilute the truth and harm the people involved. The fictional writer Carelli infects his narrative with opinions and assumptions about the victim Joni, and her three killers: Violet, Angelica and Dolly. You can also sense something off about the way he handles interviewing their families, which returns spectacularly at the end in a fictional Guardian article. As the reader of both books, we have to consider our relationship with true crime industry and its impact on real people.

Underneath that layer, Clark crafts a fictional seaside Yorkshire town that's past its prime and coming apart at the seams. All of the characters, even those mentioned in anecdotes, seemed so real to me. And the tangents we're taken on were all necessary to portray the kind of environment these girls are being raised in. The section about the water park unexpectedly gave me the shivers - I'd forgotten how scared I was of slides when I was young. Cue flashbacks to the time I thought I'd lost my dad in such a park.

And then you have the girls themselves. The reconstructed narrative parts were so good, because on the one hand this is exactly what teenage girls are like, with how their relationships ebb and flow. On the other hand, is this just what Carelli wants us to believe about them?

Violet tried to think of something to say. Something Dolly would want to hear. Something that would impress her.

Going back up a level to Clark's writing, I could tell she has very much been through it with regards to Tumblr. This is probably the most realistic portrayal of being a teenage girl at the peak of Tumblr's popularity. The way the news of Joni's murder spreads across its true crime fandom, hitting Discord and a LiveJournal clone as well…oof. Clark's combination of her experience with this era of the internet plus her writing skill is clear.

Joni's childhood was like reading a mirror of mine. I didn't expect this reading experience to become so heavy, but here we are. Once they reach secondary school, the drama that unfolds through the ever-changing relationships between teenagers was so real. The killers' stories came together nicely, in the sense that you can see why this happened. The abusive men they're surrounded by, being failed by the system, failed by their own families and not getting the support they needed. Add all that to the familiar experiences of teen girls trying to fit in with each other and the insularity of small towns with little diversity. Clark also delves into being terminally online, what with how creepy serial killer fandoms are and the general anonymity of the internet.

I realise I'm just listing cool things the book explores now, but there's so many! And it's so well-written! Even across all the different formats - the narrative nonfiction style comes through clearly. It's certainly a genre I enjoy reading, but it's fun seeing someone ask if it's worth it - a terrible crime being picked apart by the writer, slyly inserting his own vibes, making logical leaps and only telling us certain parts of interviews. Penance hit me hard in multiple ways, so I'll definitely be reading Clark's further works.