Eliza Clarke’s penance takes on the fictionalised torture and murder of a teenaged girl called Joanie by three of her classmates and handles it from the perspective of a journalist and true crime author Corelli who is writing a non-fiction account of the case. It was known from the start who was responsible for the murder, and guesses could be made at why, so the book instead focuses on building a wide perspective of the town and players involved in the murder in a multimedia format and with the style of Capote’s ‘In Cold blood’, which was much to ‘Penance’s’ credit. (

Although I did feel very un-legitimised and even innocently at fault for the problematic fictionalisation of true crime in the questioning of integrity that comes in the ending, Corelli himself trying to encourgae comparisons to Capote despite his problematic outlook

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The book explores the difficulties of girlhood and the teenaged years in examine the psyches and morbid fascinations of the girls through their blog posts, tumblr threads, family interviews and dramatic recreations of core scenes, this difference in the girls contributing to frequent bullying and desire to victimise themselves and establish definitive blame. I haven’t liked this multi-media style before, finding it irritating in Jackson’s ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ and also find 21st century references sometimes a little jarring, especially when covid is mentioned in books! Here however the references to Brexit, Pokemon and the sorts really worked and made the book feel so much more grounded, also contributing to the very real, non-fiction feel. The issues ‘Penance’ raises surrounding true crime culture and online cesspits is unbelievably clever.