{"product_id":"penance-a-novel-isbn-9780063327856","title":"Penance: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Young British Novelists 2023 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Eliza Clark’s writing embraces the socially unacceptable and wryly explores themes of gender, power, and violence.”—\u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e’s Best of Young British Novelists 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Chilling, clever, and unputdownable.”—\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the cult hit \u003ci\u003eBoy Parts\u003c\/i\u003e comes a chilling psychological thriller, a brilliantly told story of murder among a group of teenage girls\u003c\/b\u003e—\u003cb\u003ea powerful and disturbing novel as piercing in its portrait of young women as Emma Cline’s \u003ci\u003eThe Girls.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn a beach in a run-down seaside town on the Yorkshire coastline, sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson is set on fire by three other schoolgirls.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNearly a decade after the horrifying murder, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has written the definitive account of the crime, drawn from hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves. The result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut how much of the story is true?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCompulsively readable, provocative, and disturbing, \u003ci\u003ePenance\u003c\/i\u003e is a cleverly nuanced, unflinching exploration of gender, class, and power that raises troubling questions about the media and our obsession with true crime while bringing to light the depraved side of human nature and our darkest proclivities.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"Deeply disturbing and hilarious.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eImogen Crimp, author of A Very Nice Girl\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e“Scabrous, cruelly funny and frequently stomach-churning. . . . Shot through with a satisfying jolt of Northern Gothic, the whole unevenly relayed through the contrivedly dispassionate medium of a reporter’s words. . . . Reading it gives the impression that anyone who endures adolescence will be lucky to escape alive.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Think Ruth Rendell’s psychological intensity meets Murderpedia.org. Clark’s skilled foreshadowing, characterization, and atmospheric conjuring make her one to watch.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e is a darkly compelling study of violence, madness and manipulation. It is grimly topical in light of the frequent mass killings in America and the steady scourge of knife crime among youngsters in Britain. Ms Clark, who this year was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, impresses with her effective conceit and her slippery narrator. The patchwork narrative is skillfully woven together . . . . she captivates with her sharp depictions of three young women who create their own 'tiny hell.'” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With the precision of \u003cem\u003eYellowjackets, \u003c\/em\u003eClark marks the vicious intensity pulsing beneath adolescent female friendships and presses it to its most savage conclusions—except these girls have social media accounts and British accents. This novel is certainly not for the faint of heart, but the violence at its core is cut slightly by the fascinating questions about the ethics of true crime at its periphery (not to mention Clark’s hilariously pitch-perfect impersonation of teenaged girls and Tumblr subcultures).” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOprah Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Bright young novelist Eliza Clark writes dark . . . . Clever.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Eliza Clark’s propulsive novel dives into the depraved obsession with true crime, class, and power in a distressing look at young women and the darkness of the human spirit.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNylon Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e is a bold experiment in both content and form, as well as a biting satire of the modern true crime industry.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Harvard Crimson\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Chilling, clever and unputdownable.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Never reads like a conventional novel. . . . \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e is written with such intelligence and dark humour . . . what Clark does best, though, is capture what it’s like being a teenager today.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Intricate \u003cem\u003e. . . \u003c\/em\u003ethe skin-prickling result is a pitch-dark mosaic of murky families and deadly frenemies, chronicling the slow decline of an ill-omened holiday resort with supernatural chills and metafictional twists.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Observer (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Eliza Clark’s thoughtful follow-up to her debut novel \u003cem\u003eBoy Parts\u003c\/em\u003e gives readers the opportunity to examine true crime from unexpected angles.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A clever, intricate and metatextual novel . . . the effect is disconcerting, which, you come to feel, is exactly what Clark wants.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Clark's second book is another firecracker . . . . Compelling.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrack Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003ePenance \u003c\/em\u003eis in one of literature’s most crucial categories, ‘undeniable banger.'\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMegan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Her writing embraces the socially unacceptable, and wryly explores themes of gender, power and violence.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGranta Best of Young British Novelists 2023\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An ambitious deconstruction of society’s voyeuristic obsession with the true crime genre, written as a pseudo piece of investigative nonfiction, \u003cem\u003ePenance \u003c\/em\u003eis . . . a lot. But it’s a big, big swing.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePaste Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I'd always assumed that true crime was primarily an American pastime, but \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e, the sophomore novel from Britain's Eliza Clark, demonstrates that our obsession has crossed the pond. . . \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e is packaged as a true crime potboiler, written by disgraced tabloid journalist Alec Carelli. . . . .which Clark does convincingly . . . .Her talent is still abundant here . . . particularly in Clark's trenchant observations . . .and in the novel's imaginative coda.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Clark shrewdly turns her own lens onto us, onto our obsession with true crime and our complicity in the industry it has spawned. . . . She is disturbingly gifted at inventing unrealities that feel uncannily believable.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Eliza Clark is a genius with voice and a master of flipped expectations. \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e astonished me with its breadth, wit and confidence. A wickedly clever deep dive into the nastier corners of the national psyche—you've never read anything like this.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJulia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"As bleak as it is compelling, \u003cem\u003ePenance\u003c\/em\u003e is a perfect dark satire of the voyeuristic true crime industry and the media's complicity in sensationalising the pointless destruction of human lives into a vulgar, grubby money-making circus.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharlotte Vassell, author of The Other Half\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A work of show-stopping formal mastery and penetrating intelligence.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Clark weaves a gripping tale that leads readers through podcast transcripts, text messages, interviews and Tumblr posts to show how stories become truth and explore the fraught space of teenage friendships and fandom as they collide with true crime.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDazed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Clark’s prose is brisk and clever, and the horror of the events described implicitly but deliberately raises a difficult question: to what extent are we as readers merely fresh initiates in a club of corpse-ogling fanatics?\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Gripping . . . . A seaside \u003cem\u003eHappy Valley\u003c\/em\u003e.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSheena Patel, author of I'm A Fan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890509869285,"sku":"NP9780063327856","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063327856.jpg?v=1730233453","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/penance-a-novel-isbn-9780063327856","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}