Penance by Eliza Clark

DRB Reviews...Penance by Eliza Clark

My step-daughter bought this book for me as a Christmas present. She said firstly that she thinks I will really like it, but secondly that she read it over a year ago and still can't stop thinking about it! I can understand why. 

Penance is completely fictional, but written like a true crime novel. It is written from the perspective of a journalist, who is examining the murder of a teenage girl in 2016. She was murdered by three teenage girls she knew from her high school; her peers. When I first started reading this book, I had to look up if it was based on a true story, because the characters, the social-economic classes and the portrayal of society was so real and raw. 

Clark was spot on creating the brokenness of relationships. The story was so deeply disturbing and so believable. Bullying was the underlining theme through-out, which is an all too real systemic problem in schools. Nearly 14% of children who are repeatedly bullied during their school years end up in prison; there is a much higher risk for them to engage in violence as adults. I love how Clark referred to childhood bullies as a hierarchy, with popular kids  being in "tier A" and the group below as "tier B." It still perplexes me as to why bullies exist, but I love this quote from Penance: "Kids, they're very instinctual, they're very primitive, in a lot of ways. They can smell the difference on you." 

Clark creates her story around corrupt home lives and how it flows into systemic social problems. Teachers see hundreds of children every year, and truly understand developmental and social norms for age groups. The story really hit home for me when one of the teachers who repeatedly wrote home about a child's bad behaviour and the parent's response was "Oh that woman - the teacher - she had a vendetta against [my daughter]." It speaks volumes to the ignorance of closed mindedness that sometimes money or lack of education can foster.

Honestly, this book was so deeply disturbing as it highlighted how bullying can erode in itty bitty slights, and if one gets hit often enough, it's like water eroding the earth, over time it wears away a hole...a hole created from a thousand cuts. A hole that destroys. 

Clark...brava! What an intellectually stimulating read. I don't think I have read something so tangible, real and expertly detailed. I was so deeply moved and engaged. It was a tragic story, that was far too believable, and therefore was both sad and terrifying. I am completely blown away! What a gripping read!

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