Penance

July 10, 2023
In the uneven latest from Clark (Boy Parts), a group of high school girls murder their friend in a British seaside town on the eve of Brexit. The sordid events are related by Alex Z. Carelli, a once-principled journalist who is now writing salacious true crime. Bereaved by his daughter’s suicide, Carelli sets out to write a bestseller about the Joni Wilson case, and is unafraid to massage a fact or two in the process. He moves to the fictional town of Crow-on-Sea in North Yorkshire, where Joni’s murder took place, to interview various parties. First up is Joni’s mother, who describes how her daughter was bullied. The reader soon learns from Carelli’s interviews with friends of the killers that Joni became a vicious bully in her own right, and that most of them followed a similar trajectory. Early forms of social media play a significant role—one member of the group retreats into a Tumblr account devoted to her Glee fandom after she’s bullied by the others, while another joins an online subculture devoted to infamous school shooters. Clark’s depictions of Joni’s murder—the friends set her on fire after torturing her for hours—are not only unpleasant but a bit puerile. She convinces, though, in her depiction of teen cruelty. Clark captures the reader’s attention but gets mired in melodrama. Agent: Rachel Mann, Jo Urwin Literary Agency.

August 1, 2023
Three girls in a failing seaside town brutally murder a classmate in this (fictional) true-crime expos�. True crime has become such a ubiquitous genre over the last 10 years--through podcasts, television, and nonfiction books--that it's now fodder for fiction. Clark, who was recently named to the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta, approaches the genre with both a critical eye and an instinct for the lurid. The novel is framed as a nonfiction account of the brutal murder of a teenage girl by three of her classmates, written by disgraced tabloid reporter Alec Z. Carelli, who has unethically tinkered with his material. Joan Wilson, the victim of the crime, was tortured, assumed dead, and then set on fire, although she survived long enough to seek out help. Carelli investigates Joan's life as well as the lives and actions of each of the three perpetrators: posh, bratty Angelica Stirling-Stewart; Joan's old friend Violet Hubbard; and disturbed Dolly Hart, who's obsessed with a hunky school shooter. Interspersed with Carelli's reporting are podcast transcripts, fan fiction and online forum excerpts, and historical background about the bleak northern English town where the murder took place. Clark isn't afraid to write about gruesome violence or bullying, and she tries to critique our culture's fixation on true crime. Unfortunately, the execution of this long, often tedious novel is not strong enough to support its ideas; instead, it reads like just another grisly story of a murdered girl. Great investigative nonfiction authors write novelistic prose, while Clark's is clunky by comparison. The structure of her novel is similarly uninspiring, moving from one long interview to the next with little analysis. This book is not believable as a work of investigative nonfiction, which renders its conceit annoying rather than provocative. An ambitious sophomore attempt bites off more than it can chew.

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August 1, 2023
Drawing on true-crime horrors including the Slender Man stabbing and a variety of school shooters, Clark (Boy Parts, 2020) immerses readers in a disturbing swirl of social cruelty and online criminal fan culture. In Crow-on-Sea, North Yorkshire, Joni Wilson uses her last breaths to identify the three classmates who kidnapped, beat, and set her aflame. Her accusation attracts disgraced journalist Alec Carelli, who mines online discussion boards and interviews to profile Joni and her attackers, revealing the layers of spite, manipulation, and delusion that led to her sadistic murder. It's hard to say which is most unsettling: Joni's former best friend's betrayal, or the delusions of newcomer Dolly, who is driven to summon an evil golem to plague Crow-on-Sea. Those brutal ironies hit hard, placing this read on the darker side of the recent spate of thrillers woven with new media: think Ruth Rendell's psychological intensity meets Murderpedia.org. Clark's skilled foreshadowing, characterization, and atmospheric conjuring make her one to watch.

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