Penance

I found the first half was missing a drive in the plot, it just felt like it wasn’t going anywhere. Also the slow burn wasn’t as excited as in other novels. We knew the “what” and “who” early on, and the novel spends the rest of its pages going over the “why” without actually figuring out a new “what” or another underlying “who” or offering a twist or another mystery to the case that needs to be solved in parallel, everything just added up. It felt like a good first Try at writing meta-fiction and I like the focus on how being so insular can lead to heinous acts (being in your own head all of the time is a slippery slope).

The cover misses the corner and the first page too. I’m too excited to read it as it just came out, so I won’t be returning it. Still a bummer tho :(

Ein völlig anderer Ansatz bzw Story als das erste Buch von ihr, trotzdem wieder spannend und sehr gut geschrieben!

So I read Boy Parts earlier this year and loved that and was slightly nervous this wouldn’t live up to that standard, but there was no need, because this was absolutely amazing, I loved it.🤯The formatting is a little strange, so be prepared to buckle up, because there are large sections to read before you will get a break, as there are no chapters just parts, I won’t lie I did find that a little bit intense at times, because I am a fan of a short chapters usually.Alec is a journalist and this is a book he’s written about a true crime, his first book he wrote about it was pulled from the shelves as he was accused of illegally obtaining the material for it. It tells the story of Joni who was horrifically murdered on the eve of Brexit by her friends and it’s told in interview style format, true crime podcasts, Tumblr posts, text messages.It starts with an unflinching account of Joni’s Murder, which was btw absolutely horrendous and interview’s with her mum and other friends that knew her. It then tells the story of each perpetrator and what their life was like leading up to the murder, some of the content is really heavy, one of the girls involved in the crime had an obsession with a high school massacre and the occult, she was extremely delusional and unhinged, all of the girls involved had issues and their friendship was extremely toxic.I was fully invested and engaged throughout, this had me hook line and sinker and tbh if I didn’t know, I would have thought this was a true crime / non fiction book. it was extremely chilling and felt so realistic to me. It will definitely be one of my top reads for this year, I won’t forget I’ve read it ! I would absolutely 💯 recommend this book, it was brilliant ! 🤯🤩

It is written exactly as it was spoken in the podcast. Huge paragraphs. I just couldn’t finish it. I wouldn’t say this is a writers work, more like a stenographer or a shorthand reporter