Welcome to Litsy!

Clark is excellent at characterisation, I really enjoyed her exploration of character and the context of their lives. Being contemporary and dealing with social media was really interesting and handled very well. I was very much immersed in the story for the majority of the book. I didn't enjoy the meta commentary but could ignore it mostly. More literary than mystery. Bright Young Women and Notes on an Execution adjacent.

This is page-turningly unpleasant, depicts perfectly the mundanity and awfulness of school and teen bullying, brilliantly reflects a Leave-voting town and its hierarchy and residents. Yet I also had issues with it. The pages and pages of the minutiae of teen lives was too much, the characters within the town were so obvious it must have been intentional but felt clunky to me. Yet despite those issues, overall this was an intriguing read 👇

This is a book within a book. A true crime non fiction writern by an aging male journalist which gives us the lead up and behind the scenes of the night Joni, a teenager, is burnt alive by her classmates.
We've all read enough true crime books by now to understand that these are long drawn out dry affairs that never get rated well.
She set out to write a terrible true crime book to showcase that true crime novels are full of fabricated truths.

I read this book because I was impressed the author was under 30 when she wrote it. And won a prize for it. I am probably too old an audience for the book.
While the subject (murder of a teenage girl by her classmates) and the format (like a true crime investigation) appealed to me this is mostly a very repetitive story of teenage girls bullying and being bullied. It felt far fetched, especially when the story lost itself in mystical stuff.

I‘m surprised at my reaction to this book, as I had assumed it would be a great read for me. Perhaps it was the way it was told (a book within a book, with podcast excerpts or something like that😝). Or maybe Clark tried to stuff way too many “ripped from the headlines” cases into one story? Commentary on the true crime genre and how little victims matter, was the goal it seems. A shame because her debut Boy Parts was disturbing yet so convincing.

Holy cow, this one‘s a corker! Told as a true crime book within the book as well as podcast segments, it tells of 3 English teen girls who murder a fourth. My expectations were shattered more than once by this deeply disturbing tale. I‘m stunned that this is a debut. Edit: because it‘s not! Oops. 😬

Can‘t say this was a feel good book, but it examined a lot of interesting issues. It‘s a book within a book telling the “true crime” story of three teenage girls who murder another girl. It gets into many issues including small town communities, the issues with true crime and the people who are part of that industry, teenage bullying and violence, and the early days of internet communities. Disturbing and thoughtful.

I am trying to use my Instagram a bit more, but I have zero idea what I am doing.
#recommendationwednesday

This is a novel that reads like non-fiction as it is purportedly a journalist‘s book about the murder of a teenage girl perpetrated by three of her female classmates. The whole thing feels ripped from the headlines and examines the lives of each of the girls involved including podcast transcripts, email correspondence and an examination of fandom, specifically serial killer fandom. I found it fascinating, but slow.

A fictionalized true crime podcast wrapped in a book. I listened to it as an audiobook via Spotify and that just added to the feel of authenticity. Clark captures the callousness and the fixation of this style of news(?) story(?) so perfectly. I found myself getting frustrated that the victim becomes lost then realized, yep that‘s what happens. She captures the warped online worlds of fandom too well as well. Great pick, @thewallflower0707

When you start a book you know nothing about, and now you can't sleep! 😊

#hooked

Really enjoyed this. It kept me intrigued from beginning to end. A collection of interviews from a small coastal town in the UK after a girl is murdered by 3 other girls. A great build up to find out what actually happened and the motivations behind the murder. Alongside the murder plot, is a great dissection of what it was like to be a UK school girl with the rise of social media in the 2010's and the dark side of being a true crime fan.

I liked this book. It had all the elements to make a great thriller. In short, the girls murder one of their schoolmates in a seaside town in the UK. Told from multiple perspectives including podcasts and social media sites as well as from a few girls involved and family members of the other killer. It's a good one. Solid ✴️✴️✴️✴️

8th Sept 2023 - quick read!