Before she’d even finished reading the novel, bestselling author Juno Dawson approached Clark to adapt it for television.

Clark, who was just named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists of 2023, became more widely known after her first novel Boy Parts went viral on TikTok, causing it to become a ‘BookTok’ hit.

Clark’s second novel Penance masquerades as a true crime factual book, written by crime writer ‘Alec Z. Carelli’. The book within a book detailed the brutal murder of a North Yorkshire teenager by three of her school friends on the eve of Brexit, and the events that led up to it. Tensions between the four teenagers grow in fandom spaces on Tumblr, obsessions with the occult, and rivalries that go all the way back to primary school.

The recently released novel will be adapted to screenplay by This Book is Gay author Juno Dawson, who celebrated the news via her Instagram, saying: “I slid into Eliza’s DMs before I’d even finished the novel because my brain was already spinning with how I’d take such a complex narrative to screen. Can’t wait to get started on this unique (and very northern) project.”

Altitude Television’s development executive, Gabby Kardar, says: “Eliza’s novel is a stunning, zeitgeisty tour de force and there’s nothing quite like it on the screen. Juno’s vision for the adaptation is bold and brilliant, and we’re delighted to be collaborating with her and Eliza to realise it.”