Kanae Minato

I recently rented "Confessions," an audiobook through Libby—I'm absolutely obsessed with this app! It only took a glowing review on Instagram for me to dive in, even though I had no idea what to expect. This is my first experience reading a book by a Japanese author, and I recommend checking out the trigger warnings, as this story isn't suitable for everyone.

The narrative revolves around the heartbreaking death of four-year-old Manami, the daughter of Yuko, a beloved middle school teacher. show more Each chapter is narrated from a different character's perspective, revealing their take on the unfolding events. The story begins with Yuko announcing her retirement and dropping a bombshell implicating two of her students in Manami's death, though she doesn't name them.

As I listened to each confession, the puzzle of what happened to Manami gradually pieced itself together. It was fascinating to see the role everyone played, whether intentional or not.

At its core, this story is a gripping tale of revenge, but it also delves into complex relationships, societal judgments, and themes of abuse and neglect. The narrative is dark and unsettling, culminating in an ending that completely blindsided me! Despite being nothing like I expected, I found it captivating and thought-provoking. show less

After her four-year-old daughter is found dead under suspicious circumstances, a middle school teacher puts into action a plan for revenge.

This book started out very strong. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, who fills in more details surrounding the girl's death and subsequent events, beginning with her mother's account as told to her entire class. I couldn't put it down for the first half or so, but when we get to the final two narratives, it starts to falter. The stories show more become repetitious, and the twists come out of left field, seemingly thrown in more for shock value than anything else. But really, this is a story about mothers and their children. There are a couple of very bad mothers in this book, and their children are also very bad. Hmm, not sure I'm buying the blatant mother-blaming here. In terms of learning more about Japanese culture from the inside, this was an interesting read, but as a thriller, it fell short for me. show less

I recently rented "Confessions," an audiobook through Libby—I'm absolutely obsessed with this app! It only took a glowing review on Instagram for me to dive in, even though I had no idea what to expect. This is my first experience reading a book by a Japanese author, and I recommend checking out the trigger warnings, as this story isn't suitable for everyone.

The narrative revolves around the heartbreaking death of four-year-old Manami, the daughter of Yuko, a beloved middle school teacher. show more Each chapter is narrated from a different character's perspective, revealing their take on the unfolding events. The story begins with Yuko announcing her retirement and dropping a bombshell implicating two of her students in Manami's death, though she doesn't name them.

As I listened to each confession, the puzzle of what happened to Manami gradually pieced itself together. It was fascinating to see the role everyone played, whether intentional or not.

At its core, this story is a gripping tale of revenge, but it also delves into complex relationships, societal judgments, and themes of abuse and neglect. The narrative is dark and unsettling, culminating in an ending that completely blindsided me! Despite being nothing like I expected, I found it captivating and thought-provoking. show less

Penance is slow burn revenge tale of four very damaged girls after they witness their friends brutal assault and murder. The murder isn't a mystery, nor is what happens to the dead girl slowly exposed over the course of the novel. All that is revealed in the opening chapter. The facts are not in dispute. What is divulged in confessional chapters are the feelings and consequences for the four girls who witnessed and reported the key events. Each feels an overwhelming quilt and is show more psychologically damaged by what they witnessed. With the victim's mother only adding to their damage by further augmenting their feelings of guilt through intimidation and curses, leading to the damage manifesting itself in very different self-destructive ways with deadly consequences as the girls become women.

Minato is brilliant at making psychological damaged people make sense. Their actions flow so naturally from the feelings that everything that happens to them or by them is just a logical and natural outcome. Never is there a question about the authenticity of the characters actions. Not as thrilling as or as surprising as Confessions, but I think I'll appreciate what Minato has written here more the further I get away from this one. show less