Confessions

The title of this review really says it all. I finished this book in two days which I almost never do, I cannot recommend this enough.

Both Kanae Minato and Stephen Snyder have given me one crazy thrill ride and I am not kidding about my jaw hurting. I must\’ve looked insane as my jaw dropped out of shock when no one else could know what was going on in the book! I want to especially give a shout-out to the translator, Snyder, because these folks are sometimes viewed as people who just straight translate someone\’s work from another language verbatim; it does NOT work like that and I\’ve always considered translators to be writers themselves. I would never have been able to experience Kanae Minato\’s incredible novel without Mr. Snyder\’s amazing, hard work! Confessions takes place in six parts; I\’d call them chapters, but there is a different character narrating each one. The beginning tells the story of how a middle school teacher\’s young daughter is killed by two of the students she teaches in her own science class and also has them in home room. Yuko Moriguchi spends the first of six parts explaining her side of the story and how she has gotten revenge on the person A and person B, which she calls them even though the class knows exactly which students she is referring to. After her explanation, she retires from teaching and the reader is left to see the story from the perspective of four more people involved in the tragic death of Moriguchi\’s daughter. This story of revenge is something that I was able to absorb in such a short time. Yes, the book is short, but if this was not so incredible captivating, I would\’ve spent more than four days on it. I went back and forth on which characters I felt were the victims and the real perpetrators, but life isn\’t as simple as all that. This was an intense novel of revenge and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you like a good story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this is a great book to read. The only thing that I will say is that the names of the characters can get a little confusing, but I knew that going in. As an American, most Asian names (even some European names) are hard to follow and keep straight, but just keep with it with this one. Confessions is an amazing Japanese novel and definitely deserves the four stars; on my grading scale, I give it an A- and will definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a dose of revenge in his/her life! 🙂 Noah Galvin is the brother of one of my favorite female narrators, Emma Galvin, and they are some talented siblings when it comes to narration. Elaina Erika Davis was also an amazing narrator and she carried about 70% of the book, so major props to her! Both Galvin and Davis will receive an A from me on my grading scale. Prepare for an extremely twisted tale that\’ll make you wonder about the darkness that is inside everyone…

Although this book garnered 4-5 ⭐️ reviews, the partial chapter of the Kindle sample did not interest me. However, spoken-word Japanese—as is written in the sample—flows better when read aloud. The Audible spoken-voice sample was much better than the Kindle version. This is a disquieting psychological thriller with elements of non-supernatural horror. This complex revenge story is told from the POVs of six different characters—vaguely reminiscent of Rashomon—each narrating and/or sharing a chapter in this short novel. As the story proceeds, the author’s puzzle pieces begin clicking into place, revealing characters’ motives and methods, delusions & psychological dysfunctions—leading to a surprising but deadly conclusion that will satisfy readers who like revenge stories. I’m giving this 3 stars for several reasons: 1. As a whole, the pace was good, but some sections dragged, so I increased listening speed (a lot) or skipped ahead. 2. The “bad/evil” student is an adult-level genius, so he would know disease transmission routes. Or at the least, how to research the topic online. 3. I found it incredible that not a single student told a parent or had nightmares about the food-tainting incident at school. 4. How did a middle school boy get his blood drawn at a lab without a parent present? Or was it via a home delivery kit? Furthermore, would test results—that could be mis-delivered or opened by someone else—be mailed? With the patient’s name on it? 5. Moriguchi seems to know too much about other characters’ feelings and intimate conversations. 6. I rated the Audible narrators 3 stars because character voices were often too similar. Narrators were probably coached to pronounce Japanese words/names, at times they were not convincing—especially the male narrator. How many different ways can you say: “Manami” or “Mizuki” or “Mizuho”? These odd pronunciations stopped the story for me.

Story is thrilling and well paced. Watch the movie if you want to see a great artistic rendition of this story.

this was a long drawn-out story but it was good. overall really really really really really really really enjoyed the story

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