Confessions by Kanae Minato | a book review

I don’t even know what to say… a quick read about a teacher’s revenge on the students who killed her four year old daughter? Grab a cup of coffee and let’s chat.

Confessions is just what it sounds like: a confessional. This short novel is broken up into several parts instead of chapters, all written from different perspectives.

This story is about revenge at its core and it’s rattling, brutal, and surprising. Confessions is labeled a thriller-mystery-horror combination and I couldn’t agree more. It’s twisted with splashes of horror elements and some intensely dark themes. Look up trigger warnings if you need them.

I picked up this book because it was on Gavin’s top books of 2022. He was on live reading sprints while reading the first chapter and about died when he reached the end of it.

I understand why.

the first part

The book opens with a middle school teacher addressing her class. She’s retiring from teaching and wants to tell her students why. She reveals that her four-year-old daughter drowned in the school pool and that two of her students are responsible for it.

She uses Killer A and Killer B, but everyone knows who these students are by her vivid descriptions. She goes into massive amounts of detail and says that she doesn’t trust the justice system to handle this properly, so she’s taking it into her own hands.

This is where Gavin (and I) gaped in shock.

thoughts

Despite the jaw-dropping introduction and premise, I thought this book went downhill from the intro. I’m not sure if it was the translation, but it was extremely repetitive. Each perspective was of the same things, so we see the same scene multiple times through different viewpoints.

Don’t get me wrong; it was still entertaining. I thought it was interesting to see the perspectives and thoughts of other characters, but I grew bored at times because of it. It was especially interesting to see the viewpoints of the murderers.

I didn’t love the confessional style of writing. It was interesting at first, but all 240 pages were written this way. The thriller aspect was very effective, though. I did not see any of the plot twists coming.

As a personal touch, I was considering going back to education before reading this. I’ve been offered a teaching job for next school year and I was considering it, but I feel like this book was a sign.
Sometimes you read the right book at the right time? I feel like Kanae Minato is helping me from making a big mistake. (If you didn’t know, I left the field of education two years ago and miss bits and pieces of it.)

you should read this…

If you love dark books with intense plot lines. I can’t say I’ve read a book like this to compare it to, but it’s a Japanese horror/thriller; you know it’s going to be brutal and in your face. Also, I kind of hate to recommend this to teachers, but I feel like there would be an added layer of appreciation there.