Reviews with content warning for Child death - Confessions

holy shit. i don’t think ive enjoyed a book like that in a while, where im so engrossed i literally put life on hold to read it. sure, i love all my 5-star rankings, but so far only twilight was able to capture my immersion… which is embarrassing to admit at my grown age. except, now this novel falls into that category.

this was fucking amazing.

so many plot twists. so many scathing passages.

i felt every emotion. anger. sadness. confusion happiness. concern. joy.

even though there are only six chapters, each leaves you with a bit more information. and with every new piece of information is a new plot twist.

from the first chapter alone i was hooked. i was thoroughly confused at first, but as i kept going, i became more and more invested, until the first of many bombshells is dropped in chapter one. from there, minato keeps rolling the punches, as she adds more depth to an already exhilarating story.

can i also just say i love me a good fucked up story. and not just fucked up for the sake of being fucked up. you can really tell minato knows when to lull the reader into a comfortable state and rip the rug out underneath from them. and i promise you the more you keep going the twists keep getting more and more outlandish - but in a good way.

i’ve heard people say that this book is grating at times because each chapter follows a similar retelling of events but from another characters point of view - from a killer, to the teacher who has lost her child, to a mother of a killer, to a student. i found this to be enthralling! seeing underneath the surface of every character’s motivation, inner thoughts, and explanations to why they acted like x a chapter ago, or why they said y 50 pages ago. it was delectable

i don’t think i can honestly put into words how addicting this book is. if this were a book with a massive fandom (i don’t know if it has one sue me) i could smell myself forming a hyper-fixation on this story because my god was it beautiful.

literally my ass only has One gripe…. and that’s

the HIV plot threw me off track a bit, as i know HIV very likely won’t be transmitted through drinking blood of someone with HIV, or even sharing a meal or using a bathroom with someone HIV+. like that part threw me off so much when characters kept talking about “oh no i have HIV”…. like i damn well know u dont

. but even then honestly i don’t care enough to let that ruin my perception. this book was too yummy to be hung up on such a “small” detail, when everything else was done to perfection.

i swear if u like thrillers & haven’t read this bump it up ur tbr

Content Warnings

gkaltam's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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stacym's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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androniki's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

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eabh's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I knew from reading the back of this book’s that it’s genre and plot was not my cup of tea. However, it was a pick for a book club read. And for the first half of the book, I was intrigued and mildly engaged. But when shit hit the fan in the second half, I was left feeling disturbed, frustrated, and disappointed.

This book was much more distressing than I anticipated. Through the shifting perspectives of Confessions, you learn more about the experiences that happen that shape the character’s beliefs and decision making. I found there to be so much senseless violence and cognitive over analysis that I was both unsettled and uninvested in this book.

Besides that, this novel felt very far fetched and unlikely to happen IRL, so it was challenging for me to suspend reality and stay invested through this book.

A few things I did enjoy: the multiple narrator style was well written and the dynamics between the characters was interesting to see unravel in the story.

Overall, this book was slow, repetitive, and twisted to me. 2 stars feels generous.

Content Warnings

bhuyanr's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A dark, dark thriller. Interesting plot twists. A quick read.

Content Warnings

ra22ouille's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A harrowing account of revenge, dysfunctional families, and mob mentality. This was a real page turner for me, the fast pacing was engrossing and I loved how it was formatted with different characters telling each part and through different mediums (epistolary, phone call, journal, etc).

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Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Confessions by Kanae Minato

annaforthebooks's review

dijigoo53's review against another edition

curiousqueenb's review against another edition

clovetra's review

gkaltam's review against another edition

stacym's review against another edition

androniki's review against another edition

eabh's review against another edition

bhuyanr's review against another edition

ra22ouille's review against another edition