Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Confessions

Jezus Christ this was dark. And so so good. It just kept spiraling and spiraling and you never knew what the next move was going to be. I gasped multiple times, one of the best and most thrilling books I've read in a while. (but so many triggerwarnings, please look them up in advance)

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dustghosts's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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rwnhlfx's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely gripping! So many factors contributed to making this book wonderfully tense. I found myself saying "OH MY GOD" out loud many times, sometimes multiple times per chapter. As someone who's done a bit of research into the rise of crime among young people in Japan, it also appealed to me in that regard - as dark as it can be, I definitely enjoy considering what real-world factors lead these people to do the things they do. If you're the same, I highly recommend this book.

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sydoodle's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

3.0

What the fuck! Lmao!

This was fine. Cool concept. Kind of lost interest and felt not much after, but still liked reading. I am so scared of children.

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sparanj2's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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james1star's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was so good! Like wow I’m totally impressed by this book and would wholeheartedly recommend it. I can’t say much about the plot without spoilers but basically two of Yuko’s students killed her daughter in a suspected ‘accident’ and this is the story of her revenge… and the aftermath of it. Minato splits the book up into chapters from different people’s perspectives and various formats too which I absolutely loved, it’s so engaging and hard to put it down. The prose is somewhat basic and brutally honest but the actual story is rather convoluted and very complex. Things are unveiled throughout with some shocking parts that place it in the thriller genre (one I’m not very acquainted with) but there’s many a passage on life, relationships and emotions pushing it into the literary genre too. The characters aren’t likeable but do have a lot of complexity to them which is great and in many ways I didn’t want it to end to get other perspectives too… very bingeable despite the horrific nature of the contents in parts. I was totally enthralled and gripped by Confessions and cannot wait to read more by Minato, and watch the movie adaptation too.

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tabshirali's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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novi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

I didn't expect this book to be this dark. Please check all the triggers before reading.

This is a very fast paced book, you can finish it in one sitting. There are parts that could make you exhausted, and there are parts that got a little boring, but most of it is a real page turner.

What I knew about this book before reading it was that it's about a teacher talked to a group of students, saying that she knew that they're the ones that killed her child in the past, and it made these students scrambling basically. And I thought the child was the same age as these students, and they're adult now. But noooo lol a bunch of reviewers talked about synopsis differently that it made me confused.

So the setting is in the current day, in a middle school. A middle school teacher's daughter was found dead. She was 4 years old. It was said to be accident, but the teacher (the mother) then realized she was actually murdered by her own students. This book is her revenge. And it was a satisfying revenge.

But me having a vague picture about this book made my reading experience so much better and more tense, because I didn't even knew what's gonna happen and how this book was formatted so uniquely. Tbh i was a bit hesitant to pick another popular japanese murder book after Girls in the Dark, but this book has a lottt of good reviews from people i actually trust. Plus i read The Decagon House Murders and i really liked it. The reviews are right. The story telling is unique, i would say it's a bit similar with Girls in the Dark BUT the execution is so so so much better.

I said this book was about revenge, so if you like the "good for her" stories, this is for you, but i think a lot of it is also about gender roles in traditional families, dysfunctional family, and parenting. The multiple POVs in this book really shows that what's seen is not always what's real, and you get to see where and why a person behaves like this and that, and i love that.

I took half the star because i can't give 5 stars to books that made me uncomfortable like this lol i mean it's really good but it didn't give me the "omg it's sooo perfect" feeling.

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