Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Confessions by Kanae Minato

49 reviews

clovetra's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Bullying, Murder, Medical content, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Child abuse, Abandonment, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

hjevktx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

After truly getting into the book the story was written so well and the story had so much depth to it. This book made me question a lot and challenged me at points, while maintaining a cohesive story and plot. Just be very cautious of the trigger warnings as it is a very heavy book dealing with a lot of heavy topics.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

paigie_pie's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

it was a creeping slow burn but worth the experience at least once

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Grief

this book does have a consistent mention of A.I.Ds and purposeful exposure the disease

brandyrae's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was excellent. 
The story is told from five perspectives so it does get a bit repetitive but as they were from different POVs, I didn't find it terrible.
It felt a bit Stephen King (without the minutely detailed descriptions) with a twist of Gillian Flynn, which is to say chilling in the best way. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Bullying, Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Minor: Miscarriage, Toxic friendship, and Animal cruelty

dosxhime's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

These kids may be unhinged, but Moriguchi is feral for revenge 

4/5 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, Murder, Child death, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Miscarriage

marianasreading's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

callidoralblack's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Bullying, Death, Grief, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

scarroll178's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book hit me like a train from the first chapter. I loved the writing choices, the character building, and the reflections on the larger society the book takes place in. 

It started to lose steam towards the end of the book; I liked the switching POV’s, but hearing the same story told over and over again by different characters slowed down the momentum of the book. I was also disappointed because the book starts off with such a creative writing choice — one character talking out loud for an entire chapter — and then follows up with a letter, a punchy response to the absolute chaos of the first chapter.. but then the rest is just.. a normal book. I was excited to see what other bold writing choices the author would make, but it seems like she just gave up, like maybe she was afraid of making the writing too experimental. I also thought it was interesting to see the domino effect of the teacher’s revenge, but I was disappointed to find that both boys evidently deserved what they got; I think a more nuanced conclusion would be at least one of the two boys truly regretting what he did, Maname’s death really being accidental, and/or the teacher regretting her revenge.

Still, great book; I just wish the author would’ve really committed to the bold creative choices she made at the beginning. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Terminal illness, Child death, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

noemi_qu's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.0

The end of the first chapter made me stop and say "holy fuck" out loud. Once it started, there was no brakes on the wild ride of a story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Child abuse

Minor: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

atomicsushi's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

Dark academia but make it middle school. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Murder, and Terminal illness