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A review by vespurr
Penance by Kanae Minato
4.0
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. I read this book from cover to cover in a single afternoon.
Penance, like Confessions, has such an interesting writing style. Part letter, part one-sided conversation, part speech, and so on. I find Minato to be so unique and fascinating. I would like to see more of her works translated into English.
For me, the most wonderful thing about Penance is not the crime story or the mystery itself, but the way the story explores human behavior and the psychological impact a traumatizing event can have on a person. What happens when four young school children experience a murder and are subsequently threatened by the mother of the victim?
The characters, each unable to move past their childhood trauma, end up in downhill slide of events that only go from bad to worse. In the end the murderer is revealed, but the question of 'who was really to blame?' hangs in the air.
Trigger warning: This book does contain the sexual abuse of children. This is something I personally could have done without, and believe the book could still have been great without it. I know that others might argue against that, but this is a personal preference and my own rating goes down slightly for that reason.
However, Penance was overall fantastic and I would LOVE to read more from Kanae Minato in the future.
Penance, like Confessions, has such an interesting writing style. Part letter, part one-sided conversation, part speech, and so on. I find Minato to be so unique and fascinating. I would like to see more of her works translated into English.
For me, the most wonderful thing about Penance is not the crime story or the mystery itself, but the way the story explores human behavior and the psychological impact a traumatizing event can have on a person. What happens when four young school children experience a murder and are subsequently threatened by the mother of the victim?
The characters, each unable to move past their childhood trauma, end up in downhill slide of events that only go from bad to worse. In the end the murderer is revealed, but the question of 'who was really to blame?' hangs in the air.
Trigger warning: This book does contain the sexual abuse of children. This is something I personally could have done without, and believe the book could still have been great without it. I know that others might argue against that, but this is a personal preference and my own rating goes down slightly for that reason.
However, Penance was overall fantastic and I would LOVE to read more from Kanae Minato in the future.