Penance

I have loved both books I have read that were originally written by Kanae Minato. They are deep, thoughtful, psychological wonders and very worth the reader's time.

Somebody has definitely been reading Natsuo Kirino. So yeah, I couldn't get past the fact that this book is eerily reminiscent of Natsuo Kirino's book, "Real World," in which a group of girls recount their encounter with a young murderer. Minato's "Penance" is kind of the same, in that it is the recounting of a group of young girls after they have grown up and are looking back on the terrible murder of their friend. The echoes of Kirino are all over Minato's story, but to be fair, Minato's story does have a theme of its own to deliver, that being a kind of whodunit, and also the idea of consequence played out over the entirety of a person's life. In Kirino's story, it is focused only on the girls in the here and now and their reactions to what happened to them when their paths crossed a killer. Anyways, I make the comparison because I happen to adore Kirino and anything even remotely resembling a chance to imitate or emulate Kirino's literary voice, I'm all for it. And when you add in the fact that it is Minato who is doing the writing, I knew for sure I would like this book. And did I? Well, yes... and no. The problem for me is that I read Minato's first book, "Confessions," before this book. Confessions is a grand masterpiece of writing, if not a perfect story of psychological revenge that knows no boundaries, especially because it involves avenging the death of a young child who was murdered in a cruel fashion. There is a satisfaction I obtained by the end of "Confessions," and as such, it remains one of my all time favorite books (and movies too, as the movie version is chilling and visually mesmerizing). With "Penance," I was drawn in by the writing and the story that unfolds in each of the chapters, which are basically told from the perspectives of everyone involved the day of the murder. However, by the end, I wanted a much larger story to play out, and the story didn't expand really at all. When the ending finally does bring about somewhat of a resolution and a reveal, it's not really that interesting. At least it wasn't to me. I found the joy of this book was what happened to each girl involved in the murder and how it affected them in their lives. Talk about tragic. Yet the ending didn't live up to the fate of the girls who were affected by the death of their childhood friend. The other issue might be that the story seems to fragment into two stories as well, that being the murder of a child, and the stealing of dolls from people's houses. Yeah, don't ask me to even explain that because it would take too long, but when you read the first few chapters, you'll wonder if one has anything to do with the other. The answer is kind of they do, but I couldn't help but think that the doll stealing stuff didn't even need to be in this story at all. Or to put it another way, the doll stealing plot might have made for a much more interesting stand alone story, especially with how it concludes in Minato's "Penance." I did like this book though, for sure. Minato's writing is superb and she definitely understands how to really make you feel like you are having a conversation with the characters in this book. I felt close to each of the girls, felt their pain and anguish and confusion about what happened to them, and definitely enjoyed the ride. I just wished the final destination was as enjoyable. Overall, a great read. Don't miss out on this one.

So, I'm not a huge pre-orderer. In fact, I tend to wait until books are released to read them because even when I pre-order, it's rare that I get to the book the first couple of months I have it. So, by then, they tend to be way cheaper than a pre-order anyway. But I did pre-order Penance because I absolutely LOVED Confessions. Confessions was just one of those mystery books that sounded intriguing enough to read, but not intriguing enough to blow your mind. And how wrong I was! Confessions was a huge surprise and became one of my favorite reads. So, I was looking forward to Penance like you wouldn't believe. Unfortunately, this one didn't live up to my expectations. The Good: Penance was a quick and easy read just like Minato's Confessions was. And if you liked how dark Confessions was or just like dark books in particular, then Penance doesn't disappoint in that aspect. In fact, I'd argue that it's slightly darker than Penance and maybe a bit more unnerving. The Eh: Because this book has the same event told in 5 different ways, some of Penance ends up being repetitive. It was a page-turner regardless, but because of this it wasn't as much of a page-turner as Confessions. Plus, Confessions was way more...explosive than Penance. At the end of Confessions, I kept repeating to myself "WTF?" At the end of Penance, I just shrugged. Plus, I found Penance to be a bit confusing. For example, I think something might have happened to the murderer, but I'm not sure what nor am I sure if that plot point was supposed be murky or not. Either way, it's murky to me, so if someone wants to explain that to me in the comments, I'd be eternally grateful. So, Penance was an okay read. It's just that compared to Confessions, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'll still check out Kanae Minato's other books (hopefully, they're translated extra fast) because she does dark well. However, I suggest that you read Penance first and then read Confessions so that the awesomeness of the latter doesn't taint the former.

Kanae Minato has done it again — and if you’ve read anything else by her, you already know exactly what that means. Eyes heavy, mind exhausted, and yet somehow completely incapable of putting the book down. That particular kind of torment is her specialty, and Penance delivers it in spades. From the very first page, there’s a pit in your stomach that never quite goes away. You’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the darkness you can sense lurking just beneath the surface to finally crawl its way into the light. Minato is a master at that slow, suffocating tension. She doesn’t need jump scares or shock value. She just quietly unravels you. What makes Penance so devastatingly effective is the way she structures the story through her characters — each voice distinct, each perspective peeling back another layer of grief, guilt, and the kind of rage that only comes from unimaginable loss, fear and anger. She forces you to sit with a question that has no clean answer: what would you do? How would you carry the weight of something so horrific? How far would you go in the name of justice — or revenge — when the two have long since stopped looking different? Nobody walks away clean in a Minato novel. Not her characters, and certainly not us as readers. That’s what makes her work so unnerving, and so utterly unforgettable. She has a rare gift for writing stories that are as emotionally gutting as they are compulsively readable — the kind that linger in your chest long after the final page. Penance is dark, haunting, and deeply human. Exactly what you’d expect, and somehow still more than you were prepared for.

This was a dark book that I ended up reading right around the start of the pandemic. I previously read Confessions and liked that book a lot. This book is somewhat similar in that it deals with the consequences of a murder that happened, but it’s almost like a Rashomon style modern crime novel in that we learn about how the brutal murder of a school friend has affected a group of girls over the years. Each chapter is told from a different girl’s perspective, and they explore how they have pretty much failed to put this past violence behind them, especially as the anniversary of the murder approaches. One of the strengths of this book is how Minato inhabits each character’s unique perspective and thinking. I really enjoyed seeing how different they were and how they each grappled with the grief and guilt that has, more or less, defined their lives. A last chapter also ties everything together, but I won’t spoil it. I wish that there were more books by Kanae translated into English. Although dark and disturbing, this book kept me enthralled and entertained.

This was my first book by Kanae Minato, but based on how much I loved it, I already bought her debut and plan to read soon. I've been trying to branch out a bit into more translated books since I'm noticing a more Western lean to my reading habits lately, and this was highly recommended on several lists of Japanese thrillers. PENANCE is not for the faint of heart, let's get that out of the way first. The book starts with a horrific tragedy that's like something out of a Special Victims Unit episode, and while the details of the actual incident aren't specified, the thorough description of the aftermath could be really triggering for a person. Five young girls head to a playground to spend an afternoon without school, and only four make it home. The rest of the book is told from the viewpoints of each of those four girls as they become women, dealing with what happens after the tragic event, and how it shapes each of their lives moving into adulthood. There are some really heavy situations in this, and lots of stuff that could be upsetting. I'm not even sure how I'd begin to write a full list of content warnings, because there's just so much hurt and trauma and pain of all kinds - emotional, physical, mental. I'll be honest - I cried toward the end of this; there's no huge paranormal lean or creature feature here. Sometimes the most powerful stories about monsters are the ones where they're human, because so many of us can relate to the power a horrible person can have over your life. Although this is a story about tragedy and revenge, there are also underlying - and maybe even more lasting - themes of forgiveness at the end, not just for other people, but for yourself.

Five young girls play on the school grounds after school. One is taken away, raped and murdered by a strange man. The four survivors are left deeply traumatized. The victim's mother, mad with grief, irrationally blames Emily's four playmates and exhorts them to do penance. The plot follows the lives of each girl, overshadowed by the crime and the mother's curse. The book is a tour de force of engrossing storytelling involving four life stories, four very different personalities, misunderstandings all around, and a shocking solution to little Emily's murder. Although the amount of violence and death unfolding chapter by chapter taxed my credulity, still I was riveted. Kanae Minato has a way of keeping the story flowing so absorbingly, that there's no escape for the characters or the reader. Minato has a positive genius, too, for conveying raw, uncensored emotions in a natural voice. I think the translation must be very good to make the first-person narratives of the characters sound so colloquial and convincingly personal.

I purchased Kanae Minato’s second book because I loved Confessions so much. I loved it so much that it is one of my top recommended books! Penance follows the same formula, but lacks the dark and twisty twists of Confessions. I was on the edge of my seat reading Confessions, while I had a little trouble keeping the characters straight in Penance. The story is about the murder of 10 year old Emily. She and her family moved from Tokyo to a small town for her father’s work. Emily is more cosmopolitan than the other children. However, she befriends Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuko. The girls are playing at the school one day and are approached by a workman, who requests the help of one of the girls. He picked Emily. Hours later, the girls find their friend murdered in the locker room of the pool. The murder is never solved. A couple of years later, before returning to Tokyo, Emily’s mother Asako, calls the girls to her house and threatens them to either do an acceptable penance for her daughter’s death or to find the killer. The story is told from the perspective of each of the four girls when they are in their mid-20’s. Each girl has been essentially “cursed” by Asako’s parting words and their lives do not turn out well. The final chapter is narrated by Asako, as she tries to do penance for her harsh words. This book did not captivate me in the same way as Confessions. It moved along at a good clip, but the story was not as tight and tense as her first book. It was difficult to distinguish among the characters as they seemed to lack individual voices. The secondary characters, like Sae’s husband and Akiko’s brother were more interesting to me. I would have liked to know more about them. The murder is solved in the end, but it is rather unsatisfying as the murderer was barely a character in the book. Much of my review is colored by the comparison to Confessions. I read Penance based on the strength of Ms. Minato’s first book and I was somewhat disappointed.

Simply, breath-taking. Minato's thriller is told in various voices - it's the "how" which makes her a mastermind of building a story. What to reveal when & ... each voice is so human. Tiny details show emotions in their uttermost raw form. The story is - sure! - a thriller and at times, over the top but so well-plotted and thought-through. Thank you, Ms. Minato ... you did it again.

Idea interesante pero literariamente muy flojo. Esperaba más. Quizá la traducción tampoco ayude, el relato está poco trabajado, en algun momento agota.

Amazing writing... it makes you wanna finish it at once! Although the story is not anything extraordinary, the way the writer unravels it is breathtaking! I wish I new Japanese to read the original book...

I can't believe how hooked I was on this novel. I read it all in just one day because I simply couldn't stop until I got to the last page. And now I'm going to look for more books by this incredible author.

Wish I could read it in Japanese