Penance

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.

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.

What I love most about Minato’s writing are the little twists and turns that keep me guessing until the very end. She is masterful at attacking a story from many points of view without it feeling boring or redundant. I will say that I liked her first translated book a little more. Confessions had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish whereas Penance had more subtle/quiet moments. It was still an enjoyable ride that has left me eagerly awaiting another book by her!

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.

I definitely liked this and was engrossed reading it. The story is divided into five stories centering around the murder of a young girl, and the consequences that spiral out of control when the murderer is not found. The final revelation was rather baffling, though, in its extremity and setup. Overall a well-written set of character studies with some unsettling themes, but not the best mystery. A good choice for people who like unnerving stories verging on horror.

Not Minato's best work. Without giving away too much, there are just too many coincidences for the plot to be credible. In the other books I've read by her ("Confessions" and "N no tame ni"), all the unpleasant things that happen to the characters stem from or lead to the murder that the plot hinges on. In "Penance", the characters all run into terrible misfortunes after the murder, but since these are all unrelated to each other, it seems far-fetched for them all to encounter such awful people, and moreover you wonder how this really relates back to the original murder (in the end, it doesn't).This book follows the same structure as her others, with each character telling their story in turn. I will say that Minato does a good job of keeping the reader engaged even with these multiple retellings, and the book is very readable, if ultimately unsatisfying because of the above issue.

I saw this book at a book sale but missed out on buying it. But as it came highly recommended by a friend I downloaded the ebook and I'm so glad that I did. This was a great read and the story drWs you in right from the start. It's a story of 5 friends and a tragic situation that ensures and how the four remaining friends and the victims mother deal with the aftermath at the time and also through the ensuing years. What I found really interesting is that you get the point of view of each of the main characters which enriches your understanding of them and of the mother. It keeps you guessing until near the end to who the actual murderer Through a slow unfolding of revelations and events. This is the first book that I've read from this author but I will definitely read more

A great book with interesting characters. It can be confusing with all the Japanese names and their roles in the developing story. I found it useful to make notes of all the names and add a few words about their role to help make sense and keep track of it. A thoroughly engaging story.

I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. Premise is good, interesting to see how each girl developed. However I found the whole thing a little heavy going and didn't really care deep down for any of the characters, hence the 3 stars.

This author can certainly write, and I bought this having read 'Confessions' (5 stars for that book!) This is readable, a bit gross in places, but never boring - but if you have read 'Confessions' you may be a bit disappointed.