Again; yet another Japanese novel for the year. Confessions impressed me so much and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie version of it as well. So, i jumped at Penance with the same vigor. The way in which Confessions was written made Kanae Minato a favorite pf mine in her first book itself.
The book like 'Confessions' starts with the POV of a girl in the form of letter to the mother of a girl who was killed during her childhood. She and 3 other girls were present at the time with her when the girl was abducted, raped and killed. The mother of the victim curses them vowing they will pay for her killing. If the killer is not caught before the statue of limitations is expired on the murder, the girls have to write a confession or perform an act of penance. The girls were too young and in different mental states to accurately describe the incident. The girls are scarred for life because of the incident and the story proceeds in the point of view of the girls and that of the victim's mother trying to reach out to the girls after so long.
One good aspect was the approach of the story which was different from the usual crime genres. The premise looks good on paper. But i felt there was a sort of falter in the delivery. One big mistake that i had committed was comparing it with 'Confessions' in each and every step. The story promises nice tension and grip but it also seemed like a confession or just pouring out your heart sort of style in narration. This I think hindered the natural flow of the story. It makes us feel why they are still thinking about the curse put on by the mother. I mean; it's bad that they couldn't do anything about the crime and the investigation and the incident keeps haunting them all the way. But damaging their life based just on the mother's words so much seemed pointless. All the girls had their own flaws and the characters were written rather cleverly pointing out their personal demons and how the girls took it in their lives. As in 'Confessions', there were limited characters. The victim's mother character arc was sort of ambiguous making us think on how effective the character was. The crime gets solved at the end but we forget that this is a crime story often in the course of the story.
As in 'Confessions', here also Kanae Minato delves deep into the human mind and emotions. This is definitely a different read but not sure how much it will impress the readers. Nevertheless, an interesting read indeed!
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