A review by readivine
Confessions by Kanae Minato

4.0

As Alain de Botton once said:

"We are, all of us, beautifully crazy or, to put it in gentler terms, fascinatingly unbalanced. Our childhoods, even the apparently benign ones, leave us no option but to be anything else...There is always a logic and there is always a history.

We can tell that our imbalances date from the past because they reflect the way of thinking and instincts of the children we once were. Without anything pejorative being meant by this, our way of being unbalanced tends towards a fundamental immaturity, bearing the marks of what was once a young person’s attempt to grapple with something utterly beyond their capacities."

Confessions is divided into six parts where each person involved confesses their unfiltered thoughts on the crime. This is fascinating to read as it seamlessly fleshes out the depth of this story without ever feeling disjointed at all. Moriguchi, a middle school teacher "confessed" to her class that she knew that the death of her 4-year old daughter was done by some of the students themselves. This propelled her to take a twisted revenge on the suspects that rippled all throughout their lives. At the heart of it, it's a tale that divulges the pitfalls of parenthood and how individual agency is affected by this. Honestly, this felt like a parenting guidebook to me HAHAHA.

Confessions is utterly gripping and straightforward with its writing. I finished this in one sitting and as cliche as it sounds, it is indeed unputdownable. I love how the storyline progresses in unimaginable ways with each perspective. Like every unassuming fallen fruit, each layer you peel out lets you see the imperfections until you get to the rotten core.

All in all, this was an easy and enjoyable read!