Penance

This took me a while to get into but then I was entirely here for the ride. The basic premise is that four young girls are the only ones around when a fifth girl is assaulted and murdered by a stranger. The child's mother is deeply distraught over the fact that the girls can't recall the man's face or don't give the police enough detail to help them catch the murderer and the crime goes unsolved. She calls the girls to her and vows revenge on them if the killer isn't found by the time the statute of limitations passes. Each chapter is one of the girls' stories of how the event affected her life and how their childhood friend's mother and her vow of revenge has traumatically impacted them as much as the murder.
The story is compelling, and the characters are equally flawed and believable. It's a very different world from my own - some of the things that seem to be shrugged off were a little cringey to me (there is mention of one woman setting up her gal pal on a date and telling the man she set her up with that the friend can't hold her liquor, so getting her drunk is a good idea to seduce her - what?!). But the storytelling is great, the pace is exactly right, and I would definitely read other books by this author.

This book was amazing. It was a disappointment after Confessions for some, but I personally loved it. They are very different books in some ways. The format is the same, and the chapters are very tense building up to something wild at the end of each one, but this book feels more character driven while Confessions is more plot driven.

Don't get me wrong, both books do well in each area, but I felt like we spent more time with each character in Penance.

This book also made me tear up, once during Akiko's chapter, and during the very last page. Although it is tense and there is an element of mystery, it is really a very sad story. We spend so much time with each of the living girls and their struggles after the murder, yet they don't think about Emily beyond how her murder impacted them. This is very intentional, and impactful once it's realized.

Overall, another excellent read from Kanae Minato. I wish her other works were translated, I have my fingers crossed they will be soon!