Despite feeling perturbed by the crime at the very start of the book, I still stuck to it because of Minato’s compelling writing. Like Confessions, Kanae Minato’s award-winning, internationally bestselling debut, Penance is a dark and voice-driven tale of revenge and psychological trauma that will leave readers breathless. Asako, Emily’s mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will pay for her daughter’s murder. Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko weren’t able to accurately describe the stranger’s appearance to the police after they Emily’s body was discovered. Then the unthinkable occurs: Emily is found murdered hours later. When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger.
Penance by Kanae Minato (Translated by Philip Gabriel)Ī post shared by AlphaGirl Book Reviews on at 5:00am PST
It was her narration that had me hooked on it making me finish it in one sitting. And as expected Minato’s writing was brilliant. I would have dropped the book completely had I not had faith in Minato’s writing. The moment I understood something really horrible has happened to the girl I skipped the pages describing the immediate events following the crime. The synopsis of the book mentions only murder so I wasn’t aware of what I was getting into. So, reading about a little girl being sexually assaulted was very disturbing for me. I am a little sensitive and horrid images bother me. I usually keep away from books and dramas that deal with sexual assault because I have a visual memory and images of whatever I read automatically get stored in my head. Though I loved Minato’s Confessions, I think Penance was slightly disappointing compared to it.
As a reader, it is natural to have some expectations from the writer whose work you have loved. After being blown-away by Confessions, Penance was an obvious choice for me.
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