Title: Confessions

Author: Kanae Minato with Stephen Snyder (Translator)

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Rating: ★★★★☆

Why I read it: I honestly don’t remember why this was on my hold list at the library but then one day it showed up so I read it.

This review, much like this book, will be short and sweet.

At only 234 pages, I finished this in basically one three-hour flight. That is a testament to both the fast pace of the book as well as how fast I can read. But this review isn’t about me, is it?

Confessions is unique in that it tells the story in six parts, with the first five parts taking place from a unique narrator’s point of view that has a stake in the story. Embarrassingly, it took me a few pages into part two for me to pick up on that, but once I did, it made the story that much more interesting. 

The story opens with the perspective of a teacher who has recently and tragically lost her four-year-old daughter after a deadly accident on the grounds of the school. On a quest to find out what really happened, this story details how she solves the mystery and attempts to enact her revenge. 

Normally, when I read thrillers, I have a decent feeling that I know what’s going on by the time I get to the end, or I at least have a theory. I had no clue what was going on at any point in this story, nor could I figure out what was going to happen next. Some of that can be attributed to the changes in narrator, or it could be the intricacy of the story and how well the author kept the reader in the dark. Either way, that is a testament to how well this book was written. I should also throw some kudos to the translator here because they did a fantastic job and I couldn’t tell it was translated in the slightest. 

Because I read this in one sitting, I didn’t have a lot of time to form a lengthy opinion on this book, so there isn’t much else to say on the matter. There were a couple of loose ends that I would have preferred get tied up, and there was one or two slow spots in the middle, but overall, this was a fun read and a great palate cleanser. I give it four stars because while it was good, it was almost too short, and it didn’t blow me away. 

TL;DR: Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes! If you like thrillers and need a quick read, it doesn’t get much better than this.