Confessions

By: Kanae Minato, Stephen Snyder (translator)

Narrated by: Elaina Erika Davis, Noah Galvin

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she will have her revenge.

After calling off her engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old child, Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.

But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge.

Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions probes the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.

©2014 Kanae Minato (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Such a great revenge story chilling and engrossing

The title of this review really says it all. I finished this book in two days which I almost never do, I cannot recommend this enough.

Audible’s Version of “Confessions” is Best

Although this book garnered 4-5 ⭐️ reviews, the partial chapter of the Kindle sample did not interest me. However, spoken-word Japanese—as is written in the sample—flows better when read aloud. The Audible spoken-voice sample was much better than the Kindle version.

This is a disquieting psychological thriller with elements of non-supernatural horror. This complex revenge story is told from the POVs of six different characters—vaguely reminiscent of Rashomon—each narrating and/or sharing a chapter in this short novel. As the story proceeds, the author’s puzzle pieces begin clicking into place, revealing characters’ motives and methods, delusions & psychological dysfunctions—leading to a surprising but deadly conclusion that will satisfy readers who like revenge stories.

I’m giving this 3 stars for several reasons:

1. As a whole, the pace was good, but some sections dragged, so I increased listening speed (a lot) or skipped ahead.
2. The “bad/evil” student is an adult-level genius, so he would know disease transmission routes. Or at the least, how to research the topic online.
3. I found it incredible that not a single student told a parent or had nightmares about the food-tainting incident at school.
4. How did a middle school boy get his blood drawn at a lab without a parent present? Or was it via a home delivery kit? Furthermore, would test results—that could be mis-delivered or opened by someone else—be mailed? With the patient’s name on it?
5. Moriguchi seems to know too much about other characters’ feelings and intimate conversations.
6. I rated the Audible narrators 3 stars because character voices were often too similar. Narrators were probably coached to pronounce Japanese words/names, at times they were not convincing—especially the male narrator. How many different ways can you say: “Manami” or “Mizuki” or “Mizuho”? These odd pronunciations stopped the story for me.

Great book and performance. Watch the movie too.

Story is thrilling and well paced. Watch the movie if you want to see a great artistic rendition of this story.

My Jaw Hurt from Dropping too Much! A-

Both Kanae Minato and Stephen Snyder have given me one crazy thrill ride and I am not kidding about my jaw hurting. I must've looked insane as my jaw dropped out of shock when no one else could know what was going on in the book! I want to especially give a shout-out to the translator, Snyder, because these folks are sometimes viewed as people who just straight translate someone's work from another language verbatim; it does NOT work like that and I've always considered translators to be writers themselves. I would never have been able to experience Kanae Minato's incredible novel without Mr. Snyder's amazing, hard work!

Confessions takes place in six parts; I'd call them chapters, but there is a different character narrating each one. The beginning tells the story of how a middle school teacher's young daughter is killed by two of the students she teaches in her own science class and also has them in home room. Yuko Moriguchi spends the first of six parts explaining her side of the story and how she has gotten revenge on the person A and person B, which she calls them even though the class knows exactly which students she is referring to. After her explanation, she retires from teaching and the reader is left to see the story from the perspective of four more people involved in the tragic death of Moriguchi's daughter.

This story of revenge is something that I was able to absorb in such a short time. Yes, the book is short, but if this was not so incredible captivating, I would've spent more than four days on it. I went back and forth on which characters I felt were the victims and the real perpetrators, but life isn't as simple as all that. This was an intense novel of revenge and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you like a good story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this is a great book to read. The only thing that I will say is that the names of the characters can get a little confusing, but I knew that going in. As an American, most Asian names (even some European names) are hard to follow and keep straight, but just keep with it with this one.

Confessions is an amazing Japanese novel and definitely deserves the four stars; on my grading scale, I give it an A- and will definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a dose of revenge in his/her life! :)

Noah Galvin is the brother of one of my favorite female narrators, Emma Galvin, and they are some talented siblings when it comes to narration. Elaina Erika Davis was also an amazing narrator and she carried about 70% of the book, so major props to her! Both Galvin and Davis will receive an A from me on my grading scale.

Prepare for an extremely twisted tale that'll make you wonder about the darkness that is inside everyone...

Powerful, shocking, brilliant

Kanae Minato's Confessions starts slowly, but builds brilliantly and to a shocking conclusion that left me speechless. A story told from five different points of view, and each character has a distinct voice. Galvin and Davis (the readers for the male and female narrators) do a wonderful job of bringing each of these five to life. I could not stop listening to this book. I finished it in a single sitting. Granted, there were times I paused just to absorb what I had heard, but I did not stop. I needed to hear more. When the ending came, I began listening again.

4.5-5 Stars

Chef’s kiss to this story! 💋 This story had so many connections in this web of events. It was super interesting seeing all the point of views of certain events this book covers. This teacher was incredibly cunning and I kind of admire her for it. Wish I could be this smart and devious.

I enjoyed the two narrators used in the audiobook. The only drawback was that it made the characters blend together at times. Thankfully the book is separated by titles of different POVs and the print version helped me keep things clear in my head. Might need to read more by Kanae Minato.

Subtle

I had to stick with this book a little bit… I was tempted to throw in the towel early on… But I am glad I continued listening… What a great book I love it when you can empathize with every character in a book… Beautiful writing.

long long trailer

this was a long drawn-out story but it was good. overall really really really really really really really enjoyed the story

QUICK LISTEN

Finished in a day. Loved the ripple effect and all the point of views and what ppl around them saw. So good

Definitely a dark and twisted look into people!

Confessions by Kanae Minato and translated by Stephen Snyder was narrated by Elaina Erika Davis and Noah Galvin. At first this book bored me. The writing just didn't do anything for me and I was surprised when the main idea of the book actually occurs right in the beginning. I was left wondering what the rest of the story was going to be about. I was close to actually not finishing the book, but I rarely DNF a book so I kept going. I am so glad I did! This book went dark and sometimes uncomfortably dark and I ended up being very engrossed in the story as it went on. I did struggle with the writing as the prose are written in a way that is a one sided conversation. The character's at the time are basically sharing their part of their confession regarding their part of the story in this twisted tale of revenge, punishment, and the dark corners of the human mind. That is why the book is called Confessions after all. The story was fantastic although sometimes it was hard to follow along or figure out who was talking, but as the story goes on and you are listening intently, it all slowly pieces together as you hear each characters dark and twisted part in this game. The narration was a little slow for me so I did have to speed it up a little, but I have to say some of the character's voices were phenomenally well done. The character's were strongly created where you really connected with them and the storyline took me on a dark ride through the human mind and left me sitting wide eyed and mouth opened in surprise at the end. A definite must read or listen if you want a good psychological suspense!