“Three years after the murder you called the four of us, now thirteen years old, to your place and told us something unbelievable. Girls that age, even if they’re living completely ordinary lives, are full of doubt and anxieties about their identity, but you called us all murderers. And told us we must either find the man who murdered Emily or else perform an act of penance.” – 4.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: French dolls, new factories, locker rooms, trauma, Barbie shirts, guilt, penance, and the purest air in Japan.

The tense, chilling story of four women haunted by a childhood trauma.

When they were children, Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko were tricked into separating from their friend Emily by a mysterious stranger. Then the unthinkable occurs: Emily is found murdered hours later.

Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko weren’t able to accurately describe the stranger’s appearance to the police after Emily’s body was discovered. Asako, Emily’s mother, curses the surviving girls, vowing that they will pay for her daughter’s murder.

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.

This book was amazing! I’m officially obsessed with this author. I genuinely hope she keeps writing thrillers like this because I’m very interested in keeping on reading them.
This book follows four ten-year-old girls and the aftermath of their friend being murdererd while they were together. The mother of the girl that was killed tells them that either they have to find out who killed her daughter or perform an act of penance by the time the statute of limitations is expired. As a side note, at the time there was a statute of limitations during which criminals could be charged so they had fifteen years to find the murderer. Each other tells their own experience of what happened the day of the murder, so the story is repeated a few time with the different POVs – I personally didn’t mind this, but I can see some readers not liking this.
Just like in “Confessions”, this thriller shows in a very raw way the ugliness in human beings. The undertone is creepy and tense, and there are some twists added to the mix! I personally think the twists from “Confessions” were a little better on the shock factor, but these were okay.
It was very difficult to put this book out because I was very invested in it. I highly recommend this book and her other book “Confessions”. The stories are very different, but they are written with the same style and structure, so if you read any of these books before and liked them, you should definitely grab the other.