4 out of 5 stars -- Judgment and revenge...
Yuko Moriguchi is a middle school teacher when her 4-year-old daughter, Manami, drowns in the swimming pool nearby. Consumed with grief, she retires from teaching -- but leaves her class with one last lecture. While giving the students a little background of her life, Yuko shocks them all by declaring that she now knows that her daughter did not die in an accident, but was murdered! And that the two killers are right in that very room! Then she tells the students that she has decided not to go to the police and turn them in, but will punish them herself -- and has already set her plan in motion. She leaves the students to do what they will with this knowledge and information.
What follows is a point of view shift by chapter as a significant person attempts to give rationalizations, explanations or interpretations of both the murder and what follows. The climax is both shocking and horrible -- TWISTED! The reader will not be able to put this short book down until finishing the very last page. Be sure to allow yourself a couple of uninterrupted hours!
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes chills and suspense full of characters who are mostly completely unlikeable (for many reasons), and a great, unpredictable story!
Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the e-book ARC.
Yuko Moriguchi is a middle school teacher when her 4-year-old daughter, Manami, drowns in the swimming pool nearby. Consumed with grief, she retires from teaching -- but leaves her class with one last lecture. While giving the students a little background of her life, Yuko shocks them all by declaring that she now knows that her daughter did not die in an accident, but was murdered! And that the two killers are right in that very room! Then she tells the students that she has decided not to go to the police and turn them in, but will punish them herself -- and has already set her plan in motion. She leaves the students to do what they will with this knowledge and information.
What follows is a point of view shift by chapter as a significant person attempts to give rationalizations, explanations or interpretations of both the murder and what follows. The climax is both shocking and horrible -- TWISTED! The reader will not be able to put this short book down until finishing the very last page. Be sure to allow yourself a couple of uninterrupted hours!
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes chills and suspense full of characters who are mostly completely unlikeable (for many reasons), and a great, unpredictable story!
Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the e-book ARC.
This is probably THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ, and I read A LOT. I love a twisty read...A twisted, evil mind wrote this (sorry, Ms. Minato). If you ever went to middle school you'll recognize these kids. If you've ever wished you were the child of a favorite teacher, you'll wish you were the child of this teacher...well, not THIS teacher's child. Sophisticated revenge at its finest.
