“I will never forgive you, unless you find the murderer before the statute of limitations is up. If you can’t do that, then atone for what you’ve done, in a way I’ll accept. If you don’t do either one, I’m telling you here and now — I will have revenge on each and every one of you,” (Minato 196).
Ten-year-old friends Sae, Maki, Akiko, Yuko, and Emily are playing at a school playground during a summer holiday when a repair man comes asking one of the girls to help him. While the girls are eager to help the man chooses Emily, promising ice cream for each when they return. Hours later with no sign of Emily the girls go into the school and learn the horrifying truth: that Emily has been murdered. Emily’s mother Asako is despondent over the murder and doesn’t believe that the four girls are being honest when they claim not to remember the man’s face to police. She blames Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuko for the death of her daughter and promises that if they do not find the murderer before the statue of limitations runs out in fifteen years time she will have her revenge.
I’d heard a lot about Penance but I only learned recently (yes, through TikTok) that it was a Japanese miniseries which renewed my interest in the story. I was intrigued by the premise and lucky enough to get a copy quickly from the library. My only regret is that I didn’t read this book sooner, because it was a fantastic read!
I’m usually pretty good at predicting how a story will unfold early on into reading (when being an English major shines) but Penance was nothing like I thought. I knew it was a horror novel, that some reviewers had marketed it as psychological horror, but it wasn’t until halfway through that I understood what was happening. Each chapter in the book is written in first person by one of the four girls who were with Emily the day of her murder and one chapter from her mother, Asako’s, perspective. Each chapter is written like a monologue which I enjoyed because it gave some theatricality to it and made the book feel more personal having these now women recall a horrifying event from their childhood. This type of storytelling can get repetitious at times, it felt sort of like a Rashomon effect, but I think that was Minato’s point. A big premise of the book is how each of the girl’s claimed that they couldn’t remember the face of Emily’s murderer so recalling the incident from each of the girl’s perspective helps show the differences, similarities, as well as understanding why they don’t remember or what they end up recalling fifteen years later.
There are a lot of good horror and uncomfortable moments throughout the text. Minato is apparently known as “the queen of iyamisu” in Japan, which translates to “eww mystery” and “is a subgenre of mystery fiction which deals with grisly episodes and the dark side of human nature” which Minato does very well throughout. A warning though that there are a couple of instances of sexual assault against children in the book, none of it described in gruesome detail but uncomfortable to read nonetheless. There’s also some blame against one of the mother’s of the abused children instead of the perpetrator, and while the blame should be given equal blame should be given to the other character as well.
But really Penance is a tragedy and a look at the weight that such an event had on all involved, how small choices ended up leading to larger and more tragic circumstances. Penance was nothing like I thought but a fantastic story to read, and I hope to read more of Minato’s work soon!
Publication: April 11 2017
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Pages: 240 pages (Paperback)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Literary, Psychological Horror, Japanese Literature
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
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.
Sarah O'Connor 