halfcactus

PLOT: Following the death of her daughter, middle school teacher Ms. Moriguchi talks about the law leaving major crimes unpunished, and gives her students one last message before she resigns. Mayhem ensues.

This was a twisty and unhinged revenge/psychological thriller that really committed to its premise. As the title suggests, the story is a domino effect of consequences structured as confessions from different characters. There's a good mix of social commentary and varying cynical worldviews that reveal the darkness of human nature and failures of society. The fragmented, slightly unchronological and incongruous, information that you get, gives it some reread value. The revenge stops being cathartic because the circumstances it presents are so complex, but it still doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger, and I love that about it.

It also made me think about how italicized text isn't a feature in other languages haha.

I really loved the PoV writing in this!!! So many different grievances, so many different senses of justice. This one is from Mizuko, my favorite PoV just because no one in the book knows what her deal is:

. . . I suppose everybody wants to be recognized for what they’ve done; everybody wants to be praised. But doing something good or remarkable isn’t easy. It’s much easier to condemn people who do the wrong thing than it is to do the right thing yourself. . . it’s easy to join in condemning someone once someone else has gotten the ball rolling. You don’t even have to put yourself out there; all you have to do is say, “Me, too!”

It doesn't end there: You also get the benefit of feeling that you're doing good by picking on someone evil—it can even be a kind of stress release. Once you've done it, though, you may want to find that you want that feeling again—that you need someone else to accuse just to get the rush back.

Content warnings: Child harm, drowning, domestic violence, and bullying (resolved quickly, but it involves two students being forced to kiss); The starting point of this story is a four-year-old child found dead in a swimming pool, and the cast is comprised of one teacher and several of her middle school students.