new voice, new tone - who's this then? turns out, this chapter is told from the POV of a girl in the class, mizuki - the class president, who witnesses and reports on the aftermath of the teacher's revenge-plot-admission and the way it affects the two accused boys and how the revelation that they are murderers causes the other children to treat them. The second chapter threw me for a loop at first. her detached offhandedness makes this final lecture incredibly shocking, and when the teasingly meandering narrative starts to firm up and show its true shape, it's just like BOOM but slowly, subtly, her lecture becomes a tightening noose as these seemingly unconnected stories take on a chilling import as she ultimately accuses two students in the classroom shūya and naoki, of causing manami's death, and then very casually drops the bombshell of the horrifying revenge she has already set in motion. The first chapter is told in the form of a lecture as a teacher addresses her class with what appears to be a series of anecdotal non sequiturs about the new milk program at school, the announcement of her impending retirement, the illness of a 'famous' teacher at another school, the recent death of her four-year-old daughter manami, etc etc.

This book is delivered in a stark and barebones prose, but the story itself is surprisingly convoluted and intricate.

Kanae minato novel