This was very much a book where the journey was better than the conclusion.
The format was interesting, consisting mostly of interviews by an unknown interviewer. I tried to guess who it might be but I don’t think any appropriate hints were dropped? That was one disappointment, the reveal came a bit out of leftfield.
I expected they would be vague about if Hisako deliberately caused the incident or not so that was ok. But the abuse stuff also felt a bit out of nowhere. Deliberately blinding your own child for religion is not only extreme but not exactly orthodox? There is unfortunately plenty of real life examples of child abuse by zealous parents but this particular situation didn’t seem to reference anything I’ve heard of before, so that felt unsatisfactory too.
But I did like the way you felt like you got to know the other characters being interviewed. And learning about the ways their lives were impacted by the incident. Also Makiko was a very interesting character.
Categories: Book Reviews
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