Review: Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)

Parts tagged with * has major spoilers. If you still want to read it, please do so on Goodreads here. :)
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This is still one of the most clever mysteries I've read. Unique and fresh even as I've only read it now in 2017. I suspect that I would enjoy this book immensely when I read it for the second time. However, I cannot put this on par with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which in my view is in a league of its own.

However, one of the things I love about Murder on the Orient Express is how it seemed to be darker and more sinister. I'm attributing it to the fact that the setting was closed and secluded, and also because the weather here in Manila has been dark and gloomy recently--which is always an ideal background for reading mysteries. However, I often found myself confused and unable to recall the passenger names and details; I even mix them up even after finishing the novel. Unfortunately for an easily-distracted reader like me, some of the characters were not given enough particulars to stand out. The characters were mysterious, and this is partly to blame. The amount of secrecy behind each character became a nuisance. (view spoiler)*[But I guess, this whole affair lies on the mystery of these characters. All the lies behind each suspect muddled my perception of the crime. (hide spoiler)] Another thing I loved about this book is how it showed Poirot's ability to manipulate his suspects into revealing their little truths. His guesses were not absurd and they were always substantiated and shown (unlike some detective stories *coughdeckercough*).

Review: Confessions

Confessions by Kanae Minato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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[WARNING: Contains strong language]

Let me just come right out and say it: holy...shit. That was so good! It was pretty horrific, but it was beyond good. The few people (hi Mom! hi boyfriend! hahaha) who follow my reviews know that I love reading gore and crime, so it might not come as surprise that I loved Confessions. The book does not lack troubled characters. In fact, all characters are troubled and each backstory justified it. They did not seem ridiculous at all. Some novels tend to overplay just to make the characters seem interesting, but Confessions had no problem with that. Or maybe I'm being biased. After all, I have been forever in awe with how Japanese writers excel at storytelling, especially when it involves mysteries and really fucked-up characters.

Minato wrote it in a prose so blunt and no-holds-barred. The story was made rich by how it was narrated. Each individual narrating it delivered his and her own unique dark and twisted voice. Despite the narrative revolving mostly around one scene with switching perspectives, the retelling by each character never became dull. The story took a lot of turns--it was quite a whirlwind to follow. And that ending, I looked up from the last page with a "Well...fuck!"

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