Penance

assaulted and dead. The killer is never found. The girls are unable to describe him or even consistently identify the color of his clothes. The bereaved mother demands that the remaining four girls find the killer or perform an act of penance lest they suffer her revenge. 15 years later we get the story of each of these girls.

The set up is simple enough and from there we get a collection of connected short stories told from the perspective of the remaining 4 girls. Some have the looming creepiness of a Stephen King short while others play out like a Korean revenge drama.

I found the different narrative voices to be a little too passively similar and the unfortunate coincidences of each of the girls situation, only tangentially tied to the initial act, beggared belief. But within the confines of the genre it worked well and there were several moments where Minato earns her title of the queen of iyamisu (or ewww mysteries).