3:42 AM. The daughter who killed her mother is on Twitter,
"Beat the monster. Now I'm relieved."
The 18-character post left no one unaware of what it meant.
It was Saturday afternoon, March 10, 2018.
In Shiga Prefecture, on the south bank of the Yasu River south of Lake Biwa, a human body was found without hands, feet, or head, just the torso. The body was heavily decomposed and emitting a foul odor, and many dragonflies were swarming around the body when a resident passing by saw it.
The Moriya...
Review
This is a true crime book. It covers the case of a woman who killed her mother and then dismembered her body to hide the crime.
Relatively little page space is dedicated to the act of murder or to the disposal of the corpse, it's not that kind of book. Primarily the focus is on the life of the murderer (the daughter) leading up to that point. While I wouldn't say the crime is justified, I could see how she felt trapped and helpless and could come to think this was her only means of escape.
Her childhood (and adulthood for that matter) had quite a good deal of psychological abuse, and some physical as well. I found this book a bit hard to read at times because it hurt knowing this was a real person who had experienced this - and not that long ago even!
Language learning notes
The vocab stretch in this book is pretty big. You'll primarily need legal terms and terms relating to school entrance exams, but as the story weaves through her life you'll come across a wide swath.
The author writes in a mostly chronological order, but the story does bop in and out of timelines. Sometimes it will be discussing the past, sometimes the present, and sometimes a section finish only to recap the last few weeks with LINE messages. If you're a newer reader this may prove challenging for keeping your bearings.
Additionally, the paragraphs will flip between talking about Akari, to talking from the perspective of Akari. There is not visual indication when you're flipping perspectives, so again, I can see this throwing new readers off.