Confessions

Content Warning: Confessions depicts extreme bullying, child abuse, murder, mental health crises, a bombing, and murder-suicide. The text contains some stigmatizing language surrounding HIV/AIDS and the misgendering of a character; this guide reproduces such language only through quotations.

Perception is a key aspect of the novel, one of the cornerstones of both the plot and the structure. Only the reader has access to the full story. The story unfolds in piecemeal fashion, reflected in its multi-narrator structure; thus, as characters’ actions are reactions to the limited information they possess, the novel highlights the ways initial perceptions of characters can change with added context, the multiple lenses through which individuals can view the same situation, and the control of information each character exhibits. Moriguchi sets up this theme in her speech in Chapter 1: “Now that I’ve told you it was an experiment, your feelings about the milk have suddenly changed. Am I right?” (5). Just as the students perceive their milk differently when they know that it isn’t simply a free treat, characters—as well as the reader—must adjust to new context and information.

The author’s careful exposition via multiple narrators creates an unstable sense of