The Confession Strategy

by Yoru Sumino

One woman comes up with a plan to make her best friend confess his feelings for her—so she can get him to move on. A new novel from the acclaimed author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and At Night, I Become a Monster.

Chizuru is about to turn thirty—and get married. But before the wedding bells chime, she has one last mission: make Hibiki, her best friend from college, confess his true feelings to her…so she can finally turn him down and help him move on. Her wish is simple—that once he speaks his heart, he won’t stay trapped in the past, but find the courage to step into the future.

Their longtime friend Karin rolls his eyes at such a childish scheme, but against his better judgment, he agrees to help. Yet this so-called Confession Strategy soon spirals in ways no one expected…

A bittersweet rom-com about unrequited love, tangled friendships, and unexpected turns of the heart.

Genres: Romance

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 22, 2024

About the author

Associated Names:
* Yoru Sumino
* 住野よる (Japanese Profile)
* โยรุ ซูมิโนะ (Thai Profile)

Yoru Sumino (住野よる) is a Japanese writer best known for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, the novel that became a manga and two films.

Reviews

[Maya Liang]

這本把日本人朋友間幽微的氛圍及極內心活動的OS描寫得很細緻。
縱使是書中的主角們都是大學時代的在一起的死黨，但有些事還是有所謂的【分寸】。
300多頁都在描寫這些事...
喜歡這種風格且有耐心的人，應該會覺得好看。反之。
總之，我看完了....看了覺得：果然當人很累.....

[Aaron]

And that's the problem with having friends. The perils of self-interest, suddenly and crudely subordinated by the crackling, discordant thunder of conjectural altruism, are thus transformed into a hideous, piteous, quasi-sentimental play for sympathy. Chizuru is a fool, but so are all of her best friends.

THE CONFESSION STRATEGY finds an author of magical realism, low sci-fi drama, YA fiction, and low fantasy wading into the waters of contemporary adult fiction. The book carries all of Sumino's stamps of authorship: clear and distinct character voice, diverse narrative perspectives, vigorous and trenchant rebuttals of social hierarchy and dogma, and lots of ugly crying. Chizuru is a fool, as are all of her friends, but upon cresting age 30 and rationalizing that love is too exhausting a gauntlet to run through one last time, everyone agrees: It's time to settle.

The novel's premise hinges on a delightfully repugnant idea: If Chizuru can force a longtime friend (Hibiki) into confessing his love for her, then she can get married and live out her life free of the guilt and chagrin that might otherwise lurk in the background (and Hibiki, unburdened, could ostensibly do the same).

That's the plan. THE CONFESSION STRATEGY is indeed about a group of adult friends attempting to contrive vacation spots, late-night meetings, drinking parties, and bowling events to force other adults into confessing how they truly feel about one another. And yet, being friends for well over a decade tends to introduce a plethora of wayward emotions.

Sumino's story is about the constant second-guessing and repeated backtracking native to manifesting an emotional key turn in a good friend by manipulating their sense of gratitude, obligation, or meaning-making. The novel acknowledges from the start that forcing a confession is a bad idea, but the book also notes how this sentiment is not an uncommon one. That is to say, people often care more about surviving emotional trauma than in unearthing or transplanting its roots. Adults can choose where to focus their energies, and can choose whose time they privilege, but planned conflict rarely effects the results one desires.

Among Chizuru's friends are a sales and marketing associate for a book publisher (Karin), a product planner for a sweets manufacturer (Mai), a professional illustrator (Kao), a tech start-up entrepreneur (Taiga), and a certified public accountant (Hibiki).

Karin wants to help his close friend (Chizuru) and his old buddy (Hibiki) find happiness, together or apart, but lacks the confidence or self-awareness to know when he's in too deep into an ill-got plot. Mai is smug and nosy, and once she learns somebody's secret, is loathe to let it go without putting her personal stamp on it. Kao is notoriously blunt, and her brutal honesty is the source of as much laughter as one would expect tears; she's brutal. Taiga's laissez-faire attitude means he goes with the flow, but not without dispensing some big-bro advice along the way.

Does it matter that Hibiki is so conflict-averse that acknowledging a lost love will be the hardest thing he ever does? Does it matter that Chizuru is so self-centered that she's blinded herself from acknowledging that she, too, may have lost her chance at an honest love long before she entered into adulthood?

Readers may wince at these ships passing each other in the night, but the author doesn't let them off the hook. Characters like Mai and Kao frequently rebuke the ephemeral (fanciful) notion that adult affections aren't worth the effort: "I feel like it would be silly to let a little embarrassment or pride or whatever get in the way of choosing what is probably the single best option available to be happy for the rest of your life" (Kao, page 187).

THE CONFESSION STRATEGY is about somewhat-well-intentioned characters and their poorly executed plans. Humor, embarrassment, uncertainty, and confessions of a more shameful variety result. Karin appears happily married, but he harbors an awkward secret he'd rather not divulge. Chizuru works in media marketing, but she's been hiding her new boyfriend from her best friends for the better part of a year. Mai is a brilliant conversationalist and master social critic, but what happens when her private sense of justice (indignation) counters what her own friends think is best? Will she relent?

The novel is a bit long but fortunately evolves on two or three occasions, granting readers a few different (sometimes comical) approaches to the central narrative question of whether forcing a love confession is a legitimate, adult thing to do. Everyone has something to hide. Everyone has something to confess. Everyone has something to argue about. And in the end, everyone eagerly yearns for peace and companionship. Some of these characteristics invariably conflict. As with most of Sumino's novels, readers shouldn't concern themselves with the moral fabric of these conflicts, but rather, readers should concede these conflicts' moral insolence, and instead query how prevalent this insolence happens to be.

[Simon Groulx]

Third Sumino novel I've now read and even if it ended being my least favorite one, it certainly doesn't leave me empty handed. All of his best qualities as a writer are put to use in beautiful fashion, I simply didn't connect to this one as deeply as it was the case with the others. The main reason would have to be my relation to the lead male character. As much as Haruki and Kaede felt like an extension of myself, Hibiki wasnt quite like this and the story isn't told in his perspective which doesn't help me getting the same level of attachment. Regardless, Chizuru's story is moving enough on its own to make this a really amazing story. Things just seem rougher when you're being compared to 2 things amongst my 5 favorite things ever. Yoru Sumino remains my favorite writer and I will seek to read all of his other works.
9/10

[Badal]

Not to rant more about this piece much, I've debated for a while and chose to give it a "3 stars rating" because all in all, the character dynamics were great, even though it leaves bad taste in your mouth. But that's how it should've gone and no one has any right to complain. Though, it lacked when it comes to execution. There were many points where I started thinking, why? And how? And those were unanswered, completely set aside. Just like the "real reason" he never did what he was supposed to, what everyone felt he has to do. I eagerly wanted to feel the emotions she felt knowing the main reason. Which I never get to read. That suck, but still overall it was a good read.

[Adrian Peinado]

Oh, well. Okay, not bad. Not bad, but not good.
Just fine!