Sayaka Murata

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

Earthlings

Karola

"Until when?" I muttered, repressing the urge to cry. How long do we have to just survive? When will we be able to live rather than just focusing on surviving?"

Firstly, I had to study hard to become a work tool. Secondly, I had to be a good girl, so that I could become a reproductive organ for the town. I would probably be a failure on both counts, I thought. 

gabriella

Klara Hansen 

Mari-Claire Parrin

edda

I thought I'd be prepared for this after reading Life Ceremony but boy I was so WRONG 

agn1kai

earthlings is an enigmatic and equally horrific escape from the human factory —  where you have to serve as an efficient reproducing tool — to the mountains of akishina. a place of overwhelming saddening nostalgia that exists only in summertime and memories of which become so vivid with age that they inevitably get intertwined with meticulously woven, unintentionally made up details of the time when the world seemed bigger, the river seemed deeper, and the space between the house and the bridge was immense for such small legs.

the main characters deem this escape to be the only solution catering to the aliens’ needs. a society based on factory principles hurts some individuals so badly they have to reinvent reality to cope with this, with the understanding that they have been failed by everyone they ever met. when normalcy is so abnormal and abusive, what is there to look up at? in such a world of harassment, injustice, and reproductive pressure even the aliens’ sense of rationality seems more logical to those inhabiting the pages of earthlings.

sayaka murata is a genius when it comes to portraying women-specific suffering in a stinging, sobering way which is devoid of lame preachy lecturing. it’s sharp, and it aims right at the eye, inflicting the most excruciating of pains. some of the conclusions the young main character had come to were more believable, and some were less, natsuki’s parents and sister lacked multidimensionality, and the use of words and concepts felt repetitive at times but. overall, it was a very solid and fresh narration, maybe because i found there what i had been expecting from it, what i was ready for. earthlings are good for consumption right after life ceremony, when you are still able to recreate its echoes, but you are not scared of this extraterrestrial experience anymore.  

the ending truly leaves you at a loss for words, but could there be a mundane, earthly ending for a story about “non-earthlings”? or a tale of taboo and eternal damnation? we should invent a society where women feel like their bodies belong to them, where human bodies are more human bodies than tools, and where every child is safe and protected in their nest. but that would really have to be a society existing somewhere in unknown depths of outer space, huh? 

“my town was a collection of nests, a factory for manufacturing babies. i was a tool for the town’s good, in two senses. firstly, i had to study hard to become a work tool. secondly, i had to be a good girl, so that i could become a reproductive organ for the town. i would probably be a failure on both counts…”

lily lily 

earthlings is an enigmatic and equally horrific escape from the human factory —  where you have to serve as an efficient reproducing tool — to the mountains of akishina. a place of overwhelming saddening nostalgia that exists only in summertime and memories of which become so vivid with age that they inevitably get intertwined with meticulously woven, unintentionally made up details of the time when the world seemed bigger, the river seemed deeper, and the space between the house and the bridge was immense for such small legs.

the main characters deem this escape to be the only solution catering to the aliens’ needs. a society based on factory principles hurts some individuals so badly they have to reinvent reality to cope with this, with the understanding that they have been failed by everyone they ever met. when normalcy is so abnormal and abusive, what is there to look up at? in such a world of harassment, injustice, and reproductive pressure even the aliens’ sense of rationality seems more logical to those inhabiting the pages of earthlings.

sayaka murata is a genius when it comes to portraying women-specific suffering in a stinging, sobering way which is devoid of lame preachy lecturing. it’s sharp, and it aims right at the eye, inflicting the most excruciating of pains. some of the conclusions the young main character had come to were more believable, and some were less, natsuki’s parents and sister lacked multidimensionality, and the use of words and concepts felt repetitive at times but. overall, it was a very solid and fresh narration, maybe because i found there what i had been expecting from it, what i was ready for. earthlings are good for consumption right after life ceremony, when you are still able to recreate its echoes, but you are not scared of this extraterrestrial experience anymore.  

the ending truly leaves you at a loss for words, but could there be a mundane, earthly ending for a story about “non-earthlings”? or a tale of taboo and eternal damnation? we should invent a society where women feel like their bodies belong to them, where human bodies are more human bodies than tools, and where every child is safe and protected in their nest. but that would really have to be a society existing somewhere in unknown depths of outer space, huh? 

“my town was a collection of nests, a factory for manufacturing babies. i was a tool for the town’s good, in two senses. firstly, i had to study hard to become a work tool. secondly, i had to be a good girl, so that i could become a reproductive organ for the town. i would probably be a failure on both counts…”




Ryan Mateyk

Never read a more normal book in my life.

I still feel sick weeks after reading this. Truly wish I never had. Where were the trigger warnings?????

tori 👻

soot

after reading life ceremony, this book was so,, disappointing. one of those “good premise, terrible execution”- just as I felt I was beginning to like an topic brought up such as how mechanical society is etc, something would happen which would ruin it for me.

Tsamarah

3.5 stars rounded down

This book is the definition of bizarre. Just when you thought some moments where crazy, the next chapter ended up making you feel so creeped out. 

I believe that the themes of Convenience Store Woman is very visible here; and i think will continue to reflect on her upcoming works as well, though this book definitely have waaay darker tones. Nevertheless, I had a pretty great reading experience.

I started this as an audiobook and I do love Sayaka Murata…however…I did not get far into the book without going “huh” and then rushing to google for content warnings and spoilers. I will say! Check the content warnings for this one! I will probably revisit it in the future when I learn to cope with certain topics better. 

Murata explores the experience of coping with trauma in a surreal way, unlike anything I've read before. From trauma-bonding amongst the characters to exploring the anxieties of the female experience in Japanese society, Murata paints a vivid, colorful portrait full of twists and turns. Whenever I thought I'd pinned down where the book was going and what it was saying, Murata would prove me wrong. It is unpredictable, and at times horrifying. In a book full of crazy events, however, the scariest parts are the societal truths that surround them. This book expands on the themes of Convenience Store Woman and dials them up to a 100, thus cementing Sayaka Murata as one of my favorite authors. This is a page turner, it is entertaining, fast-paced, shocking and extremely sincere. There's no holding back, and I was left thinking about this book way past the time I finished it. It is admittedly not for everyone, but give it a shot and I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile in it.

Sophía Allan

liyah

This book was insane, has some trigger warnings and deals with the idea of social construction really well. 

Chloe Dawson

I got lured in by the cute hedgehog :| 

This book was insane, has some trigger warnings and deals with the idea of social construction really well. 

The way Sayaka Murata views the world through the eyes of the protagonist is so captivating and thought provoking – it is a worldview that only a child with a vivid imagination could picture, or perhaps an actual alien; but as you dive deeper into the book and watch the protagonist grow, you realise how her perception of this world, although seeming very peculiar, is closer than the truth than many of our own. With vivid descriptions, magical realism and a little bit of gore mixed with symbolism; it was an memorable and entertaining read, will dive deeper into Murata's works. 

deniz

ineke

a book you finish reading and then realise you will never be able to explain to anyone without sounding disturbed

absolutely no words to describe what i have just read. there are themes of cannibalism, child abuse, murder, sexual assault, and incest. it’s not something i’d wish anyone to read but unfortunately it's so well-written.

jungmi

𓆨

i'm not sure whether to give this a two stars rate or three but what i'm sure of is that i really really like sayaka's writing and i can't stress enough how relatable her characters/writing is and i know it's kinda dumb to say that she's so realistic but oh well, this is probably the darkest dark comedy i've ever laid my hands on(since i watched the death of stalin that is), and the abusive parts were too much for me to swallow it made me so uncomfortable but unfortunately they're realistic,it has some unnecessary stuff going on too so two stars had to go.
this is a huge TW so whenever you feel like you just can't keep on reading don't hesitate this is not for anyone.

Initial reaction: cute cover & aliens? This will be fun! 😇✌️😙

Unhinged and not for the faint of heart. Similar vibes as Oyasimni Punpun & Homunculus. Need to read a cheesy romance to cleansed my palette.

Cristina S

Initial reaction: cute cover & aliens? This will be fun! 😇✌️😙

Me: 😧😶🫨✝️

Unhinged and not for the faint of heart. Similar vibes as Oyasimni Punpun & Homunculus. Need to read a cheesy romance to cleansed my palette.



From the beloved author of cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, which has now sold more than one million copies worldwide and has been translated into thirty-three languages, comes a spellbinding and otherworldly novel about a woman who believes she is an alien Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman was one of the most unusual and refreshing bestsellers of recent years, depicting the life of a thirty-six-year-old clerk in a Tokyo convenience store. Now, in Earthlings, Sayaka Murata pushes at the boundaries of our ideas of social conformity in this brilliantly imaginative, intense, and absolutely unforgettable novel. As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents’ ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can’t seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the “baby factory” of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe—answers only Natsuki has the power to uncover. Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling world, and cements Sayaka Murata’s status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.

A Novel

3.5 stars

(view spoiler)[when natsuki said, “sometimes i thought being a popinpobopian was effectively a mental illness that i had needed in order to protect myself, and the only way i would ever recover was by becoming a slave of the factory.” I WAS LIKE ??? GIRL YOU ARE ACTUALLY MENTALLY ILL… WDYM. (hide spoiler)]


  trigger warnings include - incest, cannibalism, rape, alien themes and murder.


this book was really tough for me to read due to the incest and rape themes which i hate, but oddly enough, i found myself not being able to stop reading. 

initially, i thought they might really be (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)], but as i got deeper, i realized that they weren’t and things got even weirder. 

essentially, i think the main idea revolves around resisting society's expectations, but the author takes it to a different level. 

also, natsuki’s childhood experiences were too traumatic which is why i kinda understand why she became that way… (by the way, mr igasaki deserved what happened to him IDGAF. i wished natsuki’s mother also got what she deserved, cause that abusive motherf-cker made my blood boil just as much)

Archiell

Cait🪼

It's very rare for me to finish a book in one sitting, let alone in just a few hours, but Earthlings was a wonderful exception. This was nothing like I'd expected and I loved it so much - undoubtedly the best and most perplexing novel I've read all year!

i appreciate how she talked about asexuality in her novel but??i think i'm also easily disturbed. idk. this is how i'm gonna describe the feeling of reading this book: you'd wanted to try ayahuasca, you wanted the spiritual journey people always talking about, but instead, you got cheap crack and now your brain hurts

speechless I think I recommend ? I think I liked it ? Ask me again in a few days I have to recover and react first

jillian tenner

azliana aziz

meh. ott + all over the place. interesting stuffs, unexciting read.

Earthlings

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