3.5/5
Recommended for fans of: The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Parasite by Bong Joon Ho, and Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

tw in novel: murder, incest, sexual assault/rape, physical/mental abuse

You can think of Earthlings as the opposite of Convenience Store Woman. In Earthlings, our protagonist Natsuki is a self-described alien who wants to live life according to her own rules. She rejects the external pressures of Japanese society that force upon her compliance, sex, marriage, and motherhood. Yet ultimately, she realizes that she needs to be “brainwashed” to become a normal member of society if she wants to escape the abuse and torment she is subjected to by her friends and family. (The ending of this book flips this on its head, but we won’t be discussing that today because of spoilers.)

Conversely, the protagonist in Convenience Store Woman takes conformity to the extreme, becoming obsessed with being a cog in the capitalist konbini machine. She remains in her “dead-end” job as a means to cope with society’s expectations, happy to stock shelves and scan barcodes. Unlike Muraka’s latest novel, the character has a nonchalant attitude when it comes to pressure from society. She goes through the motions, finding a partner to placate her family’s worries. But unlike Natsuki, she does not remain deeply troubled by this pressure. She instead is absorbed by her love for “menial” work and falls into this in-between place of capitalist conformity and societal disconformity.

As Murata is not as well known in the Western world, it can be tempting to draw even more parallels with Convenience Store Woman. In doing so leads to interesting and thoughtful analysis, yes. But let’s get into my critique and praise for the novel.

To start off, while I thoroughly enjoyed the critique that this novel presents, I took issue with a few scenes. First, the way in which sexual assault and rape is framed is highly problematic. I urge anyone who is triggered by these things to not read this book. While I believe Murata presented characters who victim blamed Natsuki as problematic wheels in the Factory machine, it was very concerning that Natsuki internalized all of those “you were asking for it”, “you were lucky he was into you” type thoughts with absolutely no resolution by the end of the book. Secondly, the incest in this book is (purposefully?) presented as a means to break away from society’s expectations. Natuski’s relationship with her cousin Yuu can be viewed as a harmful coping mechanism, I suppose, but the reaction to Tomoya’s desire to have sex with his brother is just downright bizzare. I understand the point was to push the limit on how far society can be subverted, but I think Murata could have made a different choice that was equally as shocking that is not quite as problematic.

As for what I enjoyed about this novel, I loved the use of childlike mindset and imagination. Natsuki maintains her myth of being an alien to cope with her own alienation, abuse, and trauma. The novel starts out in a magical way, painting us a picture of a girl who lets her imagination run wild. Over the course of reading, we discover that she is suppressed and tormented because of her creativity and strange temperament. Even as she enters adulthood, Natsuki maintains her childlike beliefs, holding onto hope by a thread that she may one day be able to break free from society’s pressures and expectations.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and most importantly -- it was incredibly memorable. Like Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, it is likely that I will be thinking about this book, its messages, and its absolute absurdity for months to come. While there are some extremely troubling presentations of sexual assault, rape, and incest; this book still has great artistic merit. I would recommend this to readers who have enjoyed The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Parasite by Bong Joon Ho, and Convenience Store Woman.

Murata breaks free of all the rules, and wrote a story on exactly what she wanted.. I’ve read sooo many reviews going “oh I thought it was suppose to be cute because of the cover” or it’s a Japanese lit and they’re usually “weird but in a good way”. Ahem, let’s not go grouping all Japanese books as the same. Each and every author has their own writing style And genres they like to write about. Trigger warnings: Dark themes, gore, sexual abuse. I don’t want to spoil it but think Ryu Murakami vibes.

I really enjoyed the first half, then after the time skip it got a bit wacky. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it, i was surprised and couldn’t believe the direction it went in.

A recurring theme I’ve noticed between this and her first book, Convenience Store Woman is the subject of conforming to societal expectations and living your life for others, for the community aka the “factory”. Natsuki the MC, believes from a young age that she’s an alien, and she doesn’t belong on Earth. That she has all the same parts as other females but she doesn’t want to use them for their intended person ie. having a baby. So she suggests that she has no interest in reproducing, her family thinks she’s outrageous and she’s “crazy”. Some people don’t want to live that conventional life and it should be ok to do whatever they want. If someone doesn’t want kids, then so be it. It shouldn’t be anyone else’s business. Since this is based in Japan, it’s known as a very traditional country so this idea of not wanting a baby doesn’t make sense. It should be for the greater good of the country, for society. You need to have to kids to further the economy and look after the future, etc etc. This book tries to fight that notion, in a very eye-opening, out of this world story that I actually really loved.

After reading Convenience Store Woman by the same author, I had to pick up Earthlings. It's unusual.

Child Natsuki is convinced that her stuffed hedgehog is actually an alien from another planet. Her cousin Yuu is convinced he is an alien. They are kindred spirits within a large family and their summer getaways are their only time together. After family drama, they drift apart, until they meet again as adults. Natsuki is married to a similar man, disillusioned with society's expectations. Yuu is quirky, single, and struggling to find his way. Neither of them, nor Natsuki's husband, fit the mold society expects them to fill.

Again, it's definitely unusual. The message is there, about not conforming then struggling with the fallout, but it really is a weird little book. It's hard to explain in a summary why, without giving away plot points, but it really is a disturbing look at modern day expectations.

I really loved the author's previous book Convenience Store Woman, so I was really excited to see she had a new book out. For fans of the first book this book does have some parallels with themes like "not fitting into society" and "feeling different", but this book is much darker.
There are scenes of child abuse, molestation, incest, murder. Dark books are fine for me, but I know it may not be everyone's cup of tea.
That being said I still feel like I will think and talk about this book for some time and look forward to reading anything else Sayaka Murata writes.
**possible spoiler alert**
The whole book has you understanding that Natsuki uses the thought that she as an alien as a way to deal with her trauma. However the ending of the book, particularly the last few pages take a strange turn toward magical realism that I am still not sure how I feel about. All in all though it was a thought provoking book, and I am eager to see what else she creates in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first novel I have read by Sayaka Murata and I can see why she is popular in Japan and now being translated for a wider audience. What started as a quirky tale with some dark undertones quickly escalated into a much more disturbing and bizarre tale with a shocking conclusion.

Earthlings is at times humorous, at times unsettling, but always bizarre. Although the novel broaches topics from incest to cannibalism to murder, one would certainly not be able to tell from the cover or short blurb for the novel. While I am a fan of fiction with darker tones and do not typically mind a book with subject material that could be considered “disturbing”, I did find the graphic sexual abuse of a minor to be quite unsettling and think that other readers should be aware of the content before jumping into this story.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this and I really liked Murata’s style of writing and the characters she built. The opening of the novel was fantastic, but I would also say conversely that the ending was my least favorite part. It is clear that Murata intends to critique modern society through this tale, questioning social norms and family expectations, resulting in some comical and dark passages both. She does this in a very effective manner, as the reader does end up sympathizing with the main characters who refuse to try and fit in with the rest of the society.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for some bizarre fiction mixed with social commentary as well as anyone who just wants to try reading a story that will be unlike anything you have experienced before. I, myself, will definitely be looking forward to reading more of Murata’s works in the future.

This book is very hard to review. The deeper you get into the book, the more unexpected things become and yet it all fits. I believe I understood 90% of the book, but as a man it's possible I only understood about 30% of it. From the difficult to read childhood trauma to the somehow easy to ready cannibalism, this was a masterful book. It was all weird but it all fit.

A peak into a culture far different from America in ways beyond the obvious. A story was seemed straightforward but turned out to be anything but. An engrossing and very engaging novel.

This book is an 'out of this world' read. It is such a rollercoaster ride, and you really don't know where it will take you next. Filled with the quirkiness of many Japanese fiction titles, it is a book like nothing else I have ever read. Once you finish it, it will take some time for you to ponder and reflect, and wonder about the journey you have just been taken on. I was hooked from the first page, and found it to be a very quick and easy read.

I just finished the English version of Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, and all I can say is WOW! I feel like I was punched in the gut. I read it in one day and I need a bit of time to process so I can write a proper review. Stay tuned...

A week has passed and I'm still mulling on why this book was so powerful. First, Sayaka Murata has created a character, Natsuki Sasamoto, that portrays the mind of a young girl brilliantly. What it's like to be a sister and daughter, a cousin and niece, and friend. What it's like to experience people and places and make sense of them. What it's like to be treated with kindness and with horrors.

Yes, this story is really about trauma and the way that children and later adults deal with it. The stories they tell themselves and to each other. The actions they take to survive. The teetering between reality and fantasy and losing one's mind. She brings to life the way that most of the adults and even the children in her characters' lives fail them over and over again from childhood into adulthood.

When I first started reading this novel, I thought it would be a good book to read for a young niece who is of similar age as Natsuki at the start of the story. But, I quickly realized that no, it is much too dark and adult, at least at my niece's age.

The power of this novel, is it exposes how a society's conventional wisdom can be overwhelming oppressive, and how most people aren't strong enough to question it, let alone battle against it.

Read this book. If you like to be drawn in, and you like weird, and you don't mind being punched in the gut, this novel is for you.

If you thought Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman, was quirky, then her latest English language translation will make the former seem downright commonplace. Earthlings does not hold back in illustrating the childhood trauma experienced by Natsuki, who unsurprisingly turns to her imagination for solace. Her fictional thoughts, however, blend into her reality, carrying into adulthood as a continued way for her to survive in a society in which she feels she does not belong. Earthlings is not for the faint of heart; if you are looking for slice-of-life Japanese fiction, this is not quite it. However, it will quite possibly shock and entertain you.

I don't even know how to rate this. It was so weird and definitely not for the faint of heart. It starts out as a story about kids with unusual coping methods for really horrible situations and ends all kinds of sideways with these kids taking their coping mechanisms into an adulthood where they're wildly maladaptive. The simple prose and the way the character frames her actions makes everything seem perfectly mundane even while the situations a very bleak. It reminds me of Otessa Moshfegh's Eileen, in the sense that you can see that the characters have a rocky relationship to morality (at least human morality).

If you're into delirious trips into slowly mutating human psyches, as told from the perspective of an incredibly unreliable narrator who could use some therapy instead of magical girl manga, this book is for you. I devoured this book in s pro it's of mtself. A Warning to the wise, the features child abuse in all forms, incest, and cannibalism. Take care if you're planning on reading it

Earthlings is one of the weirdest books I have read in awhile, if not ever. I didn't know what to expect from this but judging off the cover I thought this was be cute and breezy, maybe a little quirky but I was SO wrong. There are so many weird turns and disturbing events. I didn't hate it because it was a fast read and it kept going into a different direction that you didn't really know what to expect. I'm not going to explain what happens because I think that's part of the experience if you decide to read it hOWEVER it is disturbing in many, many ways.. I personally feel weird after reading this. I do get the message she tried to make but I don't know how I feel about the execution of it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Sayaka Murata's Earthlings is a novel that reads very much like an allegory, recasting much of what we take for granted in society in novel ways to make its absurdity all the more clear. People are construed as society's "work tools," toiling in the "factory" that is everyday life to secure a mate and establish their "nests." Natsuki, the main character, chafes against these conventions, unable to conform because she sees them all with "alien eyes" (you can see where the "earthlings" theme comes in). Murata, here, treats the fantasy and science-fiction elements of her story not as whimsical and flighty, but as the outcome of intense and sustained emotional turbulence in her protagonist. This is especially evident in the first half of the novel, where the violence of convention inflicts a kind of trauma on the young Natsuki. The second half of the novel, though, spreads outwards; having explored what a conventional society entails, it asks what it means to withdraw from that convention: how do you begin to disentangle yourself from an oppressive culture? That is, if you run away from it, what exactly are you running away to?

This is all well and good, except that Earthlings doesn't quite succeed in its social commentary, especially as compared to the excellent Convenience Store Woman. The latter novel worked because even though it tackled big issues, it approached them from the microcosm of the workplace. Here, however, the focus is disjointed, the issues are too big and the focus of the story too wide. The result is a narrative that reads as a bit clunky and unfocused, unable to reign in the broad swath of issues that it has raised.

I definitely didn't dislike this--and I certainly enjoyed parts of it--but I can't help but feel like in the end, the social commentary of Earthlings was less insightful and more "we live in a society."

After being baffled by quite how much I enjoyed Convienience Store Woman last year, I thought I'd give Murata's latest offering a bash.

What can I say - I was not prepared for that. Seriously. I'm pretty much lost for words, other than to say that it was absolutely bonkers. It was dark, creepy and utterly bizarre and I couldn't put it down?

I couldn't tell you what I actually liked about it, it was certainly bingeable, but not something I'd ever reread. And I really don't know if id recommend it.

Also, there should have been a trigger warning for child sexual abuse, im really surprised that there wasn't.

2☆

This is a weird book. Most of it is accessible weird but then towards the end it went off the rails.

Natsuki fighting against the conformity of Japanese society is very interesting but how her fights ends up felt like I was reading about someone going insane.

This copy was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

Earthlings: A Novel by Sayaka Murata is Brilliant. Disturbing. Unforgettable.

Natsuki the main character initially offers the reader a voice of innocence, and then she imbues a layer of darkness and shadow, as she explains to you that ‘she is from another planet and wants to allow her family to exist without her.’

It’s easy to relate to the unfairness and sadness a life held at arm’s length can do to a child’s mind, especially when they create a fictional world based off of the premise that they are alien, and in order to survive they must give up happiness and hope to become an Earthling and a ‘Factory Component.’

When abuse of a much different kind arrives, Natsuki drifts further away from her body to survive sexual assault and to compartmentalize.

Yuu, Natsuki’s cousin is also a dreamer and loner, open to the idea that he could also be from the same cosmic origins as Natsuki. They are sweet and quite wonderful until something private happens between them and they become pariahs.

It would explain so much if we all could say we are alien when our family doesn’t attempt to understand, protect or to know us. I was drawn to the logical ideal, as human needs, love and feelings were eschewed and became non-essential for the future.

The childhood moments spent in the mountains were a beautiful memory, perhaps to illuminate that there are two sides to all things? Duality even in the cruelest of situations?

What strikes me about this novel is the soft lull, then the sharpness below the text with deep exploration of social structure that never changes or learns from the past, the patriarchy, as in a woman’s dismal fate to be groomed to perfection only to procreate and appease the needs of others. Humans who are like zombies spending every moment of their waking lives only to serve the machine and to repeat the cycle again, and again like the silkworms.

This story does not force you to accept any of these ideas or to agree with them. Instead these opinions and rebellious feelings drift and flow in a way that they seep into your pores and into your dreams.

The ending was startling, violent and graphic.

If the novel had been written any differently, I may have perceived this end as a commercialized plot twist meant to wake me up and to feel a deep seated dread or to shock me to my core.

Truly it did both, but what I was left with was a pensive assurance that this author sees beyond societal masks and far beyond the obvious––in a world packed full of factory components.

I have already recommended this brilliant novel to a few of my friends.

Many thanks to Grove Press, Netgalley and the author Ms. Murata for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 15%

No way I can get through this - the writing is so simplistic it should be aimed at middle grade and I can feel my brain cells dying with every word.

Didn't enjoy Convenience Store Woman and did not enjoy this - at least I tried to give this author the benefit of the doubt.

Convenience Store Woman was a brilliant look into the everyday nuances of humanity on the fringe of “acceptable” society, so I had high hopes for Earthlings. The main character is almost immediately immersed to the point of drowning in various types of abuse but comes across as being almost completely emotionally detached. She bounces from home to school to family gatherings where she is consistently used as an outlet by the adults in her life. In what comes across at first as a normal childhood fantasy, she begins expressing her belief that she is an alien. However, this unusual belief persists into adulthood.
Natsuki’s semblance of a “normal” life is nothing more than a façade. Now married to a man who has similarly odd beliefs, she is intent on finding her spaceship. The two have no qualms about arguing for the validity of their lifestyle with others who question it, including their own families. Once Natsuki and her husband travel to visit a cousin she hasn’t seen in years, the story becomes darker practically from page to page. For such a short novel, this one has packed in a large amount of disturbing subject matter.
I struggled to read this one, perhaps because I did find many of the themes overwhelming. After wholeheartedly loving CSW, I was expecting to feel similarly about this one. The first half of the book had the same off the cuff and sparing yet resounding tone, but when it bombarded the reader with one travesty against Natsuki to another with nothing in between as a buffer, I struggled to finish.
This book is truly one of a kind, but the subject matter was not for me. Recognizing it still has literary merit, I’m giving it 2.5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy. This did not impact my review.

Earthlings is a strange book in many ways and very different in tone to the author's popular book Convenience Store Woman. I had an odd experience reading it, finding it almost unbearable to read in the first half, especially during scenes of child sexual abuse, but then becoming strangely captivated by it in the second half, when things take a very bizarre turn. It's a heard book to talk about without spoiling it and it comes with about every content warning you could imagine, but I was thinking about it for weeks afterwards so would recommend to fans of the dark and strange.

Earthlings. Where to start with this book? Tonally, it is all over the place. At times it reads with such naivete and simple language, it could be a children’s book. But then it turns dark. Very dark.

There are (warning!) explicit scenes of child sexual abuse described in first person from the child’s POV. There are eruptions of surreal violence and gore. Things get... weird.

In its calmer, more realist moments, this novel actually does share a lot in common with Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, as protagonist Natsuki has no interest in career or parenthood, and enters into a phony marriage just to get people off her back:

‘Society was a system for falling in love. People who couldn’t fall in love had to fake it. What came first: the system or love? All I knew was that love was a mechanism designed to make Earthlings breed.’

I’m tempted to call Earthlings an ‘anti-coming-of-age’ novel. We meet Natsuki at age 11 and then again at age 34, skipping over those years we typically deem most formative. But the missing twenty-odd years seem not to have changed Natsuki at all—she remains frozen in time, perhaps as a result of the abuse and cruelty she suffered as a child—nor have they shaken her belief in planet Popinpobopia and the fantasy she takes refuge in: being a literal alien.

Natsuki and her husband both feel alienated; chafing against social strictures, they would rather believe they are Popinpobopians than become capitalistic and reproductive ‘tools’ for ‘The Factory’. This sends them down a bizarre path of nonconformism and taboo-breaking. Thematically then, Earthlings is a distant cousin of other tales of disaffected, transgressive anarchism like Fight Club.

It is hard to know how to rate this book, as I was transfixed while not really enjoying it. Murata raises weighty issues, gestures towards meaningful discourse, before veering away into surreal horror & gore. The climactic frenzy of ingurgitation is a metaphor-made-literal that readers are left to interpret for themselves. But I wasn’t invested enough to try. Maybe life on Earth is too weird right now for these aliens to land. 2.5 stars.

If you've read and loved Convenience Store Woman, this book has the same skilled writing--simple yet engaging. It also has the same themes like alienation from society, challenging conformity, and individualism. However, this is maybe 10x more intense and visceral. Imagine Junji Ito wildness levels. ⁣⁣
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Earthlings is about Natsuki, a woman who is just trying to survive life on a daily basis. She believes herself to be a magician, or an alien, but definitely not a normal human being. She sees society as a sort of Baby Factory, and that her life and body is somehow not her own. ⁣⁣
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The novel lets us witness part of Natsuki's difficult childhood, and her well-built adult life. The threat of The Factory to her peaceful lifestyle pushes Natsuki to escape into the mountains of her childhood, and there she will hopefully rediscover and reclaim her lost self. ⁣⁣
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As usual, Sayaka Murata has given us a thought provoking piece that challenges and questions our concept of society and normality. I am still sorting out my thoughts, final review coming soon on my blog! 🐌 Though I highly recommend this book, please take note of the trigger warnings // Distressing elements include child abuse, rape, incest, graphic violence, cannibalism // ⁣⁣
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Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.