Hmm, I think I wavered on this one, there were parts that were better than others. I'm thinking some of the parts i had trouble with just came down to my lack of understanding the cultural references/situations in the book. I also felt very disconnected from the characters and therefore from the story.

This was fairly middle-of-the-road for me. I wasn't an enormous fan of 'Convenience Store Woman' but I certainly admired what it set out to do, and this is similar but I honestly think it failed a bit more than the prior book. I was interested in the premise and there were certainly some interesting themes that started up, but they didn't travel in what I thought was the right direction. The abuse and the idea of pervading childhood fantasies into adulthood are really strong conceptually, but they didn't hit the right notes here.

The characters were wildly unlikeable, which I did somewhat anticipate due to the way that Murata's prior book handled its characters, but I hoped that they could be a little more bearable. Thematically, and perhaps it's a matter of translation, perhaps not, but there was an issue with the carrying of ideas. I think that there could have been a lot more discourse about child abuse, parental disaffection, and ruined adulthood, but the book just didn't take that far enough.

It was still written well, however, and the story was still enough to keep me engaged and wanting to finish the book. I just wish that it could have taken it that bit further, and then I would have had it a lot higher on my list. I do hope Murata continues to write, however, and perhaps that social discourse will come a little bit more with time.

Earthlings starts as a story about two kids with a wild imagination spending summer at what seems like a lovely family gathering. Yuu and Natsuki promise each other to “Survive, whatever it takes.” This sentence seems innocent at first but gets a whole new meaning as the story progresses. Yuu goes along with everything Natsuki suggests, while Natsuki hides in her fantasies. Without the support of her family, she has no defense against the abuse she suffers.

She feels like she has to “Survive, whatever it takes”, like a proper Earthling and member of the baby-making Factory. Japanese authors sure like to compare their society to a factory (Hiroko Oyamada’s The Factory comes to mind). The burden to live up to society’s expectations is a central theme in Earthlings. How does one escape from society and the watchful eye of family and friends? By going back to the basics…

A small word of caution: Earthlings contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and young kids exploring sex and it doesn’t shy away from discussing incest and sex without consent. Things that are actually happening in society but are often considered not an acceptable topic in fiction. If you don’t want to come across scenes like that, then you shouldn’t read this book.

Through these scenes, Sayaka Murata indirectly discusses real issues in society; issues to which many turn a blind eye because they can’t imagine someone would do something like that. Toyama, Natsuki’s husband, seems like a caricature whenever he opens his mouth. At one point, Toyama’s comments had me laughing out loud before I reread the paragraph and once again realized that what he said was so not done. The absurdness can’t hide that he has no moral/ethical boundaries: as long as it is the opposite of what society stands for it feels right to him. He is the rebel, and like the others, he feels alienated from society.

I liked the scenes where Natsuki channeled her inner witch to deal with her problems (magic realism!) – which is totally the opposite of Yuu’s submissive way of dealing with his problems – and I think this book could have been a fairy tale or fable if the subject were different. What I liked less is the constant comparison of society with the Factory in both the thoughts of the characters and the dialogues. It could have been a bit less.

Half-way the book the story takes an interesting turn. I had not expected this at the beginning, so I was pleasantly surprised and it kept me on my toes as I was increasingly wondering where the characters would lead me next. The synopsis doesn’t give away what kind of book you are gonna read at all.

I really enjoyed reading this novel and the rich fantasies, entertaining dialogues, and messed up characters played a big role in that. At the same time, I was constantly aware of the seriousness of what the main characters had to deal with. Sayaka Murata manages to discuss a heavy topic in a light way without it feeling any less serious. Despite the topic, the book is easy to read. Compared to Murata’s earlier novel Convenience Store Woman, Earthlings has more spirit and emotion.

***Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC***

This book packs a wallop in so, so many ways that I both anticipated and did not. It addresses a plethora of taboo subjects, but in an often detached or matter-of-fact way that could make some readers uncomfortable. I think the tone made it all the more intriguing and surprising with each turn. The story starts with Natsuki, a little girl who doesn't seem to fit into her surroundings, including her immediate family. She experiences traumas but creates narratives around them that help her make sense of what is happening. She also relies on the once-per-year summer visit to her grandparents' remote home where she spends Obon with her extended family. Among them, there's Yuu, her similarly peculiar cousin. When they are caught together one morning, the extended family works to keep them apart.
Fast-forward and now Natsuki is a married adult, but her marriage is anything but traditional. She and her husband are similarly uninterested in being "normal" and this completely blows up into a hard-to-believe, yet utterly fascinating train wreck when they visit the old mountaintop home of Natsuki's grandparents, where Yuu happens to be residing. The reunion violently tumbles into the rest of the story, which unfurls at the pace of rollercoaster going downhill. It gets stranger and more excruciating, yet I couldn't tear my eyes away because I just had to know how far Murata would take it. Let's just say -- I'd never play a game of chicken with her. The book ends, but its hold on your mind remains. In fact, I think my head is still spinning...

Trigger warnings: Child sexual abuse, incest, murder (and worse)

At first, I thought that this book’s title would indicate a coping mechanism for the life the main character experiences (viewing herself as different from the rest of society’s expectations and the traumas that she encounters); however, the characters just keep devolving, which may be the author’s way of showing that people need to receive psychological counseling (versus figuring out a personal coping mechanism) to overcome problems and challenges in their lives. Personally, this title went too far for me, and I ended up not enjoying it, although I did finish it.

I see how the author wanted to show the way women are seen as men's property, useless if not to make babies, and they aren't believed if they report an abuse, but this book was just too much, too unsettling, too dark. Some scenes will haunt me forever. If that was the goal, then, good. But still, nope, I didn't like this book at all. Disturbing to say the least.

Natsuki is clearly verbally and physically abused by her family, mostly mother and older sister. They were the worst, infuriating. If I was suppose to feel extra uncomfortable by the detailed scenes then work accomplished!

It had the usual peculiar dialogues I read in the author's other book, but here was so much more peculiar and pretty random. The book was short so easy to finish in an afternoon, but for my tastes it was just too much outside my comfort zone. Like way outside.

I had first experienced Murata’s work after reading Dwight Garner’s great review and Motoko Rich’s work in the New York Times and deciding to pick up Convenience Store Woman. It is a straight-faced, captivating story about a woman that develops a relationship with a co-worker in a crappy minimum wage job, and as a result of their affair, the circumstances of the novel come to fruition. It reminded me of any number of Manga-plot devices that lead to missed opportunities, confused emotional navigation, and a whole lot of ennui. I got what I expected, and I loved what I read – totally driven by Garner and Rich and my own obsession with the culture and climate described in the novel. I was satisfied. But there was something about this new novel that grabbed my attention. Once authors grab a foothold in foreign markets, they can test their more challenging work knowing they have an audience, and while I was plainly entertained by Convenience Store Woman, I was blown away when I received an early Advanced Reviewer's Copy of Earthlings from NetGalley

Earthlings treated me to a bizarre, ever-evolving blossom of messed up, bizarre infatuation. It may have started a genre in itself, giving rise to a new guard of Japanese Gothic Sci-fi Horror that leads the audience through a captivating story whose basis include the tropes of romance combined with the high strangeness of enthralling extra-terrestrial psychological horror. In short, I have never read a book like this in my life, and I was pulled in for the ride from the first moment.

The book begins with the story of two cousins, brought together in a mountainous region that all of their close-knit family visits for the summer. There is incestuous infatuation in the air once the cousins betroth one another in the spirit of summer love - an innocent marriage based on circumstance and ignorance. This string easily evokes a handful of V.C. Andrews tropes, but then the story winds down into a Lars VonTrier nightmare - an alleyway of horrors one can’t pull their eyes from. Around every corner of the story, I was introduced to another terrible, bizarre, captivating series of events accepted as the true reality and circumstances of the characters… and upon every turn, we are led to accept the terrible and bizarre fates of the characters we once accepted as members of “the factory” - the name given to what is acceptable and encouraged for our society of nuclear-family child-rearing.

I absolutely loved this novel, if only for the fact that I have never experienced anything like it save for perhaps my experiences watching VonTrier’s Antichrist and Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! It is an experience unlike anything in the modern written word, and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of this bizarre, horrifying, exciting new novel that is unlike anything in recent memory. I was unable to put it down, and look forward to more translations that bring us down this terrifying sieve of eastern, alien darkness and bodily deconstruction.

Thank you for the opportunity to review Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. I was excited to find this title available through NetGalley as I enjoyed the author's prior work, Convenience Store Woman. I think that Earthlings is much along the same lines- if you enjoyed CSW, you'll enjoy Earthlings. If not, then you won't. I think the slightly off-kilter nature of the characters makes this quite an enjoyable diversion.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Sayaka Murata's EARTHLINGS, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

I loved Ms. Murata's first short novel Convenience Store Woman and was excited to see what came next from this talented writer.
What a very different experience this novel was, and I mean that in a good, albeit 'whoa!' way.

I nestled in to read about Natsuki and her family heading up to a family celebration in the mountains. Natsuki is just a kid, an imaginative and fierce 11-year-old who just wanted to see her cousin again, she calls him her 'boyfriend'.
I was captured right away by Natsuki and her stuffed toy friend Piyyut, from the Planet Popinpobopia.
But Natsuki was considered the 'black sheep' of the family, a rebel, and she wanted to be invisible and felt she didn't fit in with the 'real world'. She would later call the world The Factory, where women were expected to marry and have children. Natsuki and her cousin felt they were aliens and that is how that led their lives.

The book takes a hard turn as Natsuki is sexually abused by a teacher, verbally abused by her family to the point that when she does get older, she seeks out a 'husband' who is like her - doesn't want sex, kids or any of the traditional marriage mores.

If that isn't a strange enough turn, soon Natsuki and her husband return to the mountain home of her grandparents and meet with the cousin and the three of them live as aliens away from society. It gets fairly gruesome from here on in as the trio await their 'ship' to take them to their planet.

It is as fascinating a read as it is bizarre and I am excited to read other reviews about Earthlings.
3.75 -

Sayaka Murata is an author who's name I've seen everywhere recently, thanks to the success of the translation of her novel 'Convenience Store Woman'. I've heard nothing but wonderful things, and so I leapt at the chance to read her upcoming translated fiction novel 'Earthlings'.

I'll admit I knew nothing of this book going into it. I usually prefer it that way. And yet, for once, maybe a little more of a head's up on the contents of this story would have been reasonable. The blurb at the time of my own reading (maybe it will change prior to publication) gave no suggestion as to just how darkly this tale would twist and turn. I initially thought we were on a quaint summer journey with a young girl who believed she was a wizard, her powers given to her by a cuddly hedgehog toy. How wrong I was.

This book grips you with horror and shock from the start and doesn't let you go for a minute. We have references to childhood abuse in all its forms, juvenile sexual activity, incest, murder... I don't think I've ever been so repulsed by a story and yet so fascinated by the writing in all my life as a reader.

The themes throughout the novel are so expertly woven through the narrative - ideas of isolation, societal disassociation, abuse and cultural pressures recur in the most fresh and interesting ways, and the dark turns each contributed to aspects of plot or thematic development and (almost) never seemed added purely for titllation or shock value. I particularly enjoyed the correlation between the recurring references to silk worms and how their maturation reflected Natsuki's own evolution and growth (for better or worse).

This will not be a book for everyone, and I can imagine some very split opinions in light of the controversy of the subject matter and plot developments. That being said, this is one of the most exciting, different and thought-provoking novels I've read in years, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging story full of darkness and depth.

Thanks to NetGalley for a providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Part contemporary fiction, part magical realism, part horror story, <I>Earthlings</I> takes all of the really interesting societal commentary that was so fascinating in <I>Convenience Store Woman</I>, but turns the weirdness dial up to 11. The first 3rd of the book is a difficult read, dealing unflinchingly with subjects such as child abuse and sexual assault. The final 3rd of the novel is suddenly, out of nowhere, a horror story. Interwoven into all of that is Murata's forceful, honest critique of how society deals with anything - or anyone - it considers "abnormal," and the strange beauty there is to be found when you find someone who is your same kind of different.

<I>He let me speak my own language. Earthlings probably don't realize it, but meeting someone like that is rare in life.</I>

I can't say more than that without giving anything away, but I promise it'll be one of the most interesting books you'll read all year.

A surreal blend of childish bliss and severe abuse. This book contains just about every trigger you could ask for; sexual abuse, violent murders, destructive gaslighting, mental illness, and there's even a bit of cannibalism thrown in. Why not?

This unique blend works to create a seemingly magical realm that's very much grounded in a rural mountain village in Japan. A place where adults are always trusted over children and those on the outside will remain so.

Magical Minds
There's a slow, methodical pacing when it comes to Natsuki's state of mind. When we first see her within her Grandparents house, early in the book, it's glaringly apparent that her sister, Kise, takes priority. Her father remains mostly in the background playing the stereotypical silent role, but her mother is always at the centre of their attention.

Unfortunately for Natsuki, her mother often reacts negatively around her, calling her ugly or clumsy in front of relatives. It's only her Aunt's that put up any form of defence on Natsuki's behalf.
Even Natsuki has succumbed to her mother's words and believes them to be true.
This constant bombardment of negative energy goes far beyond the odd jibe and is quickly recognisable as mental abuse.

Friendship in Isolation
Things are made even more complicated when pre-teen Natsuki falls in love with her cousin Yuu, and the pair end up having sex. This act splits the family, leaving Natsuki more isolated than ever.
Her moments of isolation are also Natsuki at her most vulnerable. Through the abuse she suffers as a child, there's no one for her to turn towards for help, only her stuffed toy Piyyut.
As the trauma continues, Piyyut develops a voice that allows Natsuki to rationalise her understanding of the situation. This voice soon takes a darker turn, ordering her to kill 'the witch'.

From my understanding, the witch is a metaphor for her struggles. She is the dark-magic that is holding her back, stopping her from being liked by others.
As Natsuki has confidence in her own magic, which of course is non-existent, she must slay the witch before she causes harm to the world. In her mind, her actions remain pure, and for the greater good of mankind.
This is what sets up the ending of the first section of the book, leading into Natsuki's adulthood.

I won't talk too much about the second half, as that's where the plot begins to take place, but Natsuki is now married to someone she has no feelings for because she wanted to get her mother off her back.
Her husband, an a-sexual man, also running from his over-bearing mother, shows no interest in her, physically or otherwise. They live strictly as roommates, separate beds, separate times to use the living room. You get the idea; a convenience marriage.

Common Themes
Throughout the book, Natsuki blames herself for the entire trauma she's suffered. After all, if she was a better student, her mother wouldn't have shouted so much, her teacher wouldn't have sexually abused her, and Yuu would still be by her side.

Both Natsuki and Yuu believe they're aliens from another planet, waiting for their mothership to come and find them, to take them back to a place where they can fit in. And that's one of the great significances here, fitting in.
Never do either of them feel they belong to the Japanese factory (the term they deem to be society; growing up, having children and contributing to the community).
A large part of this is Natsuki's sexual abuse. She mentions it to her mother and is told that she cannot be trusted and she has a dirty mind. This further pushes her from the norm of fitting in.
Why would I be different? Is it my dirty mind that's creating all of this? Maybe my teacher really is trying to help?

There's a lot of Ryū Murakami vibes in this book, mixed with a slight Sci-fi element. The detailing of gruesome acts, but also the deep-psychological trauma that goes hand-in-hand with them. Add to this, Natsuki's own belief in magic and you have a unique blend of fiction.
The plot is, at times, abstract due to Natsuki's warped mind, but this serves as another level of enjoyment on the dull reality of factory life.

Closing Thoughts
Earthlings is an enjoyable book once you become grounded in the weird reality it offers. Talk of alien planets and magic to mask the abuse suffered by a child can be a lot to take in, and at times, is incredibly provocative.
Beyond that, it offers an accelerating journey through the life of a deeply disturbed girl looking to find her way in life without ever feeling as though she fits in.

I have no idea what I just read. Seriously, what was that?

Like most people, I loved Convenience Store Woman and was really excited for Murata's new book. If you're expecting something like Convenince then ... well ... maybe you'll get a taste of what you're expecting, but you'll also get whole heaps of crazy.

The themes of this book are very similar to Convenince. An alienated woman finds it hard to connect and live in society. Whereas Convenince had some goodness and light observations, this book is all dark turns.

This is a dark, dark, dark, dark book. It reminded me of No Longer Human or The Stranger. If you are triggered in any way, DON'T READ THIS BOOK. I'm serious. It's not an easy read. There are detailed scenes of child molestation and abuse. There are other graphic scenes I won't mention for spoiler reasons, but just know things get worse.

After the shock has died down I'm left with the question: Was this a good book?
Answer: Maybe? It wasn't boring, that's for sure. But is that enough to say it's good? Is the graphic nature of this book all there is?

Honestly, I'm at a loss for evaluating this book. Some people are going to love it and some will hate it. And some will be like me and say, "What the fuck?"

Story: 4 stars
Character Development: 4 stars
Writing/Prose (translation): 3 stars
Confusion factor: -2 stars

Sayaka Murata’s back with another story of a social outsider - and it’s even worse than Convenience Store Woman!

Natsuki is a little girl that gets physically and verbally abused by her horrible mother, sexually abused by her teacher and, after a bout of incest, attempts suicide - guys, you’ll never believe it but somehow she turns out to be a complete mess of an adult!

Yeah I didn’t like Earthlings at all. A lot of the gross scenes felt gratuitously described to little or no effect (beyond the obvious shock factor) and the message Murata seemed to be going for felt trite and immature. Conformism is brainwashing, maaan, society is like a factory, etc. This kind of banal commentary isn’t new or clever - rejecting societal norms doesn’t make you a radical, it makes you an average teenager.

I get that Japanese society is more restrictive than most western societies. There’s a strong emphasis on family, living outside of the norm is discouraged, it’s patriarchal (though this is slowly changing), and the focus is much more on the group than the individual. Perhaps something like this would seem more transgressive in that context. But not to this reader in the UK - this was just childish silliness.

Natsuki was an annoying character for the most part even though I felt sorry for her. Her inner dialogue was irritating - as a kid she’s either banging on about survival or wittering on about being an alien or a witch with her imaginary friend Piyyut, and as an adult she’s talking idiotically about rationalism. Yuu and Tomoya were equally stupid - they all deserved each other. Three morons exchanging stilted comments about nothing to highlight… what? That this is what a buttoned-down society reduces people to when they don’t fall in line? I’m not impressed if it is.

I found Earthlings unpleasant for large portions of the novel, the characters all absurd, the point obvious and simple, and the story always really, really boring. After this and Convenience Store Woman, I don’t think Sayaka Murata’s books are for me.

DNF at page 46.

trigger warning
<spoiler> emotional abuse, sexual assault on child by teacher, gaslighting, bullying</spoiler>

This book is about Natsuki, who is a magician. Her alien friend from another planet bestowed magical abilities on her - or so she thinks.

I did not dnf this book because it's bad, because it isn't. Yet again this is a case of triggering material presented without warning.
<spoiler> Natsuki is subtly mistreated by her mother. A neighbor makes a comment about how grown up she is, and that that's cool, and her mother slides in chiding her daughter for being clumsy and ugly. This is only one instance, every time Natsuki and her mother are shown together, the latter mistreats her child - while the other child is praised. Natsuki has the typical warped self image one gets through gaslighting.

This already made me feel iffy, abusive mother-daughter relationships always hit too close to home for me, and then Natsuki is sexually assaulted by her pedophelic teacher. </spoiler>

If I had been warned beforehand, I might have reacted differently. As it stands, I dnf this one and hope that some day in the future, the need for warnings will be logical to everyone.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most disturbing books I've read in my entire life. I haven't felt this way since J.T.Leroy's last novel, but this one by Murata at least, has no pretension to be real, but unfortunately it's quite realistic if you know a bit about mental illness. Heavy and definitely not for everyone.

Questo é uno dei libri piú disturbanti che abbia letto nella mia intera vita. Non mi sentivo cosí dall'ultimo romanzo di J.T.Leroy, ma questo della Murata almeno, non ha nessuna pretesa di essere reale, ma purtroppo é piuttosto realistico se uno conosce un po' le malattie mentali. Pesante e decisamente non per tutti.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

This was a fabulously unnerving coming of age story. Murata covers many taboos in this novel including sex, abuse and cannibalism. All in the name of examining why some people do not quite fit societal expectations. Natsuki and her husband and her cousin do not want to be part of the factory, where the end goal is simply procreation for procreations sake. They want to live by their own rules and aspire to their own goals. Their success comes at rather a cost but that does not detract from their bravery and commitment to their cause. Similar to Convenience Store Woman this novel reminds us that we have the choice of which path in life to take. We should be brave like Natsuki and strive for what is most important to us, and hope that we manage to find some like minded individuals to hold us up when we waver. While this is not an easy read I would recommend it wholeheartedly. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC. I am so lucky to have received this fantastic novel a little early!

I had heard so much about CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN that when I saw this on NetGalley, I decided to give it a go even without having read Murata's previous book. Wow, what a roller coaster! The writing is immediate and accomplished. I was drawn instantly into Natsuki's world, and felt compelled to follow her through her trials. She deals with some horrifying things -- almost all of the adults in her life let her down, and she finds herself further and further pushed to believe herself a cog in a giant wheel of expectation on drudgery. She retreats into fantasy in order to cope. It culminates in an unforgettable final scene. I closed this book unsure of exactly what I had just experienced. It's challenging, provocative, and frightening. The voice here is assured. Whether or not this works for all readers, it's undeniable that Murata is commanding voice in subversive literature.

Continuing and expanding upon the themes of CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, Earthlings questions assumptions about what it means to be a part of civilization. Like CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, the main character is a woman who doesn't fit in, who finds some solace by partnering with a man who shares her radical ideas about society.

Whereas the earlier book presents a relatable character in a realistic setting whose rejection of societal norms seems rational, EARTHLINGS centers on an individual so deeply damaged by childhood sexual abuse and familial verbal abuse that she entirely disassociates from the world. Her only refuge from trauma is to consider herself alien, a denizen of another planet stranded on earth. Through fantasy and disassociation, she is able to do what the adults in her life fail to do: protect herself. I like that the novel defies easy categorization, as the author bends genre in completely unexpected ways. The turn the narrative takes in the end is logical yet stunning: a horror parable rather than science fiction.

Murata has a tremendous instinct for surprise, for turning a narrative on its head. The simplicity of the language and the innocence of the protagonist carries one along to the shocking conclusion. Yet while Convenience Store Woman is a book for a wide audience, I think many may find this book difficult to finish due to the specificity and violence of child abuse as well as the extreme nature of the ending. EARTHLINGS would make a terrific film in the vein of PARASITE.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an ARC of this book.

I'm torn by this. On the one hand it's an interesting read on the other it's a little bit horrific.
I wasn't expecting the book to be quite so graphic. The way her mother and teacher in particular treat her was very difficult to read. I almost stopped at that point. I wanted to get to the end though and find out what happened.
I'm not really sure. Was it real, a fantasy?
Worth a read if you want something challenging but take note of trigger warnings.