I am familiar with many literatures out of my geographical and cultural comfort zone, but the Japanese literature is one of those that cannot cease to puzzle me. The more I read the more far I feel from a palpable understanding of the local cultural soul.



I´ve intellectually met Sayaka Murata through her short story Convenience Store Woman. Earthlings - translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori brings the discussion about what is normal and what is not from the social point of view to another level. A topic I have personally very conflicting thoughts about it. Although I may accept at a great extent the deconstruction of normality, even beyomd the power-focused interpretation in Foucault´s terms, I am relatively uncomfortable with the everyday interaction with not-normality on a daily, personal basis.

´I was used with Mom saying I was hopeless. And she was right, I really was a dead loss. The rice I dished up just lay flat in the bowl instead of being nicely rounded´.

Natsuki believes she is from Planet Popinpobopia belonging to the Magic Police sent to Save the Earth. Her stuffed animal, Piyyut - see the cover - gives her magical powers. Many kids do this at a certain extent, with their imaginary friends and hopes that their stuffed animals can talk or help them when the world of adults fails them. But Natsuki keeps the same mindframe at an older age too, after being faced with an utter cruelty from her mom and killing a teacher that abused her sexually. Her escape from the Baby Factory town and mindset was to marry a man who, similarly to her, was looking to escape the social pressure. Their arrangement was to keep their separate lives while maintaining a marriage of conivence, where sexual contact was out of question. The intrusive society does not help them and they have to run away or submit and either behave properly - get a job and keep it, make children - or part ways. They run to Natsuki´s grandparents house, to join her cousin - once childhood ´husband´ Yuu, initially an alien soul too, who remained skeptical about his condition. Once becoming aware of their alien condition, the three of them are sliding into an abysmal return to their normality. Which, in Earthling´s terms means more than perfect foolishness. I´ve felt I am in a narrative deem of Peter Greenway´s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife&Her Lover. A delirious tremens...

This matter-of-factly approach of abnormality, in the vein of ´when there are no rules everything is possible to survive´/´homo homini lupus´ kind of approach, is shocking by its cruelty. In the same way that cruelty is a ´normal society´ normative. Its vital energy is used for survival only and this is probably why I am so crossed about many attributes of the characters as they are completely empty from the intellectual point of view. Intellectual life and culture too are man-made constructs indeed but they may offer sometimes a frame for discussion.

Earthlings is like no other Japanese book I´ve read before but I am not necessarily fond of. I would be interested though to read and find out more about the local, Japanese-centered discussion about the ideas shared in this book. As I said at the beginning, the more I read the more puzzled I am about Japan - even despite spending one full year there.

I...am unsure of what I just read. First, this cover implies a quirky book lies ahead, but that is not the case. This is a dark book of trauma and grief and a bunch of other stuff. A little bit of THE MAJESTIES (abusive and manipulative family) mixed with CONFESSIONS (revenge and gruesome actions). But there was something about it I never connected with.


Content warnings: all of them. Seriously. Please be careful. Emotional and physical abuse to children and adults, graphic sexual abuse of child, PTSD, suicide ideation, incest, cannibalism, graphic murder description, marital affair, and probably more stuff that I’m forgetting about.

This is by Sakaya Murata, who wrote the oddly charming Convenience Store Woman. While both novels share a certain off-beat quirkiness and both feature a protagonist who has difficulty conforming to what modern Japanese society requires of them, Earthlings is a far darker novel.

Natsuki loves her family's annual visit to her grandparents' house in the mountains. She gets to spend time with her cousins, especially Yuu, and it's where her parents' clear preference for her sister is less obvious. After buying a small stuffed hedgehog toy, Natsuki decides that he's an alien and he can teach her how to be a witch. This is necessary, since not only is her home a hostile place, her teacher is sexually abusing her. It's only her relationship with Yuu that keeps her going. When that is taken away, Natsuki must find ways to survive in a world that asks that she conform and submit.

Despite Natsuki having an imaginative and whimsical approach to the world, this is a dark story that gets darker as the story progresses, heading into Grand Guignol. There's meaty stuff here in how this novel looks at the demands of society and how it pushes people to marry and settle into a marriage within specific parameters that include procreation. Murata is revisiting the themes of Convenience Store Woman, but from a different angle and with more force. Expect to be made uncomfortable.

This is by far the strangest book I’ve ever read! I can’t even count the number of times in here that I cringed at the weirdness and went “Ewww!” but I also can’t count the number of times when I was so angry that it made my blood boil. This strange book is a mish-mash of things society doesn’t want to acknowledge and some that are so out of the world and bizarre that it makes you ask, out loud, “What the hell is going on?!”

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Gore.

Earthlings is the story of Natsuki, who has a best friend called Piyyut, a plush toy hedgehog who has told her in secret that he is from the planet Popinpobopia. He has also told her that he is here to help her save the Earth. Natsuki lives her life believing the people around her when they say she is good for nothing. Her calmness in the face of this abuse stems from the strength that she draws from her best friend, Piyyut, and her cousin Yuu. Yuu and her motto is to survive, no matter what, and Natsuki believes she will.

Natsuki is now a grown woman and living with her asexual husband and all her hopes that her family will leave her alone are dashed to the ground as they begin to pile on the pressure for her to become pregnant. Will Natsuki be able to take this pressure? Will her husband do something to help her stand firm against the pressure? What happened to Yuu and will Natsuki be able to find a way to get through to him? This forms the entire story.

There’s so much to unpack in this story that I just don’t know where to start! But let’s begin at the very beginning. (Very intelligent.)

First of all, the abuse from the parent. Oh my Lord, how can a parent be like this? I mean, I understand that there ARE people like this, sadly, but Natsuki’s mother just made me want to punch her in the face. “Useless” and “She’s always making a mess of everything” are just 2 things that the mother says about the kid! This made Natsuki feel that maybe, just maybe, her mother was right and she WAS of no use.

Second, the sexual abuse from Natsuki’s teacher. I literally gagged when I read this! And I guess it sort of reflected reality when people made him out to be some sort of angel. Even years later, when Natsuki shared it with someone she thought was a friend, that friend turned her nose up at her and blamed her for encouraging him. This made me so mad!

That’s how you know it’s a good book – it makes you mad and you sort of want to make the world into a place where these things don’t exist anymore. Does it make any sense?

The writing is simple and fluid and it makes you want to hug Natsuki and protect her from the big, bad world. And when it reflects reality like this, it makes you uncomfortable but also appreciate the book more!

The other thing that I identified with so much was the point where Natsuki talks about the world and society as a Factory to make kids. The moment you’re 22, you’re expected to get married. The moment you get married, there are people breathing down your neck to have, have, have kids. Do they even pause to understand that maybe the person doesn’t want to have kids? Or that they can’t have kids?

It’s not just the elders. Even peers tend to do that! Especially those who have had kids! I think that their intentions are good. They are of the thinking that, “I want my friend to experience the same joy that I do.” But I don’t think they stop to consider that maybe their friend doesn’t find joy in the things that you do. Or that their insistence could be harmful to their friend’s mental health. I’ve had so many friends say this to me and every single time, I go into a downward spiral because I feel in such times that my friends don’t get me at all! And that, more often than not, breaks my heart.

There’s also a narrative here about a rather patriarchal society talking about how “it’s a wife’s duty to be intimate. He finds it hard to hold down a job, so you have to support him in that regard.” If a couple is having issues conceiving, it’s the wife’s fault. If the man is having trouble performing, it’s the wife’s fault. If anything is happening, it’s the wife’s fault. If nothing is happening, it’s the wife’s fault. Because whatever the situation, it ends up being the wife’s fault, for supporting, for not supporting, for giving him free rein, for controlling too much, and for most of all, being a woman.

Because as a quote from the book goes:
"On Earth, young women were supposed to fall in love and have sex, and if they didn’t, they were “lonely” or “bored” or “wasting their youth and would regret it later!”

Us women have no value if we don’t want to do any of the things that society has “prescribed” as rules. But if a man wants to do the same thing, it’s all, “Oh, he is independent! He doesn’t want to be tied down! A bachelor living life on his own terms!” What double standards society has! And Earthlings exposes quite a few of these double standards in a way that will rightfully make you angry. And that is why it is an important book!

Please, please go read this book! It will make you cringe in places because of the graphic details in there. But read this for a slap of reality. It’s important!

This book is as potent and strange as CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN but it's also *a lot* more upsetting. (The scene where the narrator is ---- spoiler alert ----- being molested is right up there with the back-alley abortion in Purdy's EUSTACE CHISHOLM and the coprophagia in GRAVITY'S RAINBOW for "most unreadably upsetting scene I've ever read in a book that I considered good.") I think its unashamed extremity will probably cost it somewhat in terms of American readers, but Murata is a genuine original.

This was wild and disturbing but great. After suffering humiliation and abuse throughout childhood, protagonist Natsuki begins to question whether her body is her own or a tool for society, while her "alien eye" allows her to escape brainwashing to try to live life on her own terms. Murata takes a simplistic "society is a baby factory" metaphor and steeps it in absurdity with awkwardly hilarious results. The matter-of fact tone and straightforward style juxtaposed with such a dark story really worked.

To be quite honest, I loved it so much that I might buy the physical version soon!

"Survive, whatever it takes."

When I requested this book, I was thinking that this book would be a cute read. I WAS WRONG. The synopsis makes it sound a bit childlike, and it is indeed, but there's also a lot of darkness. This book is REALLY DISTURBING. Even though this book turned out to be nothing like what I expected, I can safely say that it has become one of my favorite books. Maybe something is wrong with me. Who knows?

Summary: Natsuki is a very special girl who thinks she comes from an alien planet, which would explain the powers she can sometimes summon, as well as the magical wand, mirror and small animal she has. As a child, she has a special relationship with her cousin Yuu, whom she suspects to be an alien too. Before a certain event takes place and leads to their separation, they promise to each other that they will survive, "no matter what it takes." Once she becomes a grown up, she still doesn't feel human and cannot help but be pointed out as a weird element within society.

"I was still expected to become a component for the Factory. It was like a never-ending jail sentence. I probably wouldn't ever be able to be an effective Factory component. My body was still broken, and even after becoming an adult I wasn't able to have sex."

This book uses many controversial subjects to reflect on, and criticize, society and all its requirements. But in a very special way. An interesting choice from the author is that she calls society "the Factory," one where humans do not own their bodies. It's very revealing. It was refreshing to see a character who struggles to fit in, a character who oscillates between wanting to fit in because it's simpler that way, and not particularly wanting to imitate everyone else and join into "the factory of producing children."

"Everyone believed in the factory. Everyone was brainwashed by the Factory and did as they were told. They all used their reproductive organs for the Factory and did their jobs for the sake of the Factory. My husband and I were people they'd failed to brainwash, and anyone who remained unbrainwashed had to keep up an act in order to avoid beind eliminated by the factory."

I think that this book particularly resonated with me because this is how I feel most of the time. I feel like I'm just a pawn on a board which I cannot fully control. It might be stupid since I am privileged in so many ways, but still, I very often feel like I don't belong in this society. Like I'm from somewhere else, and I am constantly trying to survive by fitting in somehow. This pervasive feeling of entrapment in the book is very well touched on because it really leads the readers to question their own freedom. We all have different ways of perceiving freedom, and this is a constant questioning in Earthlings. Suicide can be seen as an attempt to gain freedom for example.

At some point this quest for freedom takes a very peculiar form and will most probably be shocking to read for most people. But I liked it because it constantly made me re-evaluate my priorities, made me wonder about the ways a human could detach himself/herself from the Factory. It's all about survival after all.

"But since then I've stopped hearing the commands that controlled my life. I no longer know what to do or how to live. Obeying those silent orders was how I had always survived."

Not going to go too much into details, but the protagonist goes through multiple traumatic experiences and I thought that the author wrote about PTSDs very well. As stated before, this book is written in a very special way. Just like the synopsis, this book is written in almost a childlike manner at times, which makes it easier for the readers to accept what they read. There is a constant ambiguity between the real world and a magical world which is perceptible almost only by the protagonist. It makes it easier to get over some things that happen to her - because of the distance that it creates between the readers and the narrator - but it doesn't make it any less impactful.

One last thing: I would suggest giving this book a chance if you think you can stomach it! This book is truly one of a kind.

I did not expect this to be one of the darkest books I've read in a while. But it was! From the cover and the description, I expected something light and almost childish. I really liked Convenience Store Woman and was thinking this would be similar or even sillier. It definitely works with the same themes, criticizing the pressures of society from an almost-alien view (made more explicit here, with a planet Popinpobopia where the characters believe they're from). But it pins it to abuse, specifically child abuse. That kind of backstory would make sense of the disconnectedness in Convenience Store Woman, though it's not the only way to explain hating normality. The abuse in this book is wrenching and explicit, almost to the point where I thought it needed more of a warning than what's given in the description. Natsuki, the protagonist, is first a girl and then a woman who's experienced people breaking their basic commitment to care for her. Thus she has no respect for them or the system they come from, which she calls "the Factory"-- the norms of compulsory heteronormative babymaking and capitalist productivity. The story follows her on a journey through a number of taboos--child sexuality, abuse, incest, murder, cannibalism. She ultimately finds a husband who thinks like her. Since they both don't trust the ethics of normal society, they adopt a view of thinking about how to live as if they were aliens, purely from reason. What I like about Murata is that she creates these extremely alienated characters but then finds believable companions for them (even if that makes both of them alienated). The story builds to a pretty jaw-dropping (ok you may think that's a bad metaphor when you get there) ending, but at least Natsuki doesn't end up alone.

This is such an insanely strange book. I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like this before in my life. This is very different from Convenience Store Woman but the exquisite writing is still there so there should be no fear about the quality of writing.

This is also a very troubling book, if you are concerned with how you’ll handle a book with a lot of sexual abuse, proceed with caution. Though it has very dark moments there are also really good and funny moments. I’m not going to lie, I really believe this is an important book that asks some interesting questions.

Can I say I truly enjoyed it? Well, no not really. It’s incredibly written, it pulls you in but it was an incredibly difficult read for me. Three stars for me.

This book is one crazy ride...you are never sure what is going to happen next. With incest, abuse and cannibalism as major themes there isn't much Murata leaves out. The fact that it is told in such a vulnerable voice means it stays with you long after you are finished reading.

<b>What an absolute mind fuck.</b>

Just absolutely raucously outrageous.

I can’t even really explain the plot without getting too into spoilers, so I’m just going to suggest that if you are a fan of super weirdness— read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Grove press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

That was incredibly uncomfortable, and I freaking loved it!

Murata’s take on groupthink/conformity and society is always refreshing, but she really takes it to a whole other planet in Earthlings. Unlike Convenience Store Woman, where these darker themes and parallels are drawn in an almost enchanting and humorous way, the tone of Earthlings is pretty grim and disquieting—maybe even gratuitously so.

Fans of Murata will enjoy this one, just prepare for it to be nothing like you expected.

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the weirdest things I've ever read.

I loved Convenience Store Woman, and have been excited for this ever since I heard about it. Murata does not disappoint in the slightest with this witty yet bizarre look at what it feels like to not belong, but from an outsiders perspective. Japan appears, from what I know, a country and a culture that values rules and structure. The characters in Earthlings also value this, but just not all the rules all the time, nor the structure that seems to imprison them within the system. I love the description of everyday life, and of the heteronormative societal expectations, as a factory, with people simply parts in the machinery that keep the factory running, and loved the commentary provided about breaking free of this routine.

If you enjoyed Convenience Store Woman, or are a fan of Murata's simple yet beautiful prose, this is one for you. Just don't expect the gentleness of previous books. This one is very, very weird.

Earthlings is the sole evidence needed to demonstrate that Sayaka Murata is not an author you pigeonhole. Murata’s newest novel, out Oct. 1, explores dark and disturbing matters, weaving a web of themes connecting sexual abuse, rape, grooming, incest, cannibalism, gender-based violence and murder. These topics are rooted in a sexist society based in the topography of Japan, centered around protagonist Natsuki’s response to constantly experiencing a complete lack of bodily autonomy, a consequence of living in a world in which earthlings serve to form a “Baby Factory.”

The first third of Murata’s work is dedicated to the voice of ten-year old Natsuki’s experience of first love (albeit incestuous) which is simultaneously surrounded by repeated childhood abuse. I have not suspended my disbelief and been so utterly convinced by a child narrator’s voice since Emma Donoghue’s Room. I was amazed by how childhood fantasies merged with Natsuki’s disturbing reality in these early pages, and I marvelled at Natsuki’s physical and mental strength in the face of horrific acts no child or adult should ever experience.

Continuously awed and aghast, this voice then underpins the remainder of the novel as the reader stays with Natsuki into her thirties and witnesses how she still exists in a somewhat dissociative state following the bodily trauma she experienced at a young age. This book is a distressing read, there is no other way to put it. The blurb associated with this novella does not provide an inch of warning for the reading experience that awaits you.

The rest of the novel is steeped in surprise, shock and horror. There are intense moments of magical realism, bewildering twists that lead the reader to question every aspect of morality. The latter half of the book reminds me greatly of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, especially as Murata’s protagonist splits away from societal norms and dedicates herself to an alternate reality.

Overall, this book is illustrative of Murata’s creative prowess in literature. I loved the Convenience Store Woman for Murata’s sparse way of storytelling and heartfelt commitment to sharing the lived experience of a woman who did not want to fit in, but tried to anyway. I love Earthlings for its demonstration of a woman who will not fit in as a direct consequence of everything that is wrong with the way women are treated, especially in the context of sex. Please read this incredible novel, but only if you are prepared for what lies ahead!

Thank you to #Netgalley, #GrovePress and #SayakaMurata for this #ARC.

Natsuki is a six-grade Japanese girl who is berated by her parents and sister. She finds comfort in her cousin, Yuu, who she only gets to see in the summers at her grandparents' house. The book started out extremely dark with graphic details of sexual abuse by a teacher. Then Natsuki feels that the best way to reclaim her body is to have sex with her cousin (this scene is also graphic). The book then moves ahead to when Natsuki is grown and in an asexual marriage. Both she and her husband believe that they are aliens stuck on earth with no hope of returning to their home planet. The book continues to get even weirder. I read Murata's Convenience Store Woman and loved that book. You can see similarities with that book with the view on asexual marriage, children and flawed characters. But with Earthlings, it was hard getting through the gratuitous sex scenes involving 12 year olds. Therefore I could not give it more than a 3 star rating. I would like to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up

“Earthlings baffled me.”

That’s a direct quote from the book and that’s exactly my reaction after reading this book. I mean, what did I just read??? I am a huuuuuge fan of Convenience Store Woman (CSW), but this, this is a whole different ballgame altogether. Earthlings was WEIRD. Like ABSOLUTELY, UTTERLY WEIRD & BIZARRE.

Meet Natsuki, an 11-year-old girl. She had a wand and a transformation mirror. She believed she had magical powers bestowed upon her by her friend, a cute hedgehog plush toy, whom she named Piyyut, sent down from Planet Poppinpobopin to save planet Earth from a crisis.

Natsuki didn’t have a happy childhood. Her wild imaginations were her coping mechanism and her way of escaping her world. Her family verbally and mentally abused her, and in school her teacher sexually abused her. She told her mother about it, but her mother accused her of having a filthy mind, and that “you’re the dirty one, not him.”

She only looked forward to her summer holidays in the mountains, Akashina, where her grandparents lived, a place far enough from home, where she could feel safe. There, she’d be able to spend time with the person she loved most, her cousin Yuu, whose mother called an alien. Soon they both believed they were aliens from Planet Poppinpobopia and were meant to be together. Forever. Until something happened and tore them apart.

They didn’t meet again till two decades later, Natsuki then 34, made a trip there with her husband Tomoya, who also believed he was an alien. They were only husband and wife on paper, but they were nothing like a couple. They slept separately and weren’t physically intimate. They divided household chores equally and ate separately, but they were happy.

When they met Yuu, Natsuki saw that he had changed and was turning himself into an Earthling; functioning as one of society’s tools and was doing what was expected of him to survive. He even advised Natsuki to start acting like others because “...once they think you’re strange, life will get really hard for you.”

Natsuki feared that Yuu would soon forget who he actually was - an alien like her, alienated from the society. Her husband shared the same sentiments too and decided all of them shouldn’t fall into the trappings of the Factory (the society) and becoming one of their tools. He urged them all to escape and live by themselves in Akashina.

Reading about Natsuki reminded me a little about Keiko in CSW, who shared the same dilemmas as her. They both struggled living in a society that forced them to conform; they were being pushed beliefs and cultures that they didn’t believe in. They both tried to fit in but failed miserably and weren’t happy, more so for Natsuki who had been abused by people who were supposed to love her. Her body was hers but never felt like hers - she was forced to do things against her will, she was physically hurt and was to believe that she deserved it, and now that she was married she was expected to have a baby.

Everything in Earthlings was what I’d expected from Muraka, until towards the end when the weird got weirder. And the scenes got even more graphic to the point of extreme. I cringed a lot, gasped a lot, and said WTH a lot, and my eyebrows were perpetually raised until they got tired.

At the ending, I didn’t know to just laugh it off or ponder on the absurdity of it! I get the message but the delivery of it shocked me. Even if Muraka was going for the shock factor, I thought this was a little too much. I’m beginning to wonder what goes on in her mind.

And, this book is loaded with trigger warnings too. Definitely not for the faint-hearted!

That said, I did ‘enjoy’ the first three quarter of the book, as it evoked a lot of emotions - there were heartbreaking moments and also tender and hopeful ones especially between Natsuki and Yuu. Tomoya was quite a character too! Loved his devil-may-care attitude!

And it did make me ponder on how cruel and monstrous the society can be, how we can turn our world into a living hell, and how alienating we can be towards those who aren’t like us.

If you’re intrigued, go ahead, read it. But don’t say you haven’t been warned! I don’t know, it might make a good Halloween read! Yes, the more I think about it, the more I believe it. A good Halloween read it is! Is that good or bad? You decide. But I’m recommending it to some of my friends as I’m curious to know their thoughts on it!

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Press for the opportunity to read and review the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

Earthlings was a wild ride! I don’t think the blurb really did the novel justice – it was much darker and more complex than I anticipated. The plot features child abuse and sexual assault. I think that these issues are handled tactfully and purposefully, but it is something to keep in mind as you are planning your reading. This book is not for the faint of heart!

*Light spoilers* Natsuki is a lonely little girl from a cold family, but she bonds with her male cousin, Yuu, whom she sees for a family get together every summer in a remote part of Japan. After Natsuki is raped by her schoolteacher, she is unable to connect to others in a “normal” sexual or romantic way. She meets and marries a man online – a purely transactional relationship – and together they retreat into a childish fantasy world, seemingly genuinely convinced that they are aliens at odds with their “baby factory” society. Later in life, Yuu is also crumbling under societal pressures, and the three of them live together a bizarre compound at Natsuki and Yuu’s family home.

Earthlings has a lot in common with Sayaka Murata’s previous novel Convenience Store Woman. Both protagonists are quirky women who are unwilling/unable to meet society’s expectation of them as wives and mothers. Natsuki of Earthlings has a much more tragic and flushed out backstory. This book is often difficult to read, but I think it has a lot of important things to say about morality and the impact of childhood abuse on the adult psyche. The book alternates between tragic and darkly comic but is always compulsively readable.

This book is insane! I love the humor of in the writing. Murata is amazing and this latest release of hers should be in everyone's reading list right now!

I very much enjoyed "Convenience Store Woman". I got the message, of course, but most especially enjoyed some of the wordplay and the stray and random, but pointed and arresting, musings by the heroine. In this followup of sorts Murata amps everything up to 11 and goes darker and more dangerous. Is that better? That's your call, I preferred the more restrained and modulated tone of the first book.

"My body is not my own."

I'm speechless and my stomach is in knots. The social commentary in this book, about the expectations and pressures society puts on people, and how people put those pressures on each other, is delivered so matter-of-factly and dealt with so aggressively that it heightens disturbing events to a level of disturbing I didn't think was possible. And THAT ENDING, what the hell?! Murata does not hold back.

This novel is so incredibly weird, devastatingly sad, and deeply distressing, and then the ending got gruesome and even WEIRDER. This would make a good pick for the bravest of book clubs, because you would have endless things to talk about, and you're either going to want to talk about those things or run the hell away and hide.

TW: childhood emotional and physical abuse, parentification, molestation, incest, rape, derealization and depersonalization, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, murder, cannibalism, graphic violence

NOTE: Despite book descriptions that say Natsuki's husband is asexual, there is no ace rep here. Choosing celibacy is not the same thing, and in the book, Natsuki specifically states her husband is heterosexual. It seems like some non-ace folks in marketing used their own inaccurate stereotypes and misunderstandings when they wrote up the book's description.