[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Vanishing World releases April 15, 2025

1.5

In the world that Amane has grown up in, the societal norm is to conceive a child by artificial insemination. Subsequently, marriage is viewed as a shared platonic benefit between two people who become each other’s family, and to copulate or have any type of romantic love would be “dirty” and defined as incest.

This was quite a peculiar and thought-provoking read that left me feeling very conflicted.

The examination of the boundaries and separation of procreation, romantic love, and sexual desire was interesting, but the thought processes were often too clinical and repetitive, and I couldn’t get a grasp on a lot of the worldbuilding.
For instance, how could they be so progressive as to scientifically create a womb so that men are able to conceive, yet be against same-sex marriage, when their marriages are glorified versions of roommates that act as a brother/sister dynamic?
What is the point of encouraging love affairs outside of marriages when it leads to nothing? The relationships will always remain stagnant when the society doesn’t allow for a future with that person.

The constant referral of having “clean love” and the connotation behind that really rubbed me the wrong way, but ultimately, what I couldn’t overlook was the disturbing nature of the final scene in which the main character carried out an act of pedophilia.
I truly do not understand why the story had to end on such a sour note when the author could’ve shown the repercussions of conformity and suppressing natural instincts in a much more palatable way.

There’s no denying that Murata opens a door to provide commentary on social constructs, the value placed on women and their reproductive organs, and how we define intimacy, familial structures, and parasocial relationships, but the abruptly gratuitous ending almost negates all of that entirely.

cw: mentions of self-harm, attempted suicide, fatphobia, miscarriages, sexual coercion, pedophilia

Almost a perfect execution of a wacko idea—completely demolished by the ending.

<i>Normality is the creepiest madness there is.</i>

Amane, the protagonist, lives in a world evolving away from the family unit as artificial insemination becomes the norm. The plot follows her love life incessantly (with detached, clinical wording) and leans more into the scifi genre in the third part of the book, which is really the "good" part, for lack of a better word. The book is pretty short, full of sardonic humor and wry insights, and a surrealist plot. The ending is extreme and exists to drive home a point. Consider it driven, and consider me repulsed.

<i>Is there any such thing as a brain that hasn’t been brainwashed? If anything, it’s easier to go insane in the way best suited for your world.”</i>

I'd recommend this to people who have a high, <i>giant</i> tolerance for unconventional plots and for major triggers. Think Kazuo Ishiguro or Haruki Murakami, but weirder. It raises so many questions about intimacy, conformity, and social taboos that I really liked, but chooses difficult plot points to go along with this. I'm conflicted about this book, so I'll leave this at 3 stars.

Anyway, thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!

I enjoyed the author’s first two books but this one didn’t hit for me. An interesting premise taken to extremes and without much besides the initial concept to speak of.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC copy of the book.

This is a dystopian story set in Japan with a main emphasis on procreation, but with a different way that society views that topic. This story was gripping and I had a lot of insightful thoughts while reading it. I've read Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings which were both really good, so I was very excited to read this one. I love Murata's writing and how the stories go at a slower pace, but they are unputdownable.

An unsettling depiction of a world in which people are no longer convinced naturally, sleeping with your spouse considered incest, and being sexual at all is a rarity.

I found the usual quick and succinct writing the author used to keep the characters and plot at arms length which may have been the point. If it had been my first murata book I would have thought it neat but as I have read from her before I question if their writing is just not for me if it will always be written in this style. Many of the themes were very similar to earthlings but less disturbing while still being unsettling. I felt like I wanted to know more about the setting of the second half of the book which was far more interesting. And I had no idea what the motivations for the main character was with some of her actions in the end.

Vanishing World is all about the perspective of our main character Amane Sakaguchi. She is an outcast in this scifi version of our world where sexual intercourse has become superfluous due to advances in the field of artificial insemination, and sex between husband and wife is even viewed as incest.

“I get the feeling there’s always a set number of people who don’t really fit into society, whatever system is in place, and that percentage is always about the same.”

This book grabbed me pretty much from the start. While the writing can feel a bit stunted at times due to the nature of translation, the world is unique and the character of Amane while unlikeable is fascinating. I enjoyed the exploration of quintessential, current Japanese issues. Vanishing World seems like an echo of and response to what is happening in Japan regarding the ageing population, declining birthrates due to the detachment of sexual and romantic attraction. The dystopian narrative also comments on the still existing wage gap between men and women, and the (lack of) legality of same sex marriage in Japan.

"Having been made to suffer by the religion of romantic love, we wanted to be saved by the religion of family. If we could succeed in truly brainwashing our entire bodies, I had the feeling we could finally forget romantic love."

Though the world-building is an important aspect of the story, the narrative mostly focuses on the inner world of Amane. We quickly learn that she is an odd person in more than one way. Amane isn't the product of artificial insemination like her peers, she has the desire to connect sexually with others, and she has a persuasive, bordering on coercive, personality. Her multi-faceted personality makes for an intriguing character study throughout.

Now we come to the philosophical aspect of the book. While there are some aspects of polyamory to be found with the distinction between 'lovers' and 'family', I would have loved to see this be pushed just a little further. Vanishing World also falls into the trap of gender essentialism, and conflates romantic and sexual attraction. There is some exploration of determinism throughout the book in regards to Amane's behaviour. We can also see some similarities to Brave New World when it comes to Experiment City. Important recurring themes are the definition of normality and conformity to the current society one is living in. While I thought some interesting points were brought up regarding this, where this ultimately led left me shocked and disgusted.

"I wanted to yell at her that the world she believed was right was only one point on the spectrum between the past and present."

As you can see there are actually quite a few aspects that I appreciate about Vanishing World. I finished this book in just two days because I was enthralled by it. However the ending could only lead me to give this book 1 star. I do not condone and am not interested in reading about the romanticization and justification of incestuous and paedophiliac thoughts and actions. The last few pages left me absolutely horrified and wishing I hadn't read them.

"Whichever world I’m in, it drives me nuts to think I’m perfectly normal. Normal is the most terrifying madness in the world."

Vanishing World might be your next favourite read if you enjoy explorations of current topics within Japanese society set in a scifi world. The book is an interesting character study. Beware that this story features and in ways romanticizes incestuous and paedophiliac thoughts and actions.

TW include but are not limited to: sexual coercion, paedophilia, fatphobia, incest.

Sayaka Murata did an unbelievable job creating this world in which societal norms are wildly different from our own. In this alternate reality, sex with your spouse is unheard of, relationship dynamics are turned on their heads, and advancements in medicine allow for humans to switch up the only way of the world we knew. It was fascinating to watch Amane’s idea of family transform from what she thought it should be based on what she was taught to what she herself wanted it to be. Her thoughts on love and companionship were relatable, but became a little outrageous at one point. Even with this, I was enraptured with this world the author built. I wish we were given more on the ending, but when an author leaves you wanting more of a finished story, they did their job well. Cannot wait to see what other weirdness Sayaka Murata can create.

This book is…well…interesting.

It’s disturbing really. I mean the fact that this society is nearly asexual is not the disturbing part but how it went from one extreme, hypersexualization, to the other extreme. Sure the author critiques the customs and societal development of Japan, but it nevertheless, unsettles me.

I have a hard time reading about so much judgment. It’s probably a thought that I had hoped would change for the better. That we would become less judgmental and more accepting. But in this book everything that we know as normal is not and having sex with your husband is called incest. People take lovers to “feel love” and have them around their spouse, that’s interesting. It is polyamory but I guess a bit more extreme as one person is only the companion and then there is a lover.

Some characters also seem to be looking down on families in general and marriage, which in this book is just a friendship really but also like siblinghood…so incest it is. While this of course is all possible and it’s an interesting scenario it just made me feel more uncomfortable than I want to while reading for pleasure. Quite frankly this is also luckily a scenario I do not think plausible for the future.

I do find it interesting how the concept of love is regarded in this book; as something to do outside the home, something nearly frowned upon, something to run away from. Once the protagonists enter Experiment City, it just reduces love to an interesting extreme and in general, the entire narrative just gets so much more absurd and disturbing. Clinical really.

And the ending? WTF!!!

Unfortunately the book is way too repetitive for me even if I connected at all with the narrative. Probably just not my cup of tea.

I love my weird girlies, but I didn't connect with Amane. She has an obsession with penetration, but I wished there was more space to develop her finding pleasure. There is more to sex than penetration and I would have loved to see her finding her own world with like-minded people and their weird kinks. I also internally screamed when she broke up with someone just because he didn't want to have sex with her anymore. I'm aware this book is written in a different time and place, but a reader can dream.

Thank you NetGalley and for giving me access to an e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was the second of Sayaka Murata’s books that I’ve read (after Convenience Store Woman) and I really enjoyed it. It asks a lot of questions and really made me think about the future of humanity, our attitudes to scientific advancement and human nature. It also raised a lot of interesting points about our current attitudes to gender and relationships. I did find it a little confusing at points, but I thought the central premise was really interesting and a good companion/response to other similar books (raises similar themes to The Handmaid’s Tale for example). It made me deeply uncomfortable at times (particularly the end), but that’s all part of the Sayaka Murata vision I guess!

Sayaka Murata isn't known to shy away from the controversial and uncomfy to tell a story and this book is no different.

Set in a dystopian world where love and sex aren't necessary to procreate and seen gross to society. Family is very important to society and if you do want love you must seek it from a fictional source or outside the family, essentially your spouse is not a romantic role anymore, but that of a sibling.

Amane is unlike her society, she's always sought out lovers to meet her needs and loves her platonic life with her husband. When the opportunity arises for her and her husband to travel to an experimental society where even the family is no longer a thing and all children are raised communally and almost robotically, they take it. Both Amane and her husband long for a baby and they vow to raise that baby themselves, going against the rules of the experiment.

But as the couple drift apart and drink the koolaid, Amane loses herself and her grip on reality and what she's always valued.

An exploration of humanity and our need for each other and love and community to thrive. What are we if we aren't the people we love? Do we even have souls if we remove our connection to others.

Viewing children and people through the lens of what comfort can they give me, the individual, and viewing them as less than pets.

This is a terrifying and confronting look at what society could look like if we tear apart the fabric of community and family.

The ending could've been flushed out more, which is why it's not a four star book for me.

I also recognise that this book depicts gross scenes, the culmination of Amane's grief and mental break is especially confronting. This won't be a book for everyone, but I do think it makes sense for Amane to act that way.

Overall I really enjoyed the way this book made me contemplate societal norms, the creeping dystopia, and what ultimately makes us human.

I went into this expecting a weird little book but it ended up being waaay more thought provoking than I was expecting.

Raises such interesting questions/thoughts on the nuclear family, fitting in, sexuality, sexual repression, societal expectations, parenthood, marriage, different ways of living, and much more while incorporating them into a completely unique premise.

I feel like this is Murata’s most fleshed out book yet and I’m so excited to see what she publishes in future!

“And you aren’t brainwashed? Is there any such thing as a brain that hasn’t been brainwashed? If anything, it’s easier to go insane in the way best suited for your world.”

Sayaka Murata is known for her interesting explorations of societal norms, and Vanishing World is a speculative book that dives into shifting norms pertaining to family, intimacy, love, and sex. Our protagonist lives in a world where spouses are almost akin to siblings, and cohabitation to form a family unit is strictly platonic. Copulation is considered to be taboo, and the ideas of love and sex have been shaken up and reimagined. Normalized intimacy happens with fictional characters, and it is rare for humans to form physical attachments to other real people.

We experience these shifts in perspective from the eyes of the protagonist, Amane, who prides herself with being normal while also having interests and desires often found outside the current norm. As time progresses, we feel the discomfort of this society’s ideals as well as Amane’s tendency to manipulate and coerce her lovers as she further detaches from reality.

There is so much commentary to ponder in this book, and a lot of it involves sitting in the uncomfortable. Some heavy topics are discussed that include physical intimacy, ideas about using others for one’s self gratification, family structures and familial bonds, taboos and how they evolve over time, and how technology can be useful but how it can also lead us away from community and toward isolation.

At times the writing was so visceral that I felt a bit queasy, and other scenes were incredibly eerie to think about. I did feel like the ending was quite abrupt. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but some very unhinged choices were made that gave me the ick but somehow also felt in line with Amane’s character. While I obviously don’t condone her behavior, I wish we’d had a bit…more… leading up to those decisions so the conclusion didn’t feel quite so hasty.

This book is bizarre. It has some great social commentary, and it feels dystopian without having that gnawing sense of doom and destruction dystopian books often have. But it also has very visceral descriptions of body parts and bodily functions that seem to be there for the sake of discomfort. Also, I’d suggest checking out the content warnings, but know those content warnings may contain spoilers.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced ebook!

Bizarre and creative, Sayaka Murata created a world wearing an utopian façade, rooted deep in the slimy darkness of a dystopian society that lost its traces of humanity from it, sucking the individualism out of people, molding them into copies of one prototype- THE MOTHER.

Occurring in a parallel reality Japan, due to the lack of civilian men during WW2, artificial insemination became a norm, and science grew up refining this technique and, on the way, redefining the concept of sex, family, love, and the philosophy of belonging. brainwashed into extremity, the new society believes love and sex are unnecessary and the traditions practice of copulation is primitive and gross. the definition of incest has turned around, now making it impossible for a husband and wife to have sexual intercourse, because by law, they are FAMILY.

My brain was on a perpetual state of dilemma when i read this book and at the same time, i thoroughly enjoyed it too. throwing in such a fascinating theory where married couple live like siblings and people having explicit relationships with anime characters was indeed a new thing to me. This grotesque nature of the novel is the catch, i should believe. Though creating a new world that has no attributions to the current society, Murata definitely added quaint societal norms existing within the Japanese community into this book, making it a pseudo-realistic society that i would never wish to live in!

As Amane, the protagonist, first resisted the psychotic charm of the 'collective oneness' of the new society, her slowly falling into the rabbit hole and getting sucked up into the whirlpool never made me doubt that this cannot happen in real life. The author had done a great job at crafting the novel to be convincing, even when it questions the morality of the reader. As she, her husband, and the entire population slowly descends into the utopian madness, the reader and Amane's mother exist as helpless audience.

"Normality is the creepiest madness there is. This was all insane, yet it was so right", said Amane. She became the transient line, the border between individuality and oneness, she became the question mark aimed at the reader- to choose their side. whether to live on the "OTHER SIDE" or to pet the "KODOMO-CHANS".

And obviously the explicit scenes were a bit too gross but yeah, it's the trademark of Japanese literature, can't say anything about it-

Thanks to GROVE ATLANTIC and NetGalley for sending me the Advance Reader Copy!!!

”Normality is the creepiest madness there is.”

Amane spent her early childhood in a house full of red things, full of books about princesses meeting princes, and her mother always saying ”Amane, you too will one day fall in love, get married, and have children, just like Mommy and Daddy.” The author makes it sound chilling.
This is because we are in a world where sexuality is being slowly taken away from people. Children are only conceived by artificial insemination. Some people still have sex, but the done thing is to be in love with anime and manga characters.

Let’s imagine how such a society would function, how people would think, talk, act. There is so much weirdness that the effect is almost comical… but in a disturbing way. We are looking at deeper questions, of course.
Who controls your sexuality? You? The society? Totalitarian societies love to control people’s sexuality, don’t they? Aren’t we all brainwashed, one way or another, no matter what society we live in?

As the book progresses, and Amane’s world changes yet again, madness creeps in more and more. In the end, it seems that there is nothing but madness left.

”The very idea of a married couple having sex, it’s horrifying!”

”You are the only family I have in this world. You are the one person I can never fall in love with.”

”We humans were always changing. Whichever world we were brainwashed by, we didn’t have the right to judge others based on the ideas we had been inculcated with.”

This book might not appeal to every reader, but I like what Sayaka Murata does to literature.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

Sayaka Murata's "Vanishing World" offers a fascinating look into a possible future where sex is obsolete, romance and family take on new meanings, and pregnancy/the birth rate is--more than ever--everyone's business. I enjoyed the novel's fast pace, effective worldbuilding without info-dumping, and the themes and dilemmas raised, the latter of which are ever more relevant considering the climate of today's world. However, I think the execution could be more impactful by exploring more nuances and topics, as the book's scope is currently quite narrow and one-toned, shoehorning only certain aspects of childbirth, sex and love repeatedly without delving into more depth. Overall, this is an interesting book but no doubt not everyone will enjoy it.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is wacky, weird, wild. So basically, everything I was expecting from a book by Murata.

Vanishing World follows Amane as she muddles through life - in a world where sex between husband and wife is incest, and babies are conceived via IVF. Murata's critical and exaggerated observance of one of life's "natural" aspects is always well thought out and considered, while having the uncanny ability to gross you out.

I found the points a little repetitive and the writing was perhaps a bit slow in parts of the book, but overall I enjoyed this more than Earthlings
(but not as much as Convenience Store Woman).

Thanks NetGalley for the eArc of this book. All opinions are my own.

I read Convenience Store Woman by the same author a few years back, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to delve into in this book. We follow a dystopian world where our understanding of family is that of the old. Without spoiling too much, we see the main character struggle to adapt her instincts to the new normal that is taking shape in society. I found the discussions surrounding character/anime idolization to be quite interesting. I would say this book is not for the weak - it's wacky, weirder than you would think and I've honestly never read anything like this. I see myself comparing it to certain scenes we see in 1Q84 by Murakami (ifykyk) but everything seems magnified and exaggerated (not necessarily in a bad way) in this book. Although I was kind of put off in the beginning, I started getting more and more fascinated by this world the author has created and was fully invested by the end. A rollercoaster of a book if I ever saw (or well... read) one.

Sayaka Murata, you’ve done it again! Ever since my first read of Life Ceremony (one of my favorite short story collections of all time), I have an eye out for anything she’s written that is translated to English. This is certainly not for everyone, not for the faint of heart but if you love freaky dystopian novels with strange unconventional characters, I urge you to get your hands on a copy when it releases. Easily gonna be one of my favorite releases this year. Highly enjoyed highly recommended!

Massive thank you to Grove Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

I feel that Sayaka Murata goes deeper into the same themes with each book. However, much like Earthlings, I found the final pages particularly gross and unnecessary. I liked most of this story, her writing style is compulsive and makes for a quick read, with interesting thoughts about normality, society and technological advancements. I just wish she hadn't gone there with those final pages, literally why?

With thanks to the publisher for a NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review.