First published in 2015, Vanishing World feels more relevant now than ever. Amane navigates a world where copulation is a dying act, replaced by artificial insemination, where marriage isn't tied to romance, and where being in a relationship with fictional characters is as common, if not more popular, than being with a real person.

Tackling Japan's (and surprise, the entire world's) declining birthrate, isolation, and unhealthy parasocial relationships, Murata deconstructs the most basic unit of society: family, questioning what truly binds it - love.

What is the point of interacting with each other when you can have the same result - sexual gratification, the feeling of community - from something so planned it could not go wrong? Why attach feelings to a natural bodily function?

Murata's prose is simple, clinical, but that detachment adds weight to the emptiness the book portrays, tearing apart our notion of what makes a person human, a couple, and a family what it is, picking it apart and labeling it unclean like medical waste. In its lack of inflection, I felt more - because how dare you present something so hollow when it demands more heart?

Vanishing World is an off-kilter tale about an era in decline, a shifting paradigm, a return to paradise-where we shed everything that came with eating the forbidden fruit: knowledge, desire, individuality, pain. As the gates of Eden open once more, it asks only one thing of you: your sense of self. Are you willing to give it up?

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the review copy.

I didn’t enjoy this one. I loved the concept, hated the execution.
We didn’t even get to Experiment City until 46% of the book, which is the part I was most interested in.
We were in the MC's head, getting her thoughts a lot and I wanted to be out in the world more.
It was repetitive, the characters kept saying the same things over and over again!!
The ending was absolutely disgusting. I'm all for shock value, even if its disgusting. But this was unnecessary to the story and just appalling. And with the rest of the book not being that great for me, it made the ending even worse for me. 2 stars because I loved the concept and it did have some cool dystopian moments. But overall, it was a no from me dawg. DISAPPOINTING!!!

This was interesting but not as good as Convenience Store Woman. I like that the author comes up with such different ideas. This book is bizarre in that people do not have sex and it is seen as incest. Babies are made by IVF. The main character struggles with the way things are. If you like strange weird books that make you think this one's for you.

This was interesting. The translation wasn’t as great and the format could use some work. The story of this dystopian world…. Sexless marriage and concern with how the relationships are.

Vanishing World is an immersive work of speculative fiction set in a dystopian version of a world very similar to ours, where humanity lacks sexual desire, and reproduction is controlled by a central government.

I've always admired how Sayaka Murata challenges the concepts of family and society's basic structures. Her brand of horror isn't about gore or violence; it's about the bizarre and unthinkable, like how flimsy the foundations of our sense of morality can be. I highly recommend this book. Big thanks for the ARC access.

"Sex and love will soon disappear altogether. Now that babies are all made by artificial insemination, there's no need to go to all that trouble."

"Normality is the creepiest madness there is. This was all insane, yet it was so right."

Wouldn't it be convenient if we lived in a world where love and sex were just dusty institutions of the old days? Where we don't have to be burdened by dating and copulation and all the dirty, messy things that love requires?

"...the family system is an unsuitable method of reproduction for highly intelligent animals. In Paradise-Eden everyone is the child of all humankind, and everyone the mother of all humankind...By controlling their lifestyle, each child can be raised to be an outstanding, capable human resource."

Amane is the only person she knows who was conceived by parents indoctrinated by the cult of love and copulation, rather than by artificial insemination. She is humiliated to be a child of what is now considered incest - sex between married partners. Committed to ridding herself of the curse of her desire for real people, she focuses on her acceptable anime lovers and her appropriately sexless marriage.

Soon, Amane and her husband move to the tidy city of Paradise-Eden, where children are raised nameless by the collective Mother, and where men AND women have the freedom to make babies without the old-fashioned weight of family, marriage, sex, or individualized children. Despite the voice in her head that tells her it's all very strange and unnatural, Amane learns to embody a good, doting Mother to the adorable Kodomo-chans who are raised meticulously in this ever-evolving new world, and rid herself of her old ways.

"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."

What if our desire to be "normal", to fit in to the evolving society around us, could supersede our human instincts? What pieces of humanity are we willing to let vanish, for comfort and convenience?

Filing this book under "What....the fuck??", "Dystopian No-No's" and "Uncomfortably Unhinged".

"Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! we Mothers all said, and the Kodomo-chan in my arms smiled."

3 ⭐️. idk if it was the translation or story, but this read very clunky. I overall enjoyed the concept of the story but felt like the characters were forced and distant.

ty to Grove Press and NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata has got to be one of the most weirdest takes of nature vs nuture I have ever witnessed. In Murata fashion, this book is short, it's strange, it's wild, and full of tabboo subjects (please check trigger warning).

As always, I love her writing style and this book wasn't terrible. It sadly is my least favorite of her's so far. There was some pacing issues (specifically part 2) and lots of talking, I wanted more action. It also was very repetitive. But it was short and still readable as Murata's books always are.

This book is all it into 3 parts and all were a wild ride.
Part 1 was strange but intriguing.
Part 2 was boring and cringey.
Part 3 was all WTF and made my head spin (it was great).

I recommend only if you like strange books and are perhaps are familiar with Murata's writing.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest feedback. I am honored to be able to get the chance to read a Sayaka Murata book early. It means a lot.

Sayaka Murata always proposes interesting ideas in her novels and Vanishing World is no exception. In a world where societal norms around sex and conception have completely changed, our narrator provides a glimpse into how she copes with accepting these new norms when her mother taught her the old ways of having a family ever since childhood. While I thought the concept of this novel was interesting, overall I found the text to be repetitive, flat, and never fully fleshed out.

Thank you NetGalley & Grove Atlantic for the digital ARC! 🫶🏽

We follow Aname, a young woman living in Tokyo. Her mother had her ‘the old way’ – through sex instead of artificial insemination – which has always made her feel like the odd one out in a world where sex and love-marriages are disappearing.

We explore the world Murata creates through the lens of a young woman, and it reads a bit like Convenience Store Woman. My experience reading it got an extra dimension, as I was travelling through Japan while reading it, and its people and culture have been topic of discussion a lot lately.

As we know (and love) Sayaka Murata, there is a clear tone of critique on Japan’s society throughout the book, which is felt by the exploration of the topics of family, the family system, sex and asexuality and going against the grain. I love Murata’s writing style and I blew through this, so would definitely recommend if you’re up for a read that will leave you thinking about it afterwards. It’s not as absurd as Earthlings or Life Ceremony, so perhaps for the Murata-explorers who don’t vibe with the absurdity all too well.

Vanishing world by Sayaka Murata

This book was giving to me from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, so thank you so much to them for letting me read one of my most anticipated releases of the year early!!!

In this book, we explore the dystopian world of Japan where sex between married couples is gone: everyone who wants to have kids now goes through a process of Artificial Insemination. The main character of this story is Amane, who was born from copulation before it was extinguished, and her mother never lets her forget that true love between a married couple involved sex. Amane sees sex between a couple as dirty and distasteful, and even sees it as “incest” and finds that she loves anime and book characters more and they give her the love that she needs to feel from a partner by looking at their pictures. However, she feels a strangeness inside of her that is not satiated by the anime and book characters.

Amane later in life marries a man named Saku, and they love each other as family, but not as lovers (because that would be incest!). They try and find love from outside partners, but it goes haywire enough that they decide to move to a brand new city, called “Experiment City”, where they can be artificially inseminated for kids, but not be totally responsible for said children. This paradise-Eden has every adult taking care of the children born, and they even have men being inseminated through a fake womb to help bear the cost of child creating. Will this new move to a new city help Amane get rid of the strangeness inside her???

I could keep going on more about what this story is about, but that would be going into spoiler territory. With that said, my review:

I was not sure how I felt about this book for the first 60%: it really is sex heavy, and this book talks a lot about what would happen if sex no longer existed and if men could also have babies. It talks a lot of the social commentary of family relations as well, and honestly with a book titled “Vanishing World” I was really NOT expecting any of this!!! But, during the last 40% that I binged in a single evening, I loved how it ended but it made me want to throw my kindle at a wall because of how it ended. I was not expecting that ending, and I feel as if there will be more in the finished copy of this book that I can’t wait to read which lead me to buying a copy of the Waterstones edition, and I need it in my grubby little hands right now!!!

As for my star rating, I did not give this an initial rating upon completion of the book; I needed time let this story sit and stew in my brain. As for now, I am giving it a total of 4 stars ⭐️ and if there IS more of the story I am missing in the finished copy, I will probably end up updating that 4 star to a 5 star. I absolutely was enamored with this story!

Thank you again to NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

If you can say one thing about Sayaka Murata is that she creates very original material that is sure to provoke you. And I don’t think she does it just to be provocative. Her stories always have some deeper idea about humanity, especially how odd it is to be a human, at their core. In this one she especially explores the ideas of gender in relation to sexuality and reproduction.

In a world nearly devoid of sex as humans almost exclusively reproduce through artificial insemination, Amane is an outsider. Her parents created her the ‘old-fashioned’ way and for that she feels beholden and nearly cursed by an outdated way of thinking. As she grows up and explores her sexuality while trying to fit into the evolving society she lives in, she struggles to balance her compulsions with expectations put on her by her family, friends, and lovers.

This story was so interesting and I loved so much of what it was digging into around how at the end of the day, humans are another animal species on earth and so much of our culture that we think is “normal” is really just made up.

But I felt the style of this book which relied heavily on dialogue to explain things and repeated itself quite frequently, just didn’t live up to the concept. The last 1/3 was probably the most interesting part…and that ending?! I’m a bit disturbed by it, not gonna lie, but I kind of expect that with her. And it does raise some questions even if I felt that the novel didn’t always have a clear focus.

I wanted to love this but it was probably my least favorite of her novels I’ve read. Still worth a read if you like her stuff, but probably not one to win her fans like Convenience Store Woman.

Murata’s works are utterly unique, often unhinged, frequently unsettling, and this is no different. I loved “convenience store woman,” loathed “earthlings;” this falls somewhere in the middle of those two. I get the social critiques she’s aiming at and found all of that interesting, even compelling at times, but the ending? No.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Press for the ARC!

I always enjoy an unusual, possibly bizarre book, that makes me think, and this one certainly meets the criteria! There were hints of other dystopian novels, "brave new world" and "the growing season" spring to mind but this was very much its own story. I enjoyed "convenience store woman" and Ms Murata's writing once again carries this story of a Japan where babies are conceived through artificial insemination, sex with a spouse is incest and characters from anime and manga are just as credible lovers as human partners.
Inhabiting this world for a short while is certainly a remarkable experience - I'm still working out the ending!
Thank you to netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy of this book.

If you're looking for your next "out there" read, I invite you to meet Amane and take a trip into ParadiseEden - if you can sort out your visa.

There's three ways to live - the old fashioned way, fall in love in love, get married have children. However, in a speculative Japan this way doesn't exist anymore, despite what Amane's mother hopes for her daughter.

In Amane's world you choose marriage solely to raise a child conceived by artifical insemination with a suitable co-parent. You have no physical intimacy with your partner. No need for all that unpleasantness.

Meanwhile, there's an almost utopia - a place that's like living in the sky. This is ParadiseEden, an experimental city. The population is controlled by an aligrathom, everyone is a Mother and children (Komodo-chans) belong to society. The family system isn't suitable - life belongs to all humanity. Out of body wombs, breeding programs, cleansing pods, a world where you can have a wonderful life.

The story really ratchets up when Amane and her husband decide to elope to ParadiseEden. They leave the other world they are living in behind and I couldn't put the book down.

I didn't see the ending coming until it was too late, but I couldn't tear my eyes away as Vanishing World concluded - with hindsight - the inevitable WTF!

Yes it's very weird, yes it's very uncomfortable, yes it's very bizzare and yes it's shocking.

Did I feel a bit "not normal" for loving it - I'd have to say yes again. This book won't be for everyone! But after all in Murata's own words ....
"Normality is the creepiest madness there is" so that's okay with me!

All the stars from me - what a vibe!

This was my first by Murata and it was a trip! I really enjoyed how quickly we fell into the world and it established itself to make the reader understand the evolvement of the world as the characters knew it. Murata has an incredible incredible talent of placing the reader in the world she’s built and then providing characters that add color and texture to that world. The end was weird and uncomfortable, but I liked it. Very Uncanny Valley vibes.

Towards the end, I still didn’t feel a complete connection to the narrative or the characters but enjoyed the reading experience overall!

"Some people satisfy their urge in a similar way to the copulation of the old..."

Amane is an exception amongst her peers; conceived by loved rather than artificial insemination, she has an alternative view of the world. This is a world where 'clean' no intimacy marriages exist, love is reserved for anime and nonreal characters; the norm of the nuclear family are flipped. 


As Amane grows up and marries her husband Saku, both of them continue relationships with real and nonreal people - I found this fascinating, and wondered about the connections made between clean and dirty, and intimacy. One day, both of them volunteer for a government project which throws away all of what they know...


Murata has created another short stort which critiques the societal expectations placed on women (and men) where they are in service of the human race, despite advances in technology - the same patriarchal expectations are still embedded within the very fabrics of society. In addition, I found the exploration of intimacy; the removal of emotional connection and human touch fascinating. Is intimacy as primal as many view it as?

This is a short dystopian rollercoaster of a book; in a similar vein to Murata's previous translated books, it has some eccentric characters, and mindboggling scenes. Ginny Tapley Takemori must have had a lot of fun translating this!

Thank you @netgallary for this e-arc

Going into a Murata book is like taking a step into one of those beautiful hotel pools that disappear into the abyss. Beautiful and overwhelming, and absolutely unpredictable, but comforting in its strangeness. She is so gentle and communicates her literary bizzare stories, by lulling you into her odd commentaries on life, emotion, and expectation.

Vanishing World, in particular, is a dystopian sci-fi future. As with all good books I recommend going in knowing absolutely nothing - not even a summary. I know that the ending in particular will be divisive in the way that Earthlings was, but goodness, I love her wonderful way of looking at the possibilities of humanity. This wasn't my favorite only because I felt that the protagonists thought process wasn't the clearest at the halfway point, but this is my only real criticism.

This was a wonderful ride and a social commentary on community, family, sexuality, and individuality that is so weird yet so grounded.

[This eARC was generously given to me via NetGalley by Grove Atlantic in exchange for an honest review.]

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is a chilling, thought-provoking dive into a dystopian society where traditional concepts of family, sex, and individuality have been erased in favor of sterile reproduction and collective child-rearing. Murata’s signature blend of detachment and surrealism makes the world feel both disturbingly foreign and eerily plausible, as the protagonist begins to question the cold, harmony-obsessed system around her. Like Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, this novel challenges norms around gender, intimacy, and identity, but pushes even deeper into unsettling territory.

Sadly, this one was one I couldn't push myself to finish. I'm not sure if it's the writing or the translation but I found it the writing to be flat and at times confusing. I do think the premise is compelling and do think that I may try to read it via the audiobook in the future. I don't have much more to say about it since the writing was my biggest qualm but I do think that other readers will still pick this one up and hopefully enjoy it more than I did.