In Vanishing World, Sayaka Murata explores sex, love, and family in a world in which artificial insemination has become the norm.

I liked discovering this world, where "normal" has become so much more different : very few people are having sex, being in love with fictional characters is widespread, and sleeping with your husband is incest. I don't really know where our protagonist, Amane, fits in in all of this : in some aspects she's considered abnormal (like sleeping with her lovers) but in others she likes to conform (very much so in the last part of the novel). It wasn't really clear how she's supposed to fit (or not fit) in this society.

Then we get to the really weird part of the novel with Experiment City, where people (men and women) are randomly selected to get inseminated and their offspring are raised collectively. I loved the uncanniness of this section, you can trust Murata to with her weird and unusual stuff that's for sure.
Also, just like my experience with her other novel Earthlings, the ending really left me there like : what did I just read ? How do I feel about it ? No idea, but it was certainly something (though the thing with her mother kinda came from left field, I feel it could have been left out).

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC.

This was a wild ride! And I loved every second of it. The craziness and absurdity of the plot made it feel humorous at times and then Sayaka Murata comes along with criticism of societal norms and changes. It was just really good. And the writing style was lovely to read.

This was a typical Sayaka Murata book. Interesting and uncomfortable, while somehow managing to feel cozy.

The writing style was what we’ve come to expect of Murata, as well as themes that are provocative, bordering inflammatory. Murata always takes it just a little too far and that usually works for me. Here, I was kind of indifferent.

But overall I enjoyed the story enough to keep reading. However, this is not my favorite Murata novel.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the e-arc.

I didn’t expect anything less from Murata!! What a wild ride exploring today’s societies views on childbirth, parenthood, and expectations on relationships…albeit in a dystopian world that reminded me of the Hunger Games Capitol. Yes it got very weird and wild at the end, but do you really expect anything less from Murata?

Sayaka has a way of approaching topics in her books that most authors wouldn't even attempt because of backlash or judgement. I continue to respect and admire her for the way she goes about telling stories without holding anything back, and going places no one expects. This was disturbing, but also extremely funny. I love it!

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is a strange sci-fi dystopian novel. The world we read about has sex fad out of culture and replaces it with artificial insemination. Once you are married, your partner has become your family and sex with them is considered incest. There is an experimental city where this technology and cultural shift is occurring and we follow our protagonist, Amane, all the way there.

I, always, think that Murata’s writing is a fascinating window into her thoughts on the sociopolitical landscape of Japan and western expectations of sex, love, and femininity. Vanishing World feels like and exploration of how women’s sexual desires are so largely ignored, how pleasure is rendered obsolete, how women are just vehicles for children… that society figures out a way to completely eradicate the purpose of a woman’s body. Isn’t that scary? Amane is terrified that the world around her is constantly changing and that if she can’t have sex, what is even the point? It feels dramatic but a central plot point is that her husband uses an artificial womb to have a child. Murata’s thoughts convey so much confusion, anguish, and horror as she details a world that becomes sexless and homogenized.

In the wake of the current landscape of love, sex, and romance dwindling, new explorations of love are discovered. Amane considers her crushes to fictional characters as a true and beautiful type of love. Certainly this serves as a commentary on folks parasocial relationships to fictional characters crafted purely through stan culture. I found it fascinating to wade through as Murata introduces perhaps one of the best explorations of polyamory in fiction I’ve ever read. As someone who is, it’s horrifying that this type of relationship structure is only seen as valid in this dystopian world. The relationship dynamics between married couples and their actual sexual partners was phenomenal and interesting. With sex between married couples being taboo, the romantic and sexual lives between with their second partners is a topic that is encouraged, welcomed, and shared. Essentially, full blown kitchen table polyamory or even relationship anarchy becomes a valid relationship structure that our current social structure doesn’t facilitate or fully endorse. Warm, safe, and filled with compersion, this future could be so wonderful if not for the ever changing existential threat of technology and sex.

Like all Murata novels I’ve read, the end ramps up into something quite disgusting and vile. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is always mine. A story like this concludes with carnal desire at its purest and that can be absolutely ugly, in this case it is. As Amane is driven towards extremes by a world so confusing and devoid of human interaction and sex, she needs to prove that she can still feel things, still have agency over her body, can still exist — it’s perverse. The last few chapters had me shocked and uncomfortable as I took in how shameless that desire can make a character.

A truly stunning feat of commentary, Vanishing World is a cautionary tale about succumbing to the world as it changes and how much are we willing to lose of our ourselves to it.

Will be pitching to other outlets for a bigger exploration of this novel if accepted and I will be posting to both my Instagram and TikTok my thoughts on this.

Sayaka Murata writes weird books. I knew that going in, and usually I love them... but this one missed the mark a bit for me.

Overall, this was an interesting read but it was quite heavy at some points. It's a slower read with a lot of commentary on social issues and the state of society.

There are a lot of interesting topics covered in this and I like the general idea of the novel and the world in it. A lot of the points made throughout the novel feel somewhat lacking. After some research, I found out this was her first book (it's being translated to English now but was originally published in 2015). I think a lot of the issues I have with this stem from the fact that this was a debut novel and isn't quite as developed as her later works! This book feels like Murata was still finding her voice. It's still very interesting but feels less nuanced than her later novels.

I will say that the last few pages made me wildly uncomfortable - which is the point - but I don't feel like I understand what the author was going for with that scene.

Full disclosure, I am a nut for Murata's books so I'll admit I'm writing from a place of enormous bias. Her newest book, as with the others, alternated between making me laugh and making me think. I found her exploration on gender roles in Japanese society fascinating, and I adore the boldness with which she questions readily accepted norms. Highly, highly recommend

Sayaka Murata asks difficult and uncomfortable questions through her quirky imagination and daring writing. Vanishing World is her fourth book translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori. It is a speculative dystopian fiction that explores the traditional concepts of family, love, and sexual desire/practices, which have been radically altered.

The novella follows Amane from childhood to adulthood as she grapples with her identity in a fast-changing post-World War II Japanese society, where a large portion of the male population died, triggering societal reforms that favoured artificial reproduction and condemned sex. While the premise is intriguing, the execution ultimately fell short for me. The premise is similar to Under the Eye of the Big Bird longlisted for the International Booker 2025, a more realised book, yet flawed.

From a young age, she is confronted with the "abnormality" of her conception. This confusion results from the adoption of fictional characters to explore love. Murata explores the potential consequences of a world where biological reproduction is independent of personal relationships. The repetition of words and concepts became tiresome and ultimately spoiled my reading experience – the word "husband" is mentioned 228 times in a 240 pages book. Amane's internal monologues, while intended to be thought-provoking, lacked the emotional depth and impact expected from her previous works. Although the premise was interesting, it wasn't mature enough. The ending felt as though it was written only to shock and prove the irony of her mother's words. The translation also felt clunky at times, with A.I.-generated dialogue and phrasing, even with the same translator; it made me wonder if the book was rushed or lacked adequate editing.

While the book's premise is intriguing, I found it lacked depth. Vanishing World may appeal to readers interested in exploring speculative themes and unconventional social structures, but it ultimately failed to resonate with me on a deeper level.

**ARC Review **

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sayaka Murata does it again! If you’ve read Convenience Store Woman or Earthlings, you know to expect something deeply unconventional, and Vanishing World delivers just that. This book is a mind-bending exploration of love, intimacy, and family in a future Japan where artificial insemination is the norm and even men can become pregnant thanks to advances in science.

Murata dissects societal expectations, and makes us question what’s "natural" when it comes to relationships and reproduction. The detached, matter-of-fact prose adds to the eeriness, and as always, her main characters exist on the fringes of what most would consider a “normal” life. It’s unsettling, fascinating, and oddly tender all at once.
It is a wild ride—sometimes disturbing, sometimes deeply moving—but always thought-provoking.

The premise of Vanishing World was intriguing, but unfortunately, the execution fell flat for me.

This novel is described as a critique of modern Japanese society, and I can see why much of its messaging felt deeply tied to cultural perspectives I may not fully understand. Because of this, I struggled to connect with or fully appreciate the story.

Murata explores themes of family, love, sex, loneliness, morality, and a rapidly changing world, but I had a hard time suspending disbelief—even within the realm of speculative fiction. Some concepts, like men willingly seeking pregnancy through artificial wombs or individuals falling in love with fictional (anime) characters, felt too far-fetched for me to engage with meaningfully.

I also found the characters difficult to connect with. Their shifting intentions and perspectives made them feel inconsistent, and the main character, in particular, swung wildly in ways that made it hard to understand their motivations.

Overall, the book was… strange. I struggled to find a clear message, and by the end, I was mostly left confused.

The intimacy descriptions? Absolutely awful. If anything, this book made me like s*x less. And as for the ending? I despised it with every fiber of my being.

⚠ Trigger warnings: rape, abortion (referred to in a dehumanizing way), miscarriage, IVF/artificial insemination, suicide, and one particular scene that was extremely uncomfortable for me. Definitely check content warnings before reading.

I’ve loved other Japanese-translated novels, like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and I still dream of visiting Japan someday… despite this book. 😂

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is divided into three parts. The first two focus on Amane’s adolescence, her struggles with love, sex, and the relationship with her mother. While these themes are interesting, the book repeats the same statements, questions, and discussions. This repetition becomes noticeable but remains bearable given the book’s relatively short length.

The third part is the most unique. It introduces a strange and unsettling society where men can get pregnant, and all children are raised the same, almost like clones. The way this world is described felt eerie and bizarre, making it one of the most memorable parts of the book.

The climax is both shocking and confusing, leaving more questions than answers. Rather than providing clarity, it makes it difficult to determine what exactly is being criticized or satirized. While the novel presents fascinating ideas, its execution leaves some of its deeper messages feeling unclear.

Sayaka Murata is the queen of weird girl lit fic. I can’t even comprehend what I just read, but my goodness, I loved every second of it.

“Is there 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.”

Murata created such a unique world—one that feels both very close and yet extremely distant from the world we live in. She plays with societal norms and the illusion of choice.
You follow Amane as she struggles to find her way in this new sort of world, which is constantly changing.
The worldbuilding and character development were done so incredibly well.

After reading both Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, I found this one start off quite mild. The story felt pretty ‘normal’ (for Sayaka Murata standards) at first, but the ending had me staring at my Kindle with my mouth wide open, thinking, What the hell did I just read?! And honestly, that’s all I ever want from a book like this.

Reading this really confirmed that she is an auto-buy author for me. I will read anything she writes.
Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the e-arc!

I love this author and all the other books I have read by this author. With that being said, I had to read this book and was so excited for it. I loved how unique and out of this world this book was. I truly have never read anything like it and the writing is purely amazing. I was so pleased with this book and I’ve been telling everyone they need to add it to their tbr. I can’t wait for the author to put out another book.

I’m typically a fan of Murata’s weirdness but this is sadly a DNF. I’m incredibly grateful for arc, but I’m filing this away as «not for me». I’ve read several glowing reviews and I hope I’m in the minority.

The concept initially had me pretty hooked, but moving from part one into part two and sometimes part three, the dialogue and story itself got repetitive. Part three had a lot of potential that was kind of squandered by a rushed ending that left me disturbed.

I do like Murata’s work but this isn’t really my favorite. Thank you to the publisher for an ARC!

"...If my husband had a womb, would he still have chosen to live with me? Was the fact I had the womb the only reason he called me family?"

This is my first Sayaka Murata and I enjoyed every page of it!!!
'Vanishing world' is as weird and wild as it is smart and addictive. The depiction of societal expectations and norms was a bit out of this world, but they were actually quite correct and current if you think of it. Some people will always judge those who seem and act differently than most, some people always adapt wherever the situation is, some people will go through life following a dream (their or someone else's) only to erase everything in a second.

The ending literally broke me. I sat staring at the screen for maybe 15 minutes not knowing what to do with myself. I did scream "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" though.

4.5 stars from me
Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this ARC.

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

I reread *Earthlings* a couple of weeks ago and I was just desperate to read more Murata, so many thanks to Grove Press and Netgalley for sending me this ARC even though I haven’t written a proper review in over a year.

*Vanishing World* reiterates Murata’s usual themes—what is normal and why we consider it normal, people who fit societal expectations and people who don’t, weird sex stuff, unconventional relationships, and so on. This book takes place in the near future, or an alternate reality, where children are conceived via artificial insemination, sex is becoming increasingly uncommon between lovers, people fall in love more frequently with fictional characters, and marital relationships are seen as sibling-like bonds, making sex between man and wife incestuous.

Unlike her other novels translated into English, *Vanishing World* confronts our ideas of normalcy not by following characters swimming against the current, but rather by creating a society with very different conventions than our own, and a main character who finds it easiest to fit in with them. As the book goes on, normality strays ever further from our own, and we get to see exactly how far our humanity can be pushed for the sake of fitting in. I found it more topical than ever as the norms of our own society seem to be descending into madness.

I am biased, of course, since Sayaka Murata is one of my favorite authors, but I loved this new entry into her catalog. It is a bit slower paced than her other books, especially for the first two thirds (actually I’d compare that section of the book to *Convenience Store Woman*, but longer, so that may be where the pacing issues come in). I have no doubt that the ending will be controversial, since—like all Murata—it deals with some pretty tabboo subjects. But hey, tabboo sticks in your brain and makes you really think about things, which is why I love this author.

“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.”

She’s done it again folks. Murata has engrossed me with her wild and weird words. Vanishing World is a bizarre novel that dives into the depths of loneliness, family, sex, and parasocial relationships.

In a dystopian Japan where sex is old fashioned and spouses who copulate are branded ‘incestuous’ and ‘perverted,’ both men and women give birth thanks to post-war advances in artificial insemination. Our protagonist Amane enjoys the company of her fictional lovers – anime characters she carries photos of in a Prada pouch – and believes she is cursed because her parents had her naturally rather than by insemination, which herself and her peers are disgusted to learn.

Amane and her husband eventually move to Experiment City, where children are being raised in a new system. All children are born through artificial insemination, and every man and woman in the city is a Mother to all the children. “I was connected to the world by my womb. And I found that reassuring.”

Murata grapples with the meaning of marriage and the family unit in Vanishing World by challenging societal norms; does family mean more if we’re all family, or does it mean nothing at all? I was also fascinated by her deconstruction of parasocial relationships, posing questions of the validity of our love for fictional characters or celebrities and what that means for our own real life relationships.

It felt impossible to put down, and Murata’s usual matter-of-fact prose is easy to melt into. The story felt sometimes a little too on-the-nose or farcical (“I can’t believe you tried to have sex with your wife!”) and the ending I am yet to feel completely certain about… but Murata’s style and ideas remain original and exciting. I will always read anything she writes.

Thank you NetGalley and GroveAtlantic for the e-arc!

Although Vanishing World centers around an incredibly interesting core concept, I felt the narrative was very repetitive and that a lot of the time characters were explaining the plot of the story through dialogue. The story definitely picked up in the last part, however, the ending (which I did like) felt in conflict to the rest of the narratives aim and I was left unsure what the overall message of the novel was. Stylistically, the novel is written well and held my attention enough for me to see it through to the end, but I did feel it dragging and ultimately was left feeling disurbed and somewhat confused.