This was a super interesting idea that I was totally onboard with. I found it almost hauntingly accurate to what our far future might hold. Even though it was so taboo and disturbing it felt so real and relatable. I really enjoyed following Amana through her early years and seeing just the utter collapse of her sanity towards the end . There were a few sections in the middle that felt very repetitive and more than a few lines that felt word for word repeated throughout, but I still enjoyed this one all the same. A wonderful addition to Murata’s portfolio and one I will definitely be hand selling a lot of.

Murata Sayaka's works always have concepts that seem bizarre at first encounter but then offer a detailed deconstruction of societal norms, and Vanishing World is no exception. The world of this novel is either a dystopia or a utopia depending on your point of view, and the story examines taboos around sex and relationships, the idea of parenthood and family, and whether individuality should be replaced with conformity. The book mixes darker scenes with moments of humour, and it certainly makes you query your own feelings about the subject matter as you read. In some ways it's a quick and easy read (I finished it in two sittings), but at the same time it sticks with you after you have turned the final page. Those familiar with the author will certainly find this book another gem. For those new to Murata's writing, this is probably a good place to start as it is not quite a dark as some of her other works. I am giving it 4.5 stars.

This book practically oozes with the weirdest vibes possible. So gross and weird and I loved it all. The cover of this book is especially gross once you realize the contents of the story. Fair warning that it is extremely taboo at times and just straight weird at others. An odd story where married couples are so much like family that any intimate contact with each other is considered incest and almost every baby is born via artificial insemination. So weird, so Murata. Give it a shot!

First thanks to netgalley for the review copy! Any new Murata story is an instant buy for me so I was thrilled to read this early. This was a very taboo and unsettling story but that is exactly what I expect from Murata and the reason I love her work so much. Her ability to write a story with the weirdest and most fucked up endings are a true gift.

Strange and unsettling lightly speculative fiction from a provocative author.
Like with her previously Englished novels and story collections, Murata returns with a surprising novel of pointed social commentary. Though this one was too heavy-handed for my taste, it included enough nuance to captivate me most of the way through. I could have done without some of the repetition. We stay within the narrator's point of view. It's told in the first person. The world of the novel is different in one key way from our own. Artificial insemination is the sole means to reproduce. But our narrator doesn't buy into this strange state of affairs by virtue of her own traditional conception. That leads her to become fixated on the topic. In 200+ pages of interior monologue interspersed with maid-and-butler dialogue, we are treated to a continuous onslaught of opinions. She does not like this world. This other thing about society doesn't make sense, etc. Most of it comes into the fore like a non sequitur.

The novel as a whole lacks description. A few key images include the external womb worn for the purpose of male pregnancy, the Kodomo-chans (children raised by the community as a whole), and a few details of her living situation. We are given few visuals. You could call this a novel of ideas. It does not delve particularly deeply into these topics, but skims over all of them, offering summaries of how things are. We do not learn much about why our narrator differs from the pack who go through their lives without the burden of sex. How sex faded from societal consciousness in the first place is not discussed. Things are the way they are. The author embarks on her philosophical essay in novel form without establishing a chain of cause and effect.

One might surmise that she picked out key points from real life and twisted them into a scenario reminiscent of those confusing nightmares without context that sometimes assail us, leaving us with a distorted view of a dream world of sheer exaggeration. Her story collection, Life Ceremony used the same technique to better effect. Skewed worlds where familiar human struggles take on new form.

The narrator is so fascinating by the interplay of genders and sexualities around her that she constantly accosts everyone within range with politically incorrect questions. It's clear that the main character is a mouthpiece for the author's analysis of society's biases and hang-ups. What do people worship, if not their bodies and the unions of those bodies? She seems to land on a notion that a collective working toward raising everyone on an equal playing field without individual flaws, in a watered down oasis free of desire and want would somehow cure the ill of loneliness.

Our narrator says: "Love is about having the courage to be called a pervert." To society, her thinking is wrong, though it stems from the traditions of the past. She tries to convert a few others along the way, but succeeds in resisting only certain aspects of brainwashing, which seems to settle over her mind through osmosis, in her feeble attempts at assimilation. This book is very thought-provoking, but it is not as expertly crafted as her other available works. It is meant to shock and offend common sensibilities and succeeds on many levels. But as a novel, it does not contain an immersive story or fleshed-out setting or believable characters.

I was very excited to get this ARC, because I’ve enjoyed everything Sayaka Murata has written so far. My favorite is definitely “Earthlings,” and I don’t think anything is going to top that one. Murata is a unique voice and there’s no one out there quite like her.


This book was confusing to me, at first. Main character Amane falls in love with fictional characters, (which was the thing I really wanted to see explored.) And in her mind, she has actual relationships with them. But she also has sexual relationships with men that she knows in person, even though in this book society has moved past intercourse and relies on artificial insemination to procreate. Sex for pleasure is frowned upon because it isn’t “sanitary” or “necessary.” If someone tries to have actual intercourse with their spouse, it’s considered “incest.” (This society Murata has come up with has complicated rules and for a good portion of the book I couldn’t wrap my head around it, to be honest.)

Another thing I struggled with: Amane is one of a few people in the world who still has intercourse with the people she dates, but she doesn’t actually seem that into it. It’s just sort of a mechanical thing that she shrugs and performs, like a chore. I didn’t really buy into the idea that she liked it and felt a compulsion to keep doing it.

However, the way that Amane talked about her “lovers from the other world,” meaning the fictional characters she had been involved with, was amazing. She had so much respect for them. I imagined how someone would look at me if I pulled keychains of my faves out of my purse and started talking about them like that. In this universe, friends get together and talk about their fictional boyfriends as if they are real relationships, and there’s zero judgment. I sort of wish that was an actual thing!

I personally did not find this novel to be as disturbing as Murata’s other work, but it definitely brought up some interesting ideas. In “Vanishing World,” scientists are working on a way for men to be able to give birth. But the thing is, everyone is enthusiastic about it and humanity’s primary focus is producing as many babies as possible. (Okay, that part was unsettling.) Murata also explores concepts of libido, desire, nurture vs brainwashing and individuality vs conformity.

This is an early review copy, so it may change before publication, but there needs to be more white space or some sort of transition in between a lot of the passages. There aren’t really chapters in this book and every change of time and place flows into each other with no warning. It’s jarring. That was the biggest issue I had.

“Vanishing World” is a book in which not a whole lot happens throughout most of its pages, and then late in the story things pick up. If you reach the end, you will be rewarded with an absolutely bonkers conclusion, the kind of twisted rug pull that Murata is known for. I wouldn’t be surprised if some readers lose patience before the midway point, but I do think the second half makes everything worth it. Anyone on the Asexual spectrum specially will find much to ponder, just like with all of her work.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.


Biggest TW: Sexual activity between minors, Mention of Sexual Assault, Mention of self-harm, Suicide, Alcohol abuse, Loss of pregnancy

Imagine a world where your husband is like your brother and sex is this ancient activity that people no longer engage in..

How do you have babies - through artificial insemination and in a mysterious small town called Experiment city everyone men and women are all „Mothers“ to all children called „Kodomo-chan“.

The setting is weird, absurdly probable and quite frankly extremely unsettling.
This was my first Sayaka Murata novel and I am utterly curious to read all her other work as well.

In this one we have an alternate Japan where sex between husband and wife is incest and people (both men and women) become pregnant and give birth artificially. From the very start it gave me The Handmaid’s tale vibes but more sci-fi and with a focus on questioning concepts such as family, love, society.

The constant talk of wombs made me quite uneasy as in current time and age women still struggle with having constant pressure to fulfill a certain role or lack the autonomy to have decisions pertaining to their own bodies:

„I’m glad I have a womb. That was what stuck in my ears. If my husband had a womb, would he still have chosen to live with me? Was the fact I had a womb the only reason he called me family?“

„I was an animal with a womb. Sometimes when talking with my husband, I would suddenly feel that I wasn’t really me, I was just his womb. There was a moment of fear when I wondered whether by chanting the word „family“ over and over like a spell, my husband was putting a curse on me to make me into his womb.“

This book left me staring at the wall for quite some time after finishing and I constantly had the feeling of unease and a „wtf“ expression on my face. It is strangely captivating read despite it having this quite direct and stark prose.

I could not quite figure out the protagonist Amane. Her inner conflicts felt unresolved even at the end but maybe that was the point. The world is evolving without waiting for people to catch up and you either pretend to belong or are rejected.

Thank you @groveatlantic and @netgalley for providing me with this copy of Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

I thought the concept here was solid (I seem to remember there being a short story in Life Ceremony around the same topic) and I thought sex and motherhood was fairly well established.

I thought her relationship with her mother could have been fleshed out more to make the ending make a bit more sense. Another thing that happened felt underdeveloped which made it gross to read about without it making the point it maybe set out to make.

The message left a lot to think about though which made it a worthwhile read.

This review is based on an ARC of Vanishing World which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Grove Press).

Once again, Sayaka Murata stuns with an intoxicatingly weird and wonderful piece of speculative fiction. While Vanishing World holds familiar to Murata’s previous works, it yet shines in its’ own light, delving deeper into realistic sci-fi than before.

Profoundly disturbing and philosophical, Vanishing World is a timely novel for the modern era. This book describes a not-too-distant and all-too-feasible future of humankind. Much food for thought…

During my read-through I was both unsettled and desperate to know moremoremore! It is the mark of a skilled author to simultaneously entice and repulse readers with their imagination. Bravo!

Thank you net galley and the publisher for the arc!! <3

rating: 3.5 stars
Summary: In an alternate Japan where sex is taboo as incest and children are born via artificial insemination, the MC moves to a mysterious town where children are raised communally, everyone is a “Mother", men bear children in external wombs, and children are nameless.
Review: The most incredible thing about Sayaka Murata is her voice and ideas are truly distinctive. I am always so impressed at how she creates the most unsettling, unique concepts while tackling contemporary issues. In this book, for example, she explores themes like societal norms, parasocial relationships, and the concept of family. Like any of her books this is VERY disturbing. Basically, the whole time I was like what am I reading??? but I had to keep reading to find out what was going on.

<i><b><p>“It’s a bit like a cat cafe, isn’t it? Petting them without being responsible for them, and when you’ve had enough you can just go home."</p></b></i>

This was a trip and a half.

The author never holds back her punches nor does she belabor the point. In a world that's diverged post WW2 Japan, the concept of sex is considered old fashioned and children are born via IVF. Having sex with a partner is considered taboo incest, family is for having a child and love is found outside of the said family. The man and woman or the husband and wife, have lovers, go on dates and participate in the social contract of bearing a child at their convenience. If they choose not to, then they don't procreate. The scientists of this world are now close in succeeding with artificial womb for men.

The very definition of love, affection, sex, chemistry - its all changed, redefined and evolved. Same sex marriage is not legal in the country, people fall in love with characters from anime, manga, movies and other media more than real people. Its taking the celebrity culture that exists today to the extreme where people fall in love with a persona or an idol, and this is as real as it gets of the people in said relationships. There is always a tinge of loneliness in these relationships, being one sided though its never called so.

Murata has always pushed the boundary nudging it as far as she could go and sometimes even blatantly crossing it to do a "what if" scenario. <i>Vanishing worlds</i> is one such endeavor which is a fascinating deconstruction of social dynamics that make up family, lovers, friendships, relationships and even parenthood. Society dissipates into a globalized commune where humans' emotions are rewired but not entirely gone. The devolution of her character as her husband successfully gives birth to a healthy baby, is horrifying. It is almost expected given the author's penchant to end her books in shockingly horrifying manner and the way the character itself goes through the process of shedding layers and reshaping basic human instincts to that of evolutionary mammals.

Still, a pretty good read.
<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

3.75

This was a page turner, and I ate it up like every Sayaka Murata book I’ve read. I was constantly thinking about what kind of social commentary she was making about contemporary Japan/life everywhere with the “advances” in technology and desensitization toward human feelings. I didn’t think it was as strong as her other three books that I’ve read, because I couldn’t always follow her intentions when it came to social criticism. I was often baffled by the abrupt shifts in character behavior and strange dialogue. It also felt like the translation was ironically done by AI - it often felt stilted, repetitive, and strangely-worded in a way her other translations haven’t, so I wonder if it was rushed. I still love her creativity and the way her mind works, so I’ll be a lifelong fan and reader. I also think I need to take more time to process the full effects of this novel.

In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley humans have evolved to a state in which the family unit is abolished, and the individual has no freedom to do, feel or love as they want. Vanishing World cleverly parallels this in the beautifully unsettling and lyrical style Sayaka Murata is known for. This is a dystopian world in the not-too-distant future in which romantic love and sex for procreation have been removed from marriage. People fall in love with characters from Anime and Manga, and this is encouraged as a way to leave “unhygienic” sex behind. Marriage is portrayed as more of a sibling relationship, with sex between husband and wife seen as incestuous.
So many interesting themes that have political ramifications today are explored in this book. For example, same sex marriage, the disconnect of youth from reality, shared paternity leave, the cost of childcare, and the dangers of prioritising technological progress over human emotion. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more creepy, told from the deceptively naive point of view of the narrator so that we as the reader can appreciate how an individual in society is easily brainwashed into a new “normality”. This is a story which will haunt me for a long time - it was clever, concise and quite frankly chilling.

I have read Murata work before and I loved it. This was simply the same! I loved it. The story is great and the characters are likeable. I will continue to read anything by Murata. Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this

Do ya’ll know the audio of “b*tch, what the f*ck?” overlaid by Carol of the Bells? That is what was playing in my head on loop from the very first page to the very last page of this book.

I honestly do not even know what I’m currently feeling. Disturbed, horrified, barreling full speed towards an existential crisis? This should be categorized as a horror book. If this were to ever become a movie, I would legitimately have nightmares every single night.

My skin is crawling.

An off-kilter and unsettling page-turner, Vanishing World tackles declining birth rates, widespread loneliness, social isolation, and the rise of unhealthy parasocial relationships – issues that feel even more relevant today than when this book was first published in Japan in 2015.

In a world where copulation has gone out of style, Amane longs for the days of old. Yet she quickly learns how difficult it is to swim against the current of established societal norms, no matter how bizarre they may be. Everyone around her feels slightly unhinged, as though facsimiles of real people, adding to Amane’s feelings of isolation.

This was a tough one to put down and it certainly goes out with a bang. Murata’s dry, matter-of-fact prose is engrossing, even as she hammers home certain ideas and themes to the point of excess.

such a weird book!! probably one of the weirdest i've read. i really liked it, a lot of parts bothered me but i feel like they were supposed to

Murata is always a fun author to read from because you know you’re going into something completely fresh and unique. this one didn’t quite work for me as much as her previous ones personally, but the concept is probably her most interesting one yet. it takes place where sex as we know it doesn’t really exist - IVF being the standard means of procreation, sex between married couples is seen as incest, and it’s standard for couples to have others partners (whether real people or cartoons) exclusively for sexual needs. obviously loved the concept but I wish it had a little more plot to propel the story which is where it lacked a bit for me. banger of an ending tho

Set in an alternate Japan where attitudes toward sex, reproduction, and family have been radically reshaped, Vanishing World introduces us to Amane, a woman deeply unsettled by what she considers the “primitive” idea of natural procreation. From childhood, Amane is appalled by the revelation of her parents’ act of “copulation,” a taboo relic in a world where artificial insemination has become the societal norm. Her discomfort only intensifies as she navigates a society where traditional notions of marriage, parenthood, and even gender are dismantled.

Murata’s depiction of Amane is both empathetic and unsettling. The protagonist’s infatuations—whether directed at anime characters or real people—highlight the tension between biological impulse and social conditioning. Her eventual move to Paradise-Eden, a utopian Experiment City, is where Murata’s speculative vision reaches its most provocative. In this town, communal child-rearing erases individual identities; men experience pregnancy through artificial wombs and children—called only “Kodomo-chan”—exist outside conventional familial bonds. It’s a fascinating and terrifying vision, inviting readers to question what we lose and gain when traditional societal structures dissolve.

For readers willing to embrace discomfort and ponder unsettling questions, Vanishing World offers an unforgettable journey into Murata’s bold imagination. It solidifies her reputation as one of contemporary fiction's most daring and original voices.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Still feeling disoriented , I tried stroking the head of the Kodomo-chan who was clinging onto the hem of my skirt. It was extremely warm, and its entire body was squishy and soft. It gave me the creeps."

“It’s a bit like a cat cafe, isn’t it? Petting them without being responsible for them, and when you’ve had enough you can just go home ,”


💭In a nutshell, Shōmetsu sekai (Dwindling or Vanishing World), is set in an alternate world in Japan where sex between married couples is reviled as a form of incest, and women—and men—become pregnant and give birth artificially.
In Experiment City: Paradise-Eden, children are being raised in a new system. Everyone there is a Mother to all the children, who are all called Kodomo-chans. Experiment City is a kind of factory to manufacture uniformly convenient people. It's like a large-scale baby cafe.
💭 Murata inhabits a planet of her own. Her questioning of taboos and social norms through fiction plus her struggle with the notion of family is evident in this novel. She mixes humour and horror quite well. The writing is daring in construction, sparse and straightforward. Strange and thought provoking and has elements of sci-fi fiction. The story has a similar theme with Aldoux Huxley's Brave New World.
This is my first book by the author and I like her absurdity. 😹 Some who have read this book say this is tamer and less darker compared to her other works like Earthlings, Life Ceremony and Convenience Store Woman. That being said, it certainly piqued my interest all the more and I can't wait to embark.
At first I was confused why this book looks new to me and the expected publishing date is set to April 2025 but I've seen reviews way back in 2023. I found out that it was originally published in 2015 in Japanese and the translated version is the one out in 2025.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an early copy. I received an arc for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.🖤