Sayaka Murata has carved out a niche in recent years as a go to "weird girl lit" author. But what keeps me coming back to Murata's work is her fearlessness. She commits to an idea fully and swings for the fences, and even if not everything lands, I can't help but admire the audacity. Such is the case with Vanishing World. The story has a classic Murata premise, in that it is entirely bonkers and more than a little bleak. The prose is sparse but punchy, with cutting things to say about birth rates and gender roles and fertility. At time the storytelling was a bit too esoteric for my taste, but Murata has such conviction and assuredness that I knew I was in capable hands even if I wasn't always following where she led.

An inventive and unusual read, Murata continues to be an auto-read author for me.

Definitely a strange one! Sayaka Myrata has been on my radar for some time and the cover for Vanishing World sold me. I guess I would place this one in the sci fi/dystopia lit fic category? It's definitely a slower burn where the reader is completely immersed in this society where the definitions of love and marriage have been completely overhauled. Married couples no longer have sex (this is considered incest) and babies are born via artificial insemination. People are still encouraged to fall in love with other humans but also characters, but love and marriage are not linked in this world.
Sex is increasingly rare and considered extremely old fashioned.

I found Vanishing World to be well done. It's an incredibly odd world they're existing in, but Myrata excels at making their reality tangible for the reader. I'm not sure if it was a translation issue or if characters are simply meant to seem robotic, but I struggled with the dialogue at times. And that ending! Really not my favorite. Could've likely left that part out entirely. I definitely want to check out more work from Murata and enjoyed this one, but did struggle with some of the aspects of the writing.

Imagine living a world where sexless marriage exists—like, doing it as a married couple is considered incest and taboo. If you want a child, the legal way is through artificial insemination. And in this experimental and advantageous world, it’s possible that men can be pregnant and they will be the ones to carry the baby in their artificial womb.

First, I would like to thank Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the approved ARC. This is my first Sayaka Murata book, and it did not disappoint. The whole time I’m reading this, I’m thinking what kind of brain does the author have that she is capable of writing this kind of story—it’s weird, somewhat funny, creepy, thought-provoking, and yet very significant.

The characters in this book are written so well that they make you pause and rethink your own beliefs. They make you wonder why people hold on so tightly to traditional rules. Despite how strange the world in the book feels, I found myself really enjoying it. The ending left my jaw dropped. I actually kept clicking my Kindle in case there was something more.

Overall, Vanishing World is a strange but amazing read that really makes you think. Sayaka Murata has created a story that stays with you, and I can’t wait to read more of her work.

This novel has an intriguing premise, and I think there was potential to explore so many avenues here. Unfortunately, whilst I enjoyed the story, I didn't feel like there was much depth. Perhaps the author tried to squeeze too many elements into the narrative that none of them really got a chance to be examined. There were ideas about parasocial relationships, the nuclear family, gender roles in marriage and parenting, arranged marriage, and conformity, but these themes were only really explored at the surface-level.

I did enjoy it, but would hesitate to recommend it to people who haven't read this author before. Pick up Convenience Store Woman before this one.

As a HUGE FAN of "Convenience Store Woman," I was so excited to read this one. Ultimately, I DNF at 12% because I just could not get into the book. I have mixed feelings about this and will probably try again after reading some of these reviews.

DNF at 50%. I felt that though the author was trying to say something important about the growing schism between sex and procreation in Japan, I wasn’t really getting the message. The story seemed to have no goal or point beyond a dire warning that our own world could end up like this weird dystopia where having sex with your married partner is considered incest. The same points were repeated over and over again by the protagonist and it just got boring hearing her wonder about, think about, muse about etc whether she was a freak because her mother raised her different.

Thank you NetGalley, Grove Atlantic for this e-ARC copy, all reviews are my own.

I've heard a lot of amazing reviews on Sayaka Murata writing and lot of them are about how Sayaka write bizarre story and gives the reader unsettling feelings. So I picked this one as my first work of Sayaka

This is a speculative fiction with 'subtle' dystopian elements that I love. The idea of when copulation between married couple is incestuous, what intrigued me from the very beginning. Throughout the book, the narrative was very calm it gave me unsettling feeling.
But honestly, I couldn't avoid the feeling of dullness because of the constant calmness our main character is, and how some things being repetitive of how she loves her "character lovers" and how perfectly normal that is, copulation between married couples is forbidden and taboo. Like I get why it was written like that, like it is what had brainwashed all the people in the book and how the writer wants to progress it into something more bizzare plot, but that could be shorten I guess.
But it quickly picked up on the last 30% and that was just unhinged and left me staring at the wall
Definitely, wanna read Sayaka's other works!

I don't expect anything less from Sayaka Murata than strange. In Vanishing World you will definitely get that. Murata has a unique way of looking at the world then turning it on its head. This time she deals with the evolution of the family.

I don't know if this book was inspired by the population crisis in Japan but it does offer a new dimension to it. In Vanishing World we meet Amane who is living at a time of change where the normal methods of having sexual relations, being part of a couple and giving birth are turned on its head by a new concept: Experiment City.

At first Amane is against most change but eventually she marries and she and her husband go to Experiment City where all children are born after artificial insemination and are all cared for by the entire community of "mothers".

This novel presents various intriguing ideas - sexless marriages where both partners fulfil their needs with lovers, having both real and "other world" lovers, men giving birth ... All these are explored in Murata's distinctive style.

I've been a fan since Convenience Store Woman and her slanted way of looking at the world hasn't disappointed me yet. Vanishing World is a clinical view of family and reproduction. Who knows how accurate any of it will be in the future?

Thankyou to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated.

3.25/5 - A fascinating and thought provoking exploration of Japan’s societal norms. This seems to be a reoccurring theme in all of Murata’s books I’ve read so far.

This is set in a dystopian (maybe utopian for some?) world where the concept of a traditional family has completely eroded. Marriage is viewed upon as a partnership to share responsibilities and finances. Your chosen partner is considered to be a sibling and any sexual interaction with them is incestuous and taboo. Sex itself is gradually disappearing from this society

I really enjoyed this book, for the most part. I loved its exploration on parasocial relationships with anime/manga characters, the decline of birth rates, and the rising disinterest in marriage. HOWEVER, there was some disturbing sexual content involving children which pulled me out. This would’ve been a higher rating if not for that, as it is a really thought provoking book with such an interesting concept.
Some readers might find the clinical dialogue between characters a little jarring too, but this is definitely purposeful

Thank you Net Galley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this E-ARC!

*4.25 on sites that allow quarter ratings*

I read (and enjoyed) Convenience Store Woman not long before Vanishing World and I gotta say… if you thought the former was odd, you are going to think the latter is way beyond that.

The bizarre future Sakaya Murata created in this book is so much wilder than I thought it would be. Like, okay, all the babies are born via artificial insemination and not many people have sex anymore - that’s not too weird, right? Add in the belief that sex with your husband/wife is considered incest because you’re family and everyone falls in love with anime characters instead of real people and it gets much weirder! Yeah! It’s super weird now!

Being inside Amane’s mind was a trip. She’s one of few people that still has an interest in sex, but not for reasons you’d expect. It was interesting how clinical and matter-of-fact sex was for her. She always had to teach men how to do it, and there was no shyness or self-consciousness even during her first time - just “okay, we’re lovers now, here’s where you put your penis.”

Vanishing World is about more than just a strange, sexless world. It made me think about the conformity and the things humanity leaves behind as it evolves (and whether or not that evolution is always a good thing). It brought forth the question of how important family is (or isn’t) to us all, and how much love and attention children need to grow into healthy, fully-functioning adults. It just did that in the weirdest possible way, and it was super entertaining.

Unfortunately, because it was translated, I can’t really tell if it was done on purpose or if it’s a product of translation, but there was a lotttt of repetition. To say it bothered me feels a little strong, but I guess it did ultimately have an effect on my rating. It definitely doesn’t make the book any less worth a read though, especially if you’re a Sayaka Murata fan or you just like offbeat books.


***I am working on a photo for Instagram and my blog. I will update with links!***

My first Sayaka Murata even though I own a couple of her other works; while I haven't read anything else she has written, I am aware she is known for her utterly bizarre storylines.

And I was not disappointed! Murata has created an unhinged, dystopian world where sex is a nearly defunct practice, men can become pregnant via an external sack, and intercourse with your partner is akin to incest. There is no other way to describe Vanishing World as anything other than ludicrous and bizarro, but it is a damn good time!

I really enjoy Sayaka Murata's writing, however this one was a disappointment. Throughout the majority of this book, I thought it was such a great societal critique of Japan. I was hooked, and really looking forward to where she was going to go with the story. The dynamics between the characters were unlike anything I have seen in a book, and the cultural norms established in the book were so intriguing. The last few pages of this book were completely unnecessary. I have read some pretty fucked up things, but this just came out of nowhere, and really did not add to the plot. I was super disappointed that it was the last thing I read from this book. I know Sayaka Murata is known for pushing boundaries, and I want to say I understand where she was going with it, but I also don't. Do I think it's worth the read? Maybe, because the concept is genuinely interesting. But those last pages were not worth my time reading the book, coming from someone who gave Earthlings 5 stars.

2.5 - This was my first time experiencing Murata’s work, and while I appreciate the intent, this fell a bit flat. We are in some sort of future Japan, where people marry to form a “family” but sex between husband and wife is taboo. Children are conceived via artificial insemination and couples are strictly platonic. Naturally our main character is interested in sex, although this isn’t common anymore.

There were a few good observations but they felt very repetitive. With this premise, I was expecting things to get a lot weirder than they did.

I’m still intrigued by Murata’s other works, but I think my expectations will now be set a little lower.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I've read all of Murata's translated novels and none have disappointed yet! Much like Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, Murata continues to explore the themes of reproduction, fertility, family, asceticism, sex and variations around asexuality. However, in this particular novel, an entire dystopian society is built around these themes rather than a single character grappling with these issues primarily on her own. Despite this, the protagonist is still an outcast who can't seem to reconcile her own worldviews with the status quo.

The logic of the society's views on procreation is strangely compelling, making the whole thing very eerie and plausible. The dialogue that takes place between the characters eventually becomes repetitive, so the narrative shift that occurs in the last half is a welcome contrast.

Highly recommend this novel! Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for the ARC :)

Thank you to Netgalley and UK publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time dipping my toe into a Sayaka Murata book after hearing great things about other books of theirs. It was certainly an experience!

I loved the speculative world that was built. It was weird and thought provoking, a scathing analyst of the modern world and how far removed technology etc is taking us from what it means to be human.

It could have been a 5 star if the characterisation had been even deeper. At times I felt it was more about the world than how the characters felt in it.

Oh wow was this book a trip! This was a dystopian novel where there’s been a shift in family dynamics and sex is becoming extinct. It is now considered incest to have sex with your husband and people envision having relationships with non-real character, characters basically anime characters.

I am struggling with how to rate this. I didn’t particularly enjoy this. I like weird books and this is an extremely weird book and that’s not at all what bothered me about it.

What I did like about it was the authors, exploration of family, dynamics, gender, sexual expression, and how that has changed and is still changing overtime. I don’t think where the author took this dystopian story is necessarily out of the realm of possibility. The ending was a great twist. I loved it and I didn’t see it coming. The cover in and of itself was what I requested this book for.

The part that bothered me the most about this book and the reason I’m struggling with the rating is because I’m not sure how much of it is due to translation or if it’s just the authors writing style.
And I’m sure I’ll find out because I plan on reading Earthlings here in the next month but all the dialogue seemed very forced and artificial. Our main character was almost like an AI robot who had feelings and didn’t know what to do with them. The other characters weren’t much better either. And it was extremely repetitive. I did not understand the point of that. I feel like sometimes in a story things are repetitive, but for a reason. I could not figure out what the reason would be for her to be so repetitive in this novel. It just really annoyed me here.

So overall, I guess I really like the plot and the idea behind the book. I also like the direction everything went. It made sense and was easy to follow, and although was extremely strange, did not seem completely impossible or unrealistic. I just didn’t like the writing style or the main character.

***Thank you NetGalley, Sayaka Murata, and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. ***

[thank you to Grove Atlantic | Grove Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!]

First off, if you're someone who needs content warnings, check them for this book and heed them.

Second off - this book is WILD. Sayaka Murata is of course known for her commentary on humanity and what's considered normal/abnormal especially in the rigidity of Japanese working society, but this speculative fiction novella truly goes far (that is to say, I had a great time reading it but I know it's definitely not going to be for everyone).

IN A WORLD-- in the speculative near-future, in a world where Japan concentrated its technological and medical efforts on artificial insemination after the war, not only is it abnormal for a husband and wife to biologically create a child using only their two bodies, but it's also taboo! (And considered incest, as your husband/wife is now your family!). Amane, our main character, has always been a bit abnormal - raised by a single mom and entering this world in an uncommon way, she discovers the desires of her body at an early age, and is left to navigate that in a rapidly changing society, one where falling in love with (and using the thoughts of them as.. self-love objects) fictional characters is not only encouraged, but actually a thing engineered to happen. Honestly as someone who is now (full adult) and as a teen with our very limited access to good anime back in the '90s it was fully normal even as an "overseas otaku" to have anime crushes/boyfriends/girlfriends/harems, so the fact that Murata built a world where the anime/manga/game/etc fictional character crushes were not only normalized, but actually specifically created in order to be objects of love and desire? Revolutionary.

I think for a novella there were a few times that seemed almost over-explanatory, but it may also be saying similar things to different characters and getting those different characters' different takes on those same things, thus showing us how they look at the world as opposed to our protagonist who we know even by her own self-description has a sort of skewed way of looking at things. Also, the translation seemed good, although I wish there was a translator's note (maybe in the published version?) to see why they call all the kids in Experiment City "Kodomo-chan" (child), but this is just a personal curiosity and not a critique.

It's for sure the sort of book you jump into a friend's DM's after you've finished (a friend who already read it) like "bro what" or message your partner in the other room on your household's shared Discord (ok this is an autobiographical anecdote I guess) like:
"hey remember that book I told you I started the other day, I just finished and it was WILD"
"I can only imagine"
"no you really can't"

“Normality is the creepiest madness there is.”

For most of this book, I didn’t know how I felt or how I was supposed to feel. I liked the commentary on how modern society looks at love and relationships. How we have basically written off marriage as useless and how the future may not include marriage. It was interesting to consider a world where a husband and wife copulating was incestual. Also, the normalization of relationships with fictional characters was interesting too. The ending was completely unexpected and to be honest, kinda made me change my rating. The situation with the Kodomo-Chan made me really uncomfortable so instead of a solid 4 stars it made me go down to a 3 star rating.

This author is really gonna deliver an original experience, every time. While it also tackles themes of conformity, I did not like Vanishing World as much as Convenience Store Woman and ultimately felt like it lacked any substantial depth. It was like thought-provoking commentary was introduced and moved on from before it was realized. And when we moved on, it was to stiff over-explanatory conversations. This one made me feel very weird, and mostly confused. The characters actions and motivations just didn’t add up and the pacing changed so much. But at least I felt something, I guess.
That ending was total overkill in my opinion. It was like the scene before it was the ending and then that last scene was tacked on to be polarizing. It added nothing to the actual story and cheapened the book overall for me. 2.5 stars.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Upon finishing this book, my reaction was a long, "Hmmmmmmmm..."

Honestly I don't have all that much to say about this novel, because like 'Earthlings', this is one you should experience for yourself. The ideas are certainly interesting, dismantling well-known and accepted conventions about sex, marriage, and the family unit. What does marriage mean in a world where sex between a married couple is considered to be incest? Should one still get married if having kids is out of the equation? What about the 'sanctity of marriage' if the couple in question are allowed, and even encouraged, to have extramarital affairs, and what does it all mean for gay marriage? Does the concept of a 'family' still hold any meaning when on top of all of that, a child you give birth to does not belong to you, but will be raised communally instead?

Unfortunately, I find some points to be rather repetitive, such as Amane's defence of her love for anime characters and her disdain for the 'old ways'. The latter was the key wedge in the relationship between Amane and her mother, and I don't know, after a while I just don't really care that much.

However, my biggest gripe was the ending. Like 'Earthlings', things went bonkers and without giving anything away, let's just say I threw up in my mouth a bit. Now I'm not particularly averse to reading about depraved acts of sex and violence, but the escalation didn't quite convince me. I personally thought it was trying too hard to be shocking and I'm also not sure what the point was?

I've read all of Sayaka Murata English-translated books to date, and while this wasn't terrible by any means (I mean, I still gave this a 3.5 star rating) I consider 'Vanishing World' to be my least favourite so far.