As someone who immensely enjoyed Convenience Store Woman, I was so excited to get the chance to read Vanishing World.

Murata explores so much in such a short novel, breaking apart the family system, love, sex, and identity in just over 200 pages. Our main character Amane was conceived through sexual intercourse during a time when artificial insemination was the more popular method of having a family, and as she begins to grow she reckons with innate feelings and external norms.

Amane and her husband watch the news, at first disgusted with, then slightly more interested by, the implementation of Experiment City and womb transplants. As time goes by, she knows that she is losing her need for love and closeness; what replaces that isn't loneliness, however, but a "cleaner" way of being. The novel was highly readable, and begins to pull you into its bizarre notions of a changed world before you even realise it's happening.

Throughout the novel there is a shifting taking place, with the final form as Mother inching closer. It would be easy to throw away the last few pages as weird, disgusting, and completely unnecessary, but I think Murata is trying to emphasise the complexities of bringing life into the world, and the separation of caregiver and child. The execution of the ending could have been better, but maybe we are meant to sit in our discomfort while Amane realises her final form is Monster, not Mother.


*thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the arc

I absolutely love Sayaka Murata and I wasn’t expecting Vanishing World to turn out the way it did. She is the go-to weird girl read. There is a lot to unravel with Vanishing World and I find the way all the characters are so mesmerizing with their societal beliefs and the lack of sexual activity prior to conceiving children. I also find it really interesting how tunnel-vision people in Experiment City was throughout the last quarter of the book. Overall, I loved this book and I will always read anything Sayaka Murata puts out.

Sayaka Murata, author of "Life-ceremony" and "Earthlings," once again x-rays our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect in "Vanishing World." This novel takes Murata's universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different from our own.

From the outset, Murata establishes a world that feels both familiar and deeply unsettling. The protagonist, Amane, reveals, "I was in sex education class in the fourth year of elementary school when I discovered that I had been conceived by an abnormal method," immediately signaling the extent to which this society has diverged. As the narrative unfolds, we learn that "humans are the only animal who breed through scientific means," a fact that underscores the artificiality of the world Amane inhabits.

Murata's critique of gender and family norms is woven throughout the narrative. Amane's journey is one of seeking to escape "the walled garden my mother had created," a world where "copulation was the norm before the war, but when adult men were sent off to fight, research into artificial insemination rapidly progressed." In this society, "sex was disappearing," and Amane finds the very idea of it – "the very idea of a married couple having sex, it's horrifying."

The novel explores the complexities of relationships and societal expectations. Amane's move with her husband, Saku, to Experiment City (or Paradise-Eden) further illuminates Murata's vision of a society radically transformed. In this city, "every person is considered a Mother to all children," men are beginning to carry children, and traditional family structures have dissolved. As Amane observes, "In this city, everyone was expected to live alone. The concepts of couples and family were considered disruptive." The author asks ""If what we knew as family vanished from the world, surely moments like these would no longer happen?"" Amane's questioning of her own desires is palpable as she wonders, "Why had I ever wanted a family? There were times when I no longer knew the answer to this question".

Murata's writing style is easy and fast-paced, making this exploration of complex themes both accessible and engaging. The narrative effortlessly draws the reader into Amane's world, inviting us to contemplate the nature of love, desire, and societal evolution. As Amane grapples with her own feelings, she reflects, "The outside world is soiled by my feelings of love and my sexual appetite. The only place I feel clean is at home". This journey of transformation is further emphasized when Amane feels that "A new world was being imprinted in me."

One of the most compelling aspects of "Vanishing World" is its ambiguity. Murata presents a society that could be perceived as both a dystopia and a utopia, depending on the reader's own values and beliefs. While some may find the lack of traditional family structures and the control exerted by technology disturbing, others may see in this world a more equitable and rational way of life. As the characters themselves acknowledge, ""But don't you kind of get the feeling that it'll just be a natural development? The family system isn't really appropriate for us anymore?"" and "We've changed and society is also changing to catch up with us. That's all it is". This duality is captured in Amane's observation: "Normality is the creepiest madness there is. This was all insane, Yet it was so right," and is further highlighted by the transformation of gender roles, where "Men and women were now all the same, all wombs in service of the human race."

Ultimately, "Vanishing World" is a thought-provoking and unsettling novel that challenges us to question our most deeply held assumptions about what it means to be human. Murata's vision is both strange and compelling, and this book is sure to stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.

"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."

A bold and bizarre critique of contemporary Japan that is not as dystopian as it should be. Murata creates a clinical yet vivid world where sex is taboo, intimacy within marriage is incest, and children are everyone's. A disorienting spiral down this Brave-New-World-like that left me feeling a little crazy at the end, but like in a good way. I think.

When I read a Murata book, I expect weird. But I think she is getting weirder with every release that she has. In Vanishing World. Murata has imagined an alternative reality where children are exclusively conceived through artificial insemination, it's the norm that couples do not have sex, and it's even more normal for people to take "lovers" who are fictional characters. We follow Amane, from her childhood when she first discovers her sexual inclinations, into her adult relationships. As the world changes around her, she has to decide if she is going to follow the crowd or forge her own path.

I really appreciated some of the ideas in this book. It was an interesting exploration of relationships and what it means to be a man and a woman in society. I can see Murata playing with the loneliness epidemic in Japan as well, with many of her characters preferring to live by themselves and be entirely self-sufficient. The events of this book seem like an interesting, and logical, consequence of some of those preferences.

The book, on a whole, was not my favorite and I think that was largely due to the world building. Murata has some great ideas but they never felt fully fleshed out. A lot of the book relies on dialogue to explore ideas and her characters have some interesting conversations. But I wanted a little bit more depth to the characters and the world they are in. It felt surface-level. Things take a pretty radical turn at the end of the book and I honestly wish we had spent more time with that part of the book, Except the end. Could have done without that.

Overall, not my favorite of her books.

My Selling Pitch:
While this book is an interesting thought experiment, I think it comes too close to GENUINELY asking whether pedophilia is wrong, and that's too much of a fuckin’ duh for me to give this more than 1 star.

Approach with heavy, heavy caution.

Pre-reading:
I haven't read this author before but I've heard phenomenal things. And let’s face it, I love weird girl shit.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
Red is my favorite color.

What a wacky concept. Love.

Don't tell me I've got bug pussy, lmao.

Uh-why is this lowkey reading like it's romanticizing underage sexual activity? Like there's a weird tone to it because it’s not masturbating is part of coming age; it’s having sex makes you a woman.

Audiobook has BAD dubbed anime voices.

His goal is so wholesome, and I’m lol mpreg.

Inculcate

What’s with the weird incest angle? It reads like childhood sexual abuse, and I'm getting squicked.

This is weird sexual coercion.

I’d say this is why sex Ed is so important, but it’s also more intuitive than this lol.

I feel like it’s Steven Universe and Ben 10, but I'm sure I'm wrong lol.

Nooo, abort abort abort. No teacher student. Ew ew ew!

This book sounds like it’s weirdly trying to justify unhealthy attachment.

A lot of this is stilted, but I suspect a lot of that comes from the translation.

This is such interesting commentary on sexual abuse. Like her mom’s sanctioning it.

It reminds me of I Who Have Never Known Men.

I don't like this audiobook. (I turned it off it was so bad.)

The translation is really bad. It’s like it needed to go through another step or another translator.

Like pickup artist is not the word here.

This is such interesting commentary on fandom and sexuality.

I disagree with that idea so much. She's saying we shouldn't look down on any form of sexual attraction because the morality of it is framed by society, but I feel like consent supersedes that always.

Cloisonne

There are dozens of us!

That's a wild comparison, and I kinda dig it in a self-soothing sense, but I hate that we’re conflating sex with infants again.

The Adam and Eve sections are incoherent to me.

And it’s so weird to me that this book is so fixated on Adam and Eve, but there’s no religion in it. (Other than like assumed Christianity because of Christmas.)

“Love is about having the courage to be called a pervert.” Miss girl, no. No. That's so harmful wtf?

I know this book is trying to justify anime obsession, but there's such a sharp undercurrent of this is also how people justify pedophilia, and homegirl, there's a lot of overlap in those audiences.

Uh, HARD fuckin’ pass on this ideology.

You know, I tried to give this book book grace because it’s translated and commentary on a different culture, but it’s making me really upset.

There is such a conservative religious undercurrent to this.

This book did not just say all women want to have babies.
Oh, I might be done. I’m getting so cranky.

A whole society of virgos? Omg.

I think this would be a very upsetting book to read if you had a miscarriage or had a baby die on you before they could leave the hospital.

I'm just hearing that Jeff Goldblum life finds a way quote.

Oh, WHAT THE FUCK.

Yeah, I don't know what the fuck to do with this. I'm so appalled and uncomfortable.

Post-reading:
While this book is an interesting thought experiment, I think it comes too close to GENUINELY asking whether pedophilia is wrong, and that's too much of a fuckin’ duh for me to give this more than 1 star.

I’m so conflicted. I don’t think the writing is bad despite the fact that it’s very stilted due to the translation. The child-like simplicity of the dialogue kinda works thematically. It’s a book that’s purposefully uncomfortable and detached. It almost feels like someone getting high and musing aloud. There’s no societal filter impressed upon it.

But the subject matter is so EW, and I mean fuckin’ EW, that it makes my skin crawl. And I get that that’s sort of the point, but I don't know what message I'm supposed to take away from it. I don't know if she's actually trying to argue that all morality surrounding sexuality is societally based, so we should be less quick to kink shame. And like call me a prude if you want-you’ll be fucking wrong, but go off-but I’ll kink shame harmful shit all day, any day.

I think if the scope had narrowed a bit to just examine whether infatuation with characters qualified as love or masturbation, we’d be having a different conversation about this book. It’s such an interesting chicken and the egg idea of which comes first: an innate desire for romance or structured, formulaic media designed for consumption. Like with all the AI girlfriend chatbots coming out, it’s so timely. But we abandon this inkling pretty quickly. We just get a taste.

And instead, she drags kids into it. The book literally ends with her essentially raping a child. And I don’t know how you get past that to examine this objectively.

But thematically it’s still so interesting! There’s such a sharp religious undercurrent to this that’s so relevant with all the censorship currently going on in the world. There’s examinations of misogyny, gender identity, sexuality, consent- like she packed so much in! I think this would be such an interesting book to discuss in a book club, but I don’t know where you find people with open enough minds to examine it in little bits and not immediately write it off for some of its content.

I would imagine this would be an incredibly upsetting book for anyone who’s suffered a miscarriage or had a baby die very early on.

It also lowkey kind of romanticizes childhood incestual rape. That’s a wild sentence to type. And I don’t know what to do with that, and still be like I’m glad I read this book because it gave me so much to think about.

It’s not a book I could in good conscious recommend to anyone. It’s not a book I can say I like. I liked the experience of reading it because I like to ponder and examine hard topics. I think you need to push your comfort boundaries to really find your morals, and you need to do it regularly. I think you need to hear and listen to ideas and opinions that are different from your own. And I’m still here just like nervous laughing because what the actual fuck did I just read? I think it’s important that I read this book after I’ve read some other dystopian books that tackle sexuality and gender. I don’t think this is a gateway book into the topic. I think I Who Have Never Known Men, Tender is the Flesh, and Manhunt primed me enough for the genre that I’m able to read upsetting things and distance myself enough from them to still examine the abstract ideas behind the subject matter. I don’t think I could’ve read this book without those.

The thoughts it raises are so intriguing that I won't be putting this on my do not read list, but I don't think there’s enough explicit denouncement of harmful statements and actions that happen within the book for me to decide that this is a moral examination of a complicated subject matter. I think it’s a little too open minded and solipsistic where it prioritizes one person’s needs and desires without appropriately examining the harm caused to others by those desires. The tldr, crass way of saying it is: I don't think it ever gets clear enough on the idea that you can't fuck something just because YOU want to fuck it. The harm caused to you by not being able to fuck something is not equal and opposite to the harm you cause by raping something, you dig? And that’s too much of a sticking point for me. It’s too morally abhorrent for me to get past.

Who should read this:
Fans of social and gender commentary that can handle purposely upsetting subject matter

Ideal reading time:
Anytime

Do I want to reread this:
No.

Would I buy this:
No.

Similar books:
* I Who Have Never Known Men by Jaqueline Harpman-dystopian horror, gender and social commentary
* Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica-dystopian horror, gender and social commentary
* Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin-queer, dystopian horror, gender and social commentary
* Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth-dystopian satire horror, gender and social commentary, examination of motherhood
* Januaries by Olivie Blake- hear me out-just the Monster Love story, gender and social commentary, examination of motherhood
* Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder-magical realism, gender and social commentary, examination of motherhood

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

i love sayaka murata's takedowns of modern society and what it means to be "normal," but this one felt a bit one-note for me. i wish there were some stronger characterization or storytelling, as there was in convenience store woman.

'vanishing world' has an incredibly intriguing concept that paints a fascinating dystopian world where the need (and with it the desire) for sex has been eliminated because children are all born through artificial insemination. this idea has endless possibilities and i liked the journey our main character goes on regarding her views on this society.

sadly, the execution was lacking on so many fronts. the worldbuilding is done through a series of dialogues where characters explain things to each other that they both presumably already know, and they're talking in a way like they're reading from a textbook. not to mention that the same information was repeated multiple times in multiple different conversations. this repetitiveness and lack of pacing made the majority of the book feel stagnant, and it didn't motivate me to keep picking it up. it felt like the story didn't get going until two-thirds of the way through, and when it finally got actually interesting, it was cut off with an incredibly disturbing ending that just didn't feel necessary to put in without further exploration of its morality.

this concept could have worked in murata's short story collection 'life ceremony', but in its current form it just doesn't have enough of a storyline for a full novel.

What does it mean to be family? How does your reality change when norms shift? What is normal anyway...a collective delusion we've all committed to upholding? How far will you go to be part of that norm? Murata is an automatic read for me--I like that weird stuff. This might be my least favorite of hers, but that's probably down to how I feel about having kids. More like 3.5.

this was fun, i went into it with 0 expectations and knowledge and that was a little crazy at times but definitely allowed me to enjoy it more without any previous expectations

thank you to netgalley for an arc of this in exchange for my honest feedback

I've never read any Sayaka Murata, so I was very excited to receive this as an ARC.

The world building is very good, a really interesting concept, and look at a bizarre potential future where the foundations of society as we know it are totally flipped on their head. It was highly disturbing in some parts.

I saw someone say this book felt very surface level and I agree - there was a lot of telling and not as much showing as I would have liked. Amane's descent and her time in Experiment City were super interesting but I don't feel like enough time was given to let it develop.

Overall I thought this was an interesting read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really liked Convenience Store Woman by this author, but this one wasn't doing it for me. I found the clinical exploration of sex with anime characters and falling in love with nonreal partners and somehow feeling like that was a rich love life really off-putting and just really felt like the story was over my head by the end, when things got really weird. Surely the author was exploring these topics for some purpose, but I couldn't say what it was and didn't find any meaning in it myself. Maybe my lack of knowledge about Japanese society prevented me from really grasping what was going on here.

As usual with Sayaka Murata's work I am left asking: what the hell? As I understand, this book was actually written before Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman but only translated and published in English more recently and I do think Murata's evolution is apparent when reading this older work. I enjoy her biting social commentary -- blunt, uncomfortable, a bit grotesque -- but I find a lot of the extremely detailed descriptions of sexual acts (especially those involving children) somewhat gratuitous for me personally. I see its purpose and Murata's intention but it is difficult to read. It's a worthwhile read and as always, Murata leaves you thinking and rethinking for ages after you've put her book down, but I would be hesitant to recommend without major warnings.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC!

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata once again makes us question all we think about the nature of relationships, family, sex, and sexual attraction.

Each evolving scenario Amane finds herself in is more strange than the last, but this is just the way the world grows and changes for the better, right?

Define incest. What exactly qualifies as sex vs. maturation?

This book is just the roller coaster of weird I'd hoped and expected it would be.

This was a really interesting and crazy read (in a good way). I can’t formulate a review in my typical style, so I’ll just give a few notes. This concept is very unique, and I can’t think of any books similar to this one. The themes within this book blend very well together, and I love books that really make me reflect like this one. I did enjoy my read, but I didn’t exactly love it. This book is provocative and daring, and if you have read and enjoyed other Sayaka Murata books, then I believe you’ll enjoy this one.

Thank you so very much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this e-arc.

Oh how I love a book that will make me question if I’m messed up in my head. Just let me spend one day in the mind of Sayaka Murata. Please!!!

Set in an alternate reality where humans no longer have sex to procreate, Amane was made “the old fashioned way”. She becomes obsessed with trying to understand why humans would want to have sex. This obsession leaves her feeling like an outsider in a world where married couples are not romantically involved and sex between them would be considered incest. When Amane and her husband decide to move to Experiment City to follow his dream of carrying a child, she finds herself assimilating into this new life that she wasn’t sure she wanted in the first place.

Murata continues to shock audiences with her writing. I found Vanishing World to be thought provoking and nearly taboo at times. I can’t recommend this enough to readers who wish to have their viewpoints challenged. This book, like other Murata books, will leave you talking about it for days.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for this ARC.

This was one of those books that started out interesting, then moved into thought-provoking, and then moved into creepy before landing in WTF-ville just before the end. It’s the kind of book that when it ends you think to yourself you should’ve seen that ending coming but somehow it still hit you like an uppercut to the jaw (if the uppercut were psychotic and creepy).

Vanishing World depicts an alternative Earth where artificial insemination was perfected post WWII and it became widely-available soon after; so widely available, in fact, that married couples having intercourse and having a baby via copulation is considered a form of incest by the time our protagonist (Amane) is born. Amane is a child raised in two worlds: societally she is married to the idea that she will never have intercourse with her husband and will follow the law, but at home she has been raised since birth by a mother who believes everything should be done in the old way, leaving Amane with a constant ache to experience love.

Amane is untethered from a solid self-identity as a result of the push-pull between society and home as a child, and Murata uses her need for attachment and acceptance to show us what it’s like to grow up in this world that’s changing so fast and leaving human connection behind. From her too-relatable crushes on anime characters when she’s a child to teenage fumblings with first boyfriends to fair weather friends who don’t understand her to a first marriage that ends poorly to lovers who leave her abruptly, Amane is a window into this world detached from compassion and sympathy.

It’s in the last act of the book that things start to heat up and crack, inside of the fascinating, gleaming Experiment City. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you after that, just know it starts off creepy and just gets creepier and more psycho from there with a nutso ending. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: OwnVoices/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Sci Fi/Translation

Set in an alternative Japan in which sex in marriage is taboo and children conceived through artificial insemination, VANISHING WORLD explores what it means to connect to others and the costs of conformity. Murata writes a main character, Amane, who feels like she is bound to not quite fit in having been the product of parents who rejected artificial insemination and created her the “old fashioned” way. Amane falls in love with fictional characters, tries sex, and marries. When her and her husband relocate to a planned community that’s releasing the idea of family, the novel becomes more unsettling. I would not describe this as an enjoyable reading experience because it’s a book that gets under your skin in an unpleasant way. That is just what the book sets out to do, pushing against societal norms and wonders if conformity is a kind of madness. While it won’t work for all readers, I know this book will be stuck in my head for some time. Thank you to Grove Press for the ARC.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I knew having read all of Sayaka Murata's other works, I knew it was going to be good. This was an insightful, intereting, and, as always, weird read. I loved how relationship dynamics were changed up and portrayed. The story was great and I can't wait for the next book.

I'm forever in awe of Sayaka Murata! What a mind. There are so many questions l'd love to ask her. In perfect Murata fashion, this is brilliantly weird and unsettling. l'd say it's more on the side of Earthlings than Convenience Store Woman. This challenges conventional beliefs about love, sex, marriage, children and the family system as we know it. This story shows us that what we consider 'normal' as a society can change. Murata mixes humor and horror so well. And I was not prepared for the last 15 mins of this book!!!

"Normality is the creepiest madness there is."

Thank you for the eARC NetGalley and Grove Press!!!