“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.

having enjoyed “convenience store woman”, i was so excited to read this and was convinced it’d be right up my street, but unfortunately this really wasn’t for me. the dystopian premise seemed very promising at first, but the first half of the book simply goes on and on, with characters having similar conversations over and over again with very little development (both in terms of chester and plot). the plot twists that do occur often seem to come out of nowhere and don’t feel quite plausible. i did appreciate the ending and found it quite haunting and effective, but i’d already lost interest at this stage because the pacing felt so off and the writing didn’t really bring the characters alive for me (might be partly due to the translation). this might have been a good short story, but really didn’t wort for me in this format.

thank you to the publishers for the ARC! this was a dystopian story involving sexuality and human reproduction. this was disturbing, and gave me cold shivers. the only thing is i felt a bit disconnected from the writing and dialogue. but that ending!!! omg

I have to be honest and say I only made it abut 50 pages into this before putting it down, but i don’t think it’s the books fault at all so I still felt like I should review it.
I thought the premise was SO interesting and was talking to all my friend about how weird and whacky this book is… but i just lost interest at marriage two for some reason, the novelty of the concept just kind of lost it’s appeal because i wasn’t attached to the main character herself but just the idea of the world building. However I recognise that this is probably a me problem and most people would find this book delightful I’m sure! I will absolutely still recommend this in the shop when it comes out and might even pick it up again one day if I’m in the right mood.

Wow! Okay! For sure!
This is my first Sayaka Murata, but it definitely won't be my last. If you're squeamish about pregnancy, definitely beware! This is about a world where children are born through ivf, sex with your husband/wife is seen as incest, and the two sexualities are towards real people and fictional characters. If you even want to have sex, you have to look outside of your marriage and find yourself a girlfriend/boyfriend. This was super weird and I'm excited to read more from Murata.

Now that I’ve collected myself and stopped staring at a wall;
Sayaka Murata is an absolute genius. This is her dystopian take on marriage, family, babies and artificial insemenination. It’s was beautiful and shocking true to her style.

The ending was so deeply disturbing and triggering I don’t think I could recommend this book to anyone. Disappointing because I had high expectations, but most of the book was also dull and repetitive, and most of the interesting concepts and commentary on the ongoing issues in Japan with virtual companions and otaku etc is lost in the blandness of it all.

Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for the ARC, this is a review of the English translation

Set in an alternate version of Japan where couples no longer have sex, all babies are born via artificial insemination and even men can carry children, this follows one woman who experiences desires outside of societal norms and what happens when the idea of a “family” as we know it comes into question. One of the weirdest books I’ve read in a long time and I completely devoured it. Gonna be a controversial one for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and GroveAtlantic for the e-arc of this flabbergasting book.

It is unhinged and disturbing. This dystopian world perfectly depicts how my brain takes one idea to the extremes sometimes, and it was so satisfying to read.

A lot of theme to reflect on: family, sexuality, humanity and so on. And I wish I had someone to talk to about it.

It was my first read by Sayaka Murata, but one thing’s for sure, I’ll be binging all her works now.

Oh and my jaw on the floor, feet kicking, had to stand up from my sitting position when I reached the end.

This is a wild read. I was interested because there seemed to be parallels between Experiment City and the titular nation in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early twentieth-century novel, Herland. I was surprised that we don't get to Experiment City until part 3, though, and had trouble entering the dystopian world of the first two sections.

This book is kinda bonkers. It’s also her weakest novel in my opinion but that’s beside the point. I wanted to love this book, for it to be this reflective novel of exploring why family and society exist the way that they do, the evolutionary benefit of said structures, whether we would do better as a society if “the village” raised the kids etc. But instead it felt like nothing happened. A 200 page novel felt like it was 400 pages. As a lesbian, it also bothered me how straight this book was, so much so that it had me looking up the evolutionary benefits of homosexuality. The ending was also pretty weird but at this point we all know Murata can get away with anything apparently. Do I recommend it? No, read her other books instead.

In a not-so-distant future Japan, romantic connections with anime characters are a standard, sex is antiquated and taboo, and your spouse is merely a friend to have a child with via artificial insemination. Unless you live in Experiment City, which says f all that and creates an even more bizarre society if you can believe it. There's big nature vs. nurture vibes - Amane's inherit urges and personal values are challenged by societal norms, and you watch that conflict ramp up as the norms move further and further away from humanity as we know it.

Marital woes are actually my favorite topic to read about, so naturally a novel that flips marriage and romance on its head is my bat signal. And it lived up to expectations! It was hilarious and mortifying and the end was distressing. To say the least. I definitely made faces on the subway. I bothered my coworkers about it. Trying to make sense of the tone was an experience in itself. That being said, I'm excited to make my way through Murata's backlist - that's how you know a new release was good.

TLDR: this book is so unhinged lol.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Vanishing World is a thought-provoking dystopian novel set in an alternative Japan, where societal norms around love, marriage, and procreation have radically changed. The story follows Amane, navigating a sexless marriage in a world where men can become pregnant, offering a unique and bold narrative that challenges identity and societal expectations.

I have been wanting to read one of these Japanese authors that are so popular right now for a good while but I’ve been somewhat nervous and unsure where to start. I finally decided to start with this one, as that blurb sounded appealing, and the book was not especially long, so it would not be some thing that I had to spend an excessive amount of time reading if I wound up, not liking it.

In the end, I finally settled on a three star rating, but I think my enjoyment was more like a 2.5. There was a lot here that I did enjoy, things like certain concepts and issues that I find particularly interesting, and I thought the way The author chose to leave these larger issues into a somewhat smaller and sillier style of book wise at times very interesting and readable. But there were other times that the juxtaposition between the weirdness of the book, and the seriousness of the matter, felt a bit too jarring and it was hard to take anything that was going on seriously, which is sad When there are real issues being discussed, that mean a lot to people. This is one of the books biggest failings, I think, as there was a lot of room or developing something meaningful, instead of just silly. The thing that I think ruined my overall feelings of the book, is that the silliness often felt pointless, and was now meaning attached to the silly things going on, and it was just being silly and outlandish for the sake of being silly and outlandish. It’s like as if an author like Terry Pratchett tried to bring very serious matters into his book. It would seem very ions with the style of the book. Kerry Patchett actually manages to write absurdism in a way that still tackles a larger issue but it does so by making fun of it rather than putting serious matters alongside bizarrely outlandish nonsensical weirdness.

I wanted to like this why don’t need to add and whenever that happens I tend to find myself wondering if maybe I am not smart enough for that book but just didn’t give me the feeling that there was a lot going on and I’m actually but rather the opposite that there was a bunch of stuff going on for absolutely no reason at all. I’m bummed that this was my first foray into this style and genre of writing, but I plan to try other books and authors before giving up all together..

In Vanishing World, we follow Amane from childhood to adulthood as she navigates a world that is rapidly changing. Sex is disappearing from the world, as sex between married couples is considered incest, artificial insemination is the only way to have kids, and anime characters only exist for people to project their sexual desires onto.

It took me a while to get invested in the story because the writing is a little sterile, and the book can get uncomfortable at times, but once I got used to it, I was hooked. I enjoyed the commentary on sexuality, parasocial relationships, capitalism, and nature vs. nurture. And I liked how absurdly funny it got at times. It did get repetitive occasionally, and I do wish we had delved deeper into some of the topics discussed, but overall, this book was a quick, easy read that still gave me a lot to think about.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Science Fiction + Literary Fiction + Dystopia

Vanishing World is a dystopian story set in an alternative Japan where love, marriage, sex, and procreation have totally transformed into something different from our current world and definitions of all these things.

The story follows a woman called Amane, who now lives in this world where sex between married couples is something prohibited and considered like an assault! She is shocked when she knows that her parents conceived her the natural way for our world, but not for the main character’s world!

Not only that, but Amane and her husband, Saku, have a sexless marriage where the wife also can date other men openly! As we follow Amane, we get to see the conflicts inside her, whether those are related to her personal identity or to the norms of the society. In a society where men can also get pregnant, Amane as well as the other characters have many challenges to face.

This was a crazy read! Of course I mean it in a good way. I’m sure the original Japanese version must be better because, no matter what, some sentences and meanings change during translation. But even if this version was the original version that was written, it still has a lot to offer.

The book is atmospheric and has many ideas, some of which can be considered bizarre. And I guess that was one of the main things that made me enjoy reading this dystopian story. The concept is bold and quite unique, making this book a very original work of art. The author's beautifully blended themes will make you pause and think. I love it when stories provoke my thoughts in this way.

I’d recommend this book for any reader who has an open mind and can get into the story without being too judgmental. Indeed, the topics discussed here and their treatment in this alternative Japan may not resonate with all readers.

Note: What irritated me while reading the book on my Kindle, and this is not the fault of the book or the writing, was the format. More specifically, it was the absence of appropriate formatting. It is not OK to send ebooks even if they are ARCs in this way. No matter how hard I tried to ignore the problem, it still affected my reading experience.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

wowowow. weird as per usual. disturbing as per usual. ending was inside. i don’t know how to feel.

the concepts explored in this one are confronting for sure. like murata’s other books, this explores dark and somewhat shocking themes through the lense of someone absolutely immersed in that world. this book presented so many interesting ideas on motherhood, community, celibacy culture/purity culture, and ultimately eugenics.

crazy wild ride. the only thing that dropped it down for me was it took a while for the plot to ramp up. be aware going into it that like murata ya other novels there are some heavier/confronting scenes.

I’m a big fan of Sayaka Murata so I was delighted to get an advance copy of Vanishing World.

In this we follow Adame from childhood to her 40s as she grows in a dystopian world where sex has been replaced by artificial insemination as the primary means for humans to reproduce. This, of course, affects the lives of humans in a very marked way in terms of social standing, consumerism and eventually, a complete re-haul of the meaning of family.

Although I was initially riveted, as the book went on, I found it quite repetitive at times, which made it feel like a much longer book than it actually was. I was sluggish reading it in parts.

However, the commentary on sexuality, family and society was very engaging. I also found some it quite darkly humorous which is definitely my cup of tea. The characters were weirdly delightful.

And, obviously, the ending is typical Murata batshit bonkers!

I have since heard that this was her debut novel and is now just getting published here so perhaps this is why I think Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman were vastly superior. If this had been published first here I would probably have enjoyed it more for its uniqueness.

Still enjoyed it and has not changed my opinion on Murata at all, I love her writing, and I eagerly await her next wonderfully weird novel

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did, and I think it's because I felt resistant to exploring the implications of this future Japan. The premise, where sex is no longer the preferred means of procreation, intrigued me but then the commentary about how people then experience attraction and love threw me a bit. When the story turned towards the Eden where children are collectively raised by adults, I was even more thrown. Maybe it was my mindset, but I found it hard to get beneath the surface.