Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

28 reviews

izypup's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The ending is mostly what threw me off and felt lacking. I did also feel that throughout the time skips somethings felt underdeveloped. Although, these are things that I assume didn’t involve Natsuki and she didn’t necessarily care about. 
I don’t think any of the characters behaved in ways that felt like the author jumped the shark because I believed that these characters had the capabilities of acting irrationally. 
Natsuki’s childhood in particular felt well-written and really hooked me and I specifically enjoyed the way disassociation was framed and how child minds rationalize things in ways that aren’t actually rational. 

While some of the themes were disturbing, it’s never very explicit in its descriptions even though you know exactly what’s happening. It doesn’t read as shock horror and while parts were gross, it didn’t put me off from the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Death, Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, Cannibalism, Misogyny, and Incest

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Pregnancy, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Vomit, Animal death, Bullying, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sinja_a's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Trauma galore. Painfully so. Unhinged for the sake of being unhinged. I understand why there are people enjoying this. I am not one of them. 
Please check trigger warnings. There is rarely something that fades to black. To go into this blind is not a good idea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Incest, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Stalking, Bullying, Death of parent, Body horror, and Body shaming

reading_112's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Sexual violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Rape, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

⚠️strong topics of pedophelia, cannibalism, incest, and intercourse between minors.⚠️

luci_08's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Pregnancy, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, and Incest

quillyreads's review against another edition

challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is out of pocket. Challenging and provocative but not for the faint of heart. Don’t let the easy to understand, conversational tone fool you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Incest, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Stalking, Suicide, and Alcohol

snerp_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The concept for this book was very interesting, and worth exploring, but I feel this book fell flat. 
I did enjoy the small tidbits of world-building around Natsuki's belief in Popinpobopia, and

how she used said beliefs to mask her coping mechanisms and responses to abuse as magical powers in her young mind.

 
I thought we would've gotten a longer narrative through her childhood,

but 40% into the book there was a pretty long time skip, which I felt threw off the pacing.

This would have been fine by itself, but the story seems to unravel too quickly and without satisfactory explanation

in the last quarter of the book.

Alongside those pacing issues, a lot of the heavier topics depicted seemed slightly ham-fisted in and included mainly for shock value, instead of for relevance or genuine exploration. There does seem to be an issue with the characters, especially Natsuki. The voice of her childhood self and her adult self are identical, in a way that both makes her sound too old as a child and too young and naive as an adult. This weird contradiction is prevalent from the start, and never goes away. The ending did not make sense or feel very thought out to me, and the few twists at the end didn't have much foreshadowing. 

However, I did find Natsuki and her husband's relationship interesting, and a refreshing change of pace from most written marriages.

The mechanic of framing Natsuki's vision of herself as an alien was also one of the main things I liked about this book.
I enjoyed the concept Murata created, and was drawn in to read more when she used it to explore Natsuki's feelings and reactions to the mistreatment of her by the adults around her, but I feel the book ultimately veered too hard into shock-value territory, and caused any potential messages or analysis to be flung out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity, Eating disorder, Death, Stalking, and Infertility

rarityfemme's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Infertility, Stalking, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Bullying, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Vomit, Stalking, and Eating disorder

Minor: Infidelity

hellocath's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

…bruh idk what to tell you other than check the trigger warnings and multiply them by 10 and never EVER take suggestions from BookTok

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Gore, Murder, Violence, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Vomit, and Stalking

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Uncomfortable and something that you're not going to forget for a long time. I'm not sure that's a good thing though. The first half was traumatic and the second... I don't even know? Not a nice read but well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Violence, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, and Mental illness