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anjelicad's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mccabec20's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Holy shit
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism
risky_gamble's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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
3.5
spenkevich's review against another edition
3.0
‘Survive, whatever it takes.’
‘The reward for conformity,’ wrote author [a:Rita Mae Brown|23511|Rita Mae Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1209493600p2/23511.jpg], ‘is that everyone like you but yourself.’ The alienation that comes from an inability or distaste for conforming with society is heart and center in the works of Sayaka Murata. Revisiting and revitalizing many themes addressed in her brilliant, previous novel Convenience Store Woman--which hit English-speaking shelves in 2018 translated by [a:Ginny Tapley Takemori|7046724|Ginny Tapley Takemori|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]--Murata’s newest novel, Earthlings goes further into a darker investigation of a patriarchal society that perpetuates itself as a ‘Baby Factory’ as the narrator Natsuki often terms it. With a detached tone similar to Keiko from Convenience Store Woman, Natsuki relays her life story stitching past and present back and forth to address issues of alienation, the crushing machinery of conformity, and the question if happiness is attainable within it all. In Earthlings, alienation from society might literally mean being an alien, as Natsuki suspects she may be after her cousin Yuu tells her during childhood that he is from the planet Popinpobobia. Delightfully disturbing, Earthlings follows Natsuki through her struggles in a society she both rejects yet wishes she could be ‘brainwashed’ into participating within as she is beleaguered by oppressive family, the lusts of teachers, the distrust of friends and more all while stumbling through tragic attempts of survival against the world.
In Earthlings it is a bit like Murata worried people may have missed the dark social criticisms beneath the charming atmosphere of Convenience Store Woman and wanted to make sure the grittier aspects hit home. Here we also find a young social outcast but while Keiko was able to find her happening working in a convenience store despite social pressures, Natsuki does not feel she can happily belong anywhere on Earth. With good reason, as much of her childhood is fraught with sorrow, shame and scandal. Her mother openly dislikes her and she feels they would be better off without her. ‘If I wasn’t here, the three of them would make a perfect unit,’ she thinks, a feeling that expands to her feeling about her place in society as she ages.
This is only exponentially aggrieved by other societal pressures to get married and have children, to participate in the Baby Factory as she terms society.
Bad things happen to Natsuki, either forced upon her or the ways in which her own actions are met with consequences from an obdurate mother. Though she copes with this by believing she has magical powers and that her stuffed toy is an emissary from another world here to make sure she completes her magical quest to save humanity. What occasionally comes across as magical realism in the novel is literally Natsuki experiencing a break from reality as a coping or defense mechanism. ‘I must use my magical powers to stay alive,’ she thinks, ‘I must become empty. I must obey.’ I won’t spoil anything but be forewarned that a Trigger Warning list would be a page long and Murata reaches for moments intended to shock and startle you. This is sort of like a cutting punk rock of books, and it is very effective. Out of body experiences, hallucinations, the loss of the ability to taste, and others are all reactions to the events in her life that she is struggling to process.
What makes Natsuki’s emotional growth even more difficult for her is the ways she is misunderstood as well as neglected. ‘The grown ups, who did what society wanted of them, were shaken by those of us who did not.’ Feeling alienated from her family, her society, and unable to reach planet Pobinpobobia, Natsuki decides she must ‘ stop being a hindrance and become a useful tool for society,’ which, ultimately, leaves her joyless. She marries a man into a sexless relationship after finding him on a website for people who want to partner up in order to avoid being hounded about marriage, a similar constant complaint that plagues Keiko in Convenience Store Woman and thrusts her into a partnership with a very toxic man.
But does following in the guidelines of society lead to happiness? Is it merely ‘surviving but not living’ in the world. The demands are always piling up and there becomes a lack of freedom. ‘I hate people who insist on their rights while neglecting their duty,’ her father-in-law says to her because she has not yet had children. All her life both her and her husband have wanted to just be themselves but society demands their strict adherence to be what they want them to be. Yuu, the cousin she decides to marry when they are children, has lead a life listening to orders. ‘I could hear adults telling me what they wanted me to do, even though they didn’t say it out loud,’ he confesses. He obeyed the voices of society to go to school, get a job, do what the company asks until one day the company went bankrupt and left him stranded.
With this lack of respect for people, Natsuki wonders how this can be a happy life and if the rules of society really have any value. The three of them begin to try and view life with their ‘alien eye’, to see the world as an interstellar traveler might. ‘Taboos are just a form of brainwashing,’ her husband theorizes, ‘seen through an alien eye none of them are worth bothering about. They are irrational.’ This is fairly indicative towards Murata’s approach, bombarding the reader with some pretty taboo episodes and asking them to determine how irrational they may or may not be through an alien eye. There is an interesting interplay between their desire for a lack of social codes with the very tradition-heavy family memories from the beginning which the husband finds quite endearing despite his revulsion for social structure. It is also used as a subtle touch of comedy how the idea of aliens living amongst humans and magical powers is seemingly fantastical and irrational however religious and cultural beliefs such as the scene where she cannot let a candle go out lest the spirits of the ancestors will be lost in the dark and not return as totally normalized in society.
While the plot goes to extremes and is rather engaging, Murata is best when exploring the mundane nuances of life. This works particularly well through her simple yet effective Baby Factory theory and the ways any incongruence with the Factory’s demands seems to bring sadness or anger into the lives of those who fail it.
What constitutes survival, how can you find happiness, and is their plan to become Popinpobopians and abandon human society a freedom or chaos? Where Keiko eventually remains in retail work because being a cog makes her happy despite it violating social norms, Earthlings explores the possibility of violating social norms by leaving everything behind, letting nothing be taboo and attempting to embrace radical freedom to question all social constructs. Based on your interpretation of the ending which arguably isn’t quite as well pulled off as it could have been but still thrilling and powerful (it is certainly a holy shit moment not for the faint of heart), you might decide that there must be some happy medium you can hopefully find for yourself between the fates of the two narrators.
Disarming, disturbing, but nonetheless rather delightful all the same, Earthlings is certainly not a book one will forget. Fans of Murata’s previous novel may be alarmed and offput by the openly dark nature of this book--my best comparison would be something from [a:Jakov Lind|757384|Jakov Lind|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1421515001p2/757384.jpg] with the way the humor is so bleak and dark you feel filthy for enjoying it--but it is rather effective and isn’t merely shock value. Approach at your own risk, but it is worthwhile if you can handle it (though actually recommending it makes me feel too much like the weird manager I once had who would basically force new employees to watch the movie Cannibal Holocaust because he got his kicks from disturbing people I guess?) Murata takes a deep, insightful stab at society and notions of individualism and comes up with blood on her hands, it is really something.
3.5/5
‘I’m not any good at being free. I’m used to following orders, but there aren’t any signposts anymore.’
‘The reward for conformity,’ wrote author [a:Rita Mae Brown|23511|Rita Mae Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1209493600p2/23511.jpg], ‘is that everyone like you but yourself.’ The alienation that comes from an inability or distaste for conforming with society is heart and center in the works of Sayaka Murata. Revisiting and revitalizing many themes addressed in her brilliant, previous novel Convenience Store Woman--which hit English-speaking shelves in 2018 translated by [a:Ginny Tapley Takemori|7046724|Ginny Tapley Takemori|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]--Murata’s newest novel, Earthlings goes further into a darker investigation of a patriarchal society that perpetuates itself as a ‘Baby Factory’ as the narrator Natsuki often terms it. With a detached tone similar to Keiko from Convenience Store Woman, Natsuki relays her life story stitching past and present back and forth to address issues of alienation, the crushing machinery of conformity, and the question if happiness is attainable within it all. In Earthlings, alienation from society might literally mean being an alien, as Natsuki suspects she may be after her cousin Yuu tells her during childhood that he is from the planet Popinpobobia. Delightfully disturbing, Earthlings follows Natsuki through her struggles in a society she both rejects yet wishes she could be ‘brainwashed’ into participating within as she is beleaguered by oppressive family, the lusts of teachers, the distrust of friends and more all while stumbling through tragic attempts of survival against the world.
In Earthlings it is a bit like Murata worried people may have missed the dark social criticisms beneath the charming atmosphere of Convenience Store Woman and wanted to make sure the grittier aspects hit home. Here we also find a young social outcast but while Keiko was able to find her happening working in a convenience store despite social pressures, Natsuki does not feel she can happily belong anywhere on Earth. With good reason, as much of her childhood is fraught with sorrow, shame and scandal. Her mother openly dislikes her and she feels they would be better off without her. ‘If I wasn’t here, the three of them would make a perfect unit,’ she thinks, a feeling that expands to her feeling about her place in society as she ages.
This is only exponentially aggrieved by other societal pressures to get married and have children, to participate in the Baby Factory as she terms society.
The Baby Factory produces humans connected by flesh and blood…This clinically sardonic tone permeates the whole of the novel. At times her and her husband’s takes on society with their own set of buzzwords reads like an annoying conspiracy theorist uncle ruining a family gathering, but under the satirical surface there is a lot of heart to what Murata is conveying. This flat tone to the narration works because Natsuki is not only on the fringe of society but also is a reaction to her life experiences.
Once shipped out, male and female humans are trained how to take food back to their own nests. They become society’s tools, receive money from other humans and purchase food. Eventually these young humans aso form breeding pairs, coop themselves up in new nests, and manufacture more babies.
Bad things happen to Natsuki, either forced upon her or the ways in which her own actions are met with consequences from an obdurate mother. Though she copes with this by believing she has magical powers and that her stuffed toy is an emissary from another world here to make sure she completes her magical quest to save humanity. What occasionally comes across as magical realism in the novel is literally Natsuki experiencing a break from reality as a coping or defense mechanism. ‘I must use my magical powers to stay alive,’ she thinks, ‘I must become empty. I must obey.’ I won’t spoil anything but be forewarned that a Trigger Warning list would be a page long and Murata reaches for moments intended to shock and startle you. This is sort of like a cutting punk rock of books, and it is very effective. Out of body experiences, hallucinations, the loss of the ability to taste, and others are all reactions to the events in her life that she is struggling to process.
What makes Natsuki’s emotional growth even more difficult for her is the ways she is misunderstood as well as neglected. ‘The grown ups, who did what society wanted of them, were shaken by those of us who did not.’ Feeling alienated from her family, her society, and unable to reach planet Pobinpobobia, Natsuki decides she must ‘ stop being a hindrance and become a useful tool for society,’ which, ultimately, leaves her joyless. She marries a man into a sexless relationship after finding him on a website for people who want to partner up in order to avoid being hounded about marriage, a similar constant complaint that plagues Keiko in Convenience Store Woman and thrusts her into a partnership with a very toxic man.
But does following in the guidelines of society lead to happiness? Is it merely ‘surviving but not living’ in the world. The demands are always piling up and there becomes a lack of freedom. ‘I hate people who insist on their rights while neglecting their duty,’ her father-in-law says to her because she has not yet had children. All her life both her and her husband have wanted to just be themselves but society demands their strict adherence to be what they want them to be. Yuu, the cousin she decides to marry when they are children, has lead a life listening to orders. ‘I could hear adults telling me what they wanted me to do, even though they didn’t say it out loud,’ he confesses. He obeyed the voices of society to go to school, get a job, do what the company asks until one day the company went bankrupt and left him stranded.
I’ve stopped hearing the commands that controlled my life. I no longer know what to do or how to live. Obeying those silent orders was how I had always survived.As someone who grew up obedient and easy to manipulate, Natsuki empathizes with this and sees how society makes you a tool that can be discarded, not a valued being of the planet. Even when one is hurting, society always finds a reason to further victimize the victim because it is inconvenient to address societal ills. Upon telling a friend of a rape, the friend chastises her accusing her of playing the ‘tragic heroine’ in an altogether himpathetic moment that reveales how the patriarchal society enforces and perpetuates its power.
With this lack of respect for people, Natsuki wonders how this can be a happy life and if the rules of society really have any value. The three of them begin to try and view life with their ‘alien eye’, to see the world as an interstellar traveler might. ‘Taboos are just a form of brainwashing,’ her husband theorizes, ‘seen through an alien eye none of them are worth bothering about. They are irrational.’ This is fairly indicative towards Murata’s approach, bombarding the reader with some pretty taboo episodes and asking them to determine how irrational they may or may not be through an alien eye. There is an interesting interplay between their desire for a lack of social codes with the very tradition-heavy family memories from the beginning which the husband finds quite endearing despite his revulsion for social structure. It is also used as a subtle touch of comedy how the idea of aliens living amongst humans and magical powers is seemingly fantastical and irrational however religious and cultural beliefs such as the scene where she cannot let a candle go out lest the spirits of the ancestors will be lost in the dark and not return as totally normalized in society.
While the plot goes to extremes and is rather engaging, Murata is best when exploring the mundane nuances of life. This works particularly well through her simple yet effective Baby Factory theory and the ways any incongruence with the Factory’s demands seems to bring sadness or anger into the lives of those who fail it.
Grown ups had it tough, too, I thought. Miss SHinozuka functioned well enough as one of society’s tools, but maybe wasn’t functioning properly as one of society’s reproductive organs.There are acute observations such as this as to the hierarchies of society and how outcasts exist at every level. The sad truth being that this is a system we are all self-perpetuating by existing in it, though leaving it may lead to one’s own destruction.
She was in the position of educating me and ruled over me, but at the same time she herself was also being judged as a tool of society.
What constitutes survival, how can you find happiness, and is their plan to become Popinpobopians and abandon human society a freedom or chaos? Where Keiko eventually remains in retail work because being a cog makes her happy despite it violating social norms, Earthlings explores the possibility of violating social norms by leaving everything behind, letting nothing be taboo and attempting to embrace radical freedom to question all social constructs. Based on your interpretation of the ending which arguably isn’t quite as well pulled off as it could have been but still thrilling and powerful (it is certainly a holy shit moment not for the faint of heart), you might decide that there must be some happy medium you can hopefully find for yourself between the fates of the two narrators.
Disarming, disturbing, but nonetheless rather delightful all the same, Earthlings is certainly not a book one will forget. Fans of Murata’s previous novel may be alarmed and offput by the openly dark nature of this book--my best comparison would be something from [a:Jakov Lind|757384|Jakov Lind|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1421515001p2/757384.jpg] with the way the humor is so bleak and dark you feel filthy for enjoying it--but it is rather effective and isn’t merely shock value. Approach at your own risk, but it is worthwhile if you can handle it (though actually recommending it makes me feel too much like the weird manager I once had who would basically force new employees to watch the movie Cannibal Holocaust because he got his kicks from disturbing people I guess?) Murata takes a deep, insightful stab at society and notions of individualism and comes up with blood on her hands, it is really something.
3.5/5
‘I’m not any good at being free. I’m used to following orders, but there aren’t any signposts anymore.’
culbyjenn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
emevelinee's review against another edition
5.0
God, I don't even know what to say right now. The way this book had absolutely everything-omg. Definitely make sure to check the TWs cause I didn't and it caught me so off guard I had to take a two-day reading break cause this just HURT. Such good writing though and a super creative and unique story, overall I really loved this.
starfish_endymion's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Incredibly different from Convenience Store Woman, though brilliant in terms of structure and prose. The writing is concise, clear and to the point, with the same voice that made Murata's last novel so relatable and easy to read.
But Natsuki is not Keiko. The way she reflects on her childhood, from happy summers with her cousins in Akishina to horrific abuse that she endured back home, paints a portrait of a believable and complicated woman in a short space of time.
Chapter 2 onward was very hard to read because of the heavy subject matter though the scenes are made somewhat bearable when seen through Natsuki's well-crafted lens: she believes she's an alien with magical powers. From this perspective, the way she disassociates is treated like a superpower. It's a very real portrayal of how a lot of kids cope in response to traumatic situations.
This book is very well done, by way of pacing, plot and voice. The score is very much based on personal preference -- I felt very frustrated by just how obtuse and cruel the "Earthlings" were. While I understand they needed to be that way for illustrative purposes, I was left feeling disheartened and frustrated by the end.
This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you do decide to pick it up, consider the triggers warnings beforehand.
But Natsuki is not Keiko. The way she reflects on her childhood, from happy summers with her cousins in Akishina to horrific abuse that she endured back home, paints a portrait of a believable and complicated woman in a short space of time.
Chapter 2 onward was very hard to read because of the heavy subject matter though the scenes are made somewhat bearable when seen through Natsuki's well-crafted lens: she believes she's an alien with magical powers. From this perspective, the way she disassociates is treated like a superpower. It's a very real portrayal of how a lot of kids cope in response to traumatic situations.
This book is very well done, by way of pacing, plot and voice. The score is very much based on personal preference -- I felt very frustrated by just how obtuse and cruel the "Earthlings" were. While I understand they needed to be that way for illustrative purposes, I was left feeling disheartened and frustrated by the end.
This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you do decide to pick it up, consider the triggers warnings beforehand.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
rachelanngloria's review
3.0
3 stars. when i bought the book the worker told me he wasn’t able to get pass chapter 2 because of how messed up this book was getting. i think it’s for the best that he stopped there tbh