Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Earthlings

Context: I thought I’d read a short novel after finally finishing Dahlgren. The cover is cute. The blurb is interesting, a nice coming of age story of a Japanese woman. Nice and light.

I was not ready for chapter 2 (the book is short, 6 chapters). Chapter 6 though was downright mind crushing.

Ms Murata is a very good writer. I have read books where children are abused before. Never have I read a book where the author describes the disassociation and alienation that can be caused by that abuse so truly. She takes you to the edge, then a little more. You really can’t leave until she is done with you.

I will be thinking about chapter 6 for a long time. End of life hallucination or reality?

I will read more of Ms Murata’s fiction, just not right after finishing something akin to Dahlgren, if I can help it, and with more attention to trigger warnings.

Content Warnings

aromea's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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minahuus's review

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challenging dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

2.0

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beccaruthe's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

himinotebook's review

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challenging dark funny reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Finished this book in one afternoon, was an absolute rollercoaster of a read but one that has not left my head since. I read Convenience Store Woman earlier this year and was very taken by Sayaka Murata's irreverent writing style and incisive social commentary so was very eager to check out more of her work, and Earthlings gave me everything I wanted and more. Dare I say I liked it a little more than Convenience Store Woman, which is a really good book, don't get me wrong, but Earthlings fucking *goes there*. Understandably this might be turnoff for some readers but it was definitely a plus for me.

Sayaka Murata has (at least within the scope of my worldview and experiences) one of the most palpably empathetic understandings of what it means to navigate this world as a woman foremost, but also just a person, who is marginalised by society in some way. She treats societal expectations as almost a sort of body horror-like violence inflicted upon her protagonists, often finding themselves being dragged kicking and screaming to the expectations of marriage, gender roles and especially procreation like escapees of a cult. There is this oppressive feeling echoed by the characters that they know they can run but they can't hide.

In Earthlings, our protagonist Natsuki and her husband conceptualise themselves as sort of rogue agents, aliens on a planet with an almost authoritarian drive towards upholding the nuclear family. Natsuki suffers trauma after trauma as a child, inflicted upon her by the adults around her. She understands the very real cognitive dissonance of how unpersoned and abused living children are in a world that also insists children are the most important thing. She considers this understanding some sort of defect in herself, as very few people around her also seem to see it.

Reading Earthlings, the adage of art disturbing the comfortable and comforting the disturbed rattled around in my head a lot. By the end of the book, when things start taking a sudden turn for the horrific, the meaning I took from this crystallised starkly. Natsuki is able to find self actualisation through deep transgression. In a world that treats her as a tool, a motif that is repeated throughout, not belonging to herself, she does the unthinkable to herself and to other willing (maybe a couple not so willing) participants, and feels autonomous for the first time in her life. Nothing that's ever been done to her was done with her consent, so the only way she can conceptualise freedom is through this, exacting horrors upon herself of her own will. The normalised banal invasiveness and dehumanisation of social pressure is contrasted with literal, visceral violence as if to say "See? This is what it feels like"

With all that said, the writing keeps Murata's whimsical and matter-of-factly dark comedic tone throughout, even through some very affronting scenes and imagery so if you think that might make this one hard to stomach then I don't blame you.

Content Warnings