Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Earthlings

My immediate and brief response: It was an incredibly unpleasant read.

My more nuanced take is that I think it achieved what it was trying to do very well. I felt the isolation and social confusion throughout the whole thing. I think it was well written and well executed.

That all said: it is really gross. I mean that so seriously. It's a rough hang, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless I really knew their taste.

Definitely check the trigger warnings, it gets pretty dark pretty fast.

Content Warnings

maissi's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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soph183's review

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced

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

2.75

This book was wild- I absolutely tore through it but feel like I have whiplash after finishing it. The blurb really was the tip of the iceberg, and the story was not what I expected at all. Also psa- despite the blurb mentioning ‘buried horrors of (the main characters) past’ take this as a big fat trigger warning as SA told from a child’s perspective is a rough surprise when you’ve had no indication it’s coming.

Although this was a powerful but sad look at dissociation to cope with trauma and questioning one’s purpose in modern society, by the end of the book felt like I had lost my mind a little. As I was reading at such speed some parts felt like I must have skipped over sections as I struggled to make sense of the plot, but the ending reassured me it was just a wild ride. The last few pages were some of the strangest I’ve read for a while felt slightly unnecessary (but maybe that’s the point- to challenge what you know to be possible?). Also found the character of Tomoya really hard to stomach and even understand which made for difficult reading.

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kajoreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective 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

4.0

The first book that’s ever made me feel physically sick. Please please please look at the trigger warnings before picking this up.

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teetasse's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.75

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snerp_reads's review against another edition

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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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dr_matthew_lloyd's review

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

fomko's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Wtf

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