Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

75 reviews

saharz's review

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was absolutely insane. At many times it was hard to read, not due to writing style but due to content. It deals with a lot of dark and heavy topics with vivid, vivid description. But for all it’s intensity I could not put the book down, the writing style was simple yet effective

I was constantly questioning myself and the narrator

I found myself to be completely enthralled with this take on trauma and Japanese society. The world was normal, as I know it, and yet the book does an incredible job of presenting to you what is encroaching and dystopian about it, it feels like a different world but simultaneously, you know the rules of it- you know it’s logic and what’s expected and the ways the world reacts to the characters and the ways the characters react to the world have you respect the levels of absurdity the characters go to in response to it. All worlds seem equally absurd. “And why not respect

Pobinpobopia

this is what you allow in this world you’ve chosen to build?” The author seems to ask. 
The ending was insane but beautiful. And I appreciated this type of loved that formed out of confession, radical acceptance, freedom, and taboo. But still, off the f*cking wall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence

This is not a book for the weak. The content can be horrific at times and tries its best to intentional be morally repugnant. Walk carefully and at your own pace with this.

hellocath's review

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

gabrielaresende's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Self harm, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Bullying, Cannibalism, and Adult/minor relationship

markwillnevercry's review

0.25

Yeah, no, thanks, I'm good, me and Sayaka Murata are just not chilling together, such is life sometimes. This was just not good, not for me at least. I kinda get what the author was going for, but just because an idea exists, it does not mean that it should be put to life. The amount of trigger warnings that this book needs is way to big, even tho it says basically the same thing as Convenience Store Woman. I will not continue with this author.

Reading notes:

Just a reminder, that we have two sex scenes, where Natsuki is 12.

The second she started talking about copying the way her friends talk it was just like "Ah yes, this is just reskinned convenience store woman".

There is victim blaming. 

This book is published in 2018 and there is talk about how Natsuki does not have permission from her husband :)
Why are we here :)

Ah yes, Natsuki has the responsibility to have sex with her husband :)

-//- 

Ah yes, Natsuki was so lucky that her teacher was in love with her :)

Of course only Natsuki cares about love, it is not a manly thing :)

I am tired :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Pedophilia, Confinement, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence

karmachamillionaire's review against another edition

dark sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Earthlings is a deeply upsetting critique of society,  focused largely on the impact of unresolved trauma from childhood abuse. This book is important and incredibly well written, but don’t take the content warnings lightly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent and Mental illness

Minor: Fatphobia

jadechii's review

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Incest, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death of parent, and Death

fairygodfish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.75

The only thing stopping me from giving this a full five stars is how uncomfortable the first two chapters made me feel. But I also don’t think this story could have been told without it. And I think I’m glad this story was told. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Incest, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, and Gore

Minor: Infidelity, Infertility, and Death of parent

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

CW: before going in, this book is very unsettling and deals with horror, trauma, and sexual abuse.

This is a book I read as part of book club. I seem to have been the first to finish it, probably because I started it before the month technically started (and my timezone favours me too). Set in Japan, it tells the story of a woman who approaches life quite differently from other people. She is traumatised as a child and this also affects how she interprets things happening around her as she grows to womanhood. The story is told in 2 timelines, childhood and adulthood.

The story starts out as though it's a serious critique of culture but by the end of the book has devolved into a complete mess of horror and depravity that seems deliberately contrived to unsettle the reading audience. It also seems to have less of a grip on reality at the end and disappointingly bibbles off into impossibilities. I was prepared to suspend disbelief and I would have been very happy for things to have become some fluffy candy fantasy, but instead it veered in a much more darkly destructive direction.

Three main characters each seem to have lived scarred lives, and it seems like the author blames most of those woes on their mothers. I don't know if this is just misogynistic internalisation, or a critique of the treatment of women in Japanese society. There is a lot of critique... some of which is valid, and some which is pretty much destructive nonsense.

I'm not sure if the messy disaster that is the end of the book is supposed to be a reinforcement of the necessity of social controls, or just a flight of dark fancy given gory wings and teeth. I tend to think that it's mostly the latter, and if this is supposed to be a sensible discussion about the oppressive nature of a coercive culture that demands that people force themselves to marry and procreate to meet the needs of the societal Factory, then there are better ways to have that conversation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, Vomit, Sexism, Violence, Gore, Grief, Sexual assault, Death, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

fedelikeslego's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Unlike Convenience store woman, which I hated and couldn’t keep myself to finish it, I liked this. I read it in one sitting and I’m giving it 4 stars just because I enjoyed reading it.

I’m so confused I feel like I’m high. That’s what it feels like at the end of the “experience ”. I felt so high that their discussions had perfectly made sense.

I think that the book could be divided in two parts: 

• The first ⅓ of the book. Here incest and rape/pedophilia were extremely explicit and I’m not sure I liked that. Even if the love story between the kids was so cute (they were so innocent it didn’t “bothered me that much”), I don’t think that it was necessary to explicitly write for pages about all the sexual intercourses that the protagonist had. It was too much.

• The last ⅔ of the book. This part was a bit more enjoyable, and it’s more centred about what it means to live in this world and in particular in Japan. Murata definitely makes a perfect description of the Japanese society (it would probably make sense only if you lived in Japan or a similar asian country), it’s just so sad and frustrating. In the last chapter, as i said, I felt like I was high. I’m still trying to process what I red. I’m just confused, nothing else. 

Movie reccomendation: The Holy mountain (1973), I felt the same way reading the book and watching the movie. Different plot, different settings, same vibes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Gore, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility, Vomit, Body shaming, Bullying, and Death of parent