Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Earthlings

This book was wiiiiiilllllld. It's really one that I'm going to have a hard time talking about without spoiling everything that happens.
I've never read a book that made me want to cry within the first 100 pages as much as this one did. Our main character is treated so horribly by everyone around her and the most awful things happened to her in her childhood.... I enjoyed how much everything that happened in the beginning really fed into the remainder of the book.
Absolutely wild what occurs after the first 130 pages though lmao .. WHAT

Content Warnings

himinotebook's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

melodelfe's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

Content Warnings

auteaandtales's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

I don’t think ‘enjoyed’ is really the right word for this. I have a weak stomach so, a lot of the time, I was disgusted and it was a difficult and challenging read.

Saying that, I did enjoy the social commentary about the ‘Factory’ and how our bodies don’t belong to us. I also enjoyed the storytelling via Piyyut and Planet Popinpobopia. Much like I did with Convenience Store Woman, I really related to the main character and I, too, spent my childhood wondering when my ‘real’ family, the aliens, would come and take me back home (although this was told in a much darker way).

I’m sure this will be on my mind for a long time, much in the way Convenience Store Woman was. I would definitely read up on the trigger warnings before diving in, though, even if you don’t usually need them. It’s quite disturbing.

Content Warnings

jesssicawho's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense fast-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

3.5

Without a doubt, the weirdest book I’ve ever read. Themes of assimilation, alienation, abuse - check the CWs because this one is HEAVY. I honestly don’t know how to rate this. Strange, unpleasant, but somewhat affecting.

Content Warnings