Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

27 reviews

sinja_a's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

Trauma galore. Painfully so. Unhinged for the sake of being unhinged. I understand why there are people enjoying this. I am not one of them. 
Please check trigger warnings. There is rarely something that fades to black. To go into this blind is not a good idea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Incest, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Stalking, Bullying, Death of parent, Body horror, and Body shaming

reading_112's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Sexual violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Rape, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

⚠️strong topics of pedophelia, cannibalism, incest, and intercourse between minors.⚠️

luci_08's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Pregnancy, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, and Incest

quillyreads's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

5.0

This book is out of pocket. Challenging and provocative but not for the faint of heart. Don’t let the easy to understand, conversational tone fool you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Incest, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Stalking, Suicide, and Alcohol

snerp_reads's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity, Eating disorder, Death, Stalking, and Infertility

rarityfemme's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Infertility, Stalking, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Bullying, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Vomit, Stalking, and Eating disorder

Minor: Infidelity

hellocath's review against another edition

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

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

el219's review against another edition

5.0

am so confused because did we all read the same book? do y’all just hate autistic people…. 😟
soo many people saying this is so imaginative & weird/disturbing & funny when all of this (minus the last 30ish pages) happens so often & is so sad :( 
this book was so incredibly sad - natsuki’s dissociative tendencies & coping strategies were described in such a subtle and casual(?) way that made me sob, & unlike some reviews I’ve read, the characters don’t become hard to empathize with in their adult lives,, the way their childhoods affected the rest of their lives felt realistic rather than “disturbing” or “unnecessarily weird.” the relief and comfort they felt in identifying as aliens was v  realistic too idc!! (don’t get me wrong their actions at the end of the novel were insane LOL but I hope u get my point) i felt increasingly more sad as the story went on and felt relieved for them when they all started to unmask and heal,, natsuki & tomoya’s marriage proved how being with “your own kind” or simply with someone accommodating can be completely freeing,, reading about them being happy living non-conforming lives was sooo validating too ~
my only question is is ms murata okay bcause some of these descriptions felt a little too real and concerningly relatable,, i luv her little asd coded characters even when they are a lil crazy ฅ(•ㅅ•)ฅ  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Misogyny

Minor: Vomit and Stalking