Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Life Ceremony

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Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

73 reviews

akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

A series of short stories that have the same themes of Convenience Store Woman but with added fuckery.

As someone who is an asexual lesbian I didn’t find a lot of the stories particularly disturbing, maybe that’s the point, but a lot of people found this to be crazy weird and while it was definitely that, it wasn’t as weird as I’d thought.

As in Convenience Store Woman, Murata talks about asexuality, aromanticism, life, sex, and the idea of not fitting into society. I enjoyed this collection!

The highlights were:
Life Ceremony
Hatchling
A clean marriage
Two’s family
Poochie

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darumachan's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was dark and both challenging and fascinating for me. Murata's characters tend to be neurodiverse or psychologically at odds with social norms; the characters typically are well aware that they do not fit in well with society, and they must each work, in their respective way, to decide what will be best for them -- to conform, to pass as best as they can, or to resist. The characters in Life Ceremony are no different; what makes Life Ceremony stand out from other works by Murata (such as Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings) is that the societies depicted in many of the stories of Life Ceremony are dystopian, and the friction that the character feels comes from how that imagined society is incompatible with and intolerant of what we might recognize as mainstream social norms and expectations of our current lived reality. This creates entry points for neurotypical readers to identify in new, and perhaps more visceral, ways with a "social misfit" character type, when in previous works the neurotypical reader would be forced to work harder to be empathetic to a character who might be distant, challenging, or downright repellant to mainstream society.

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edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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yuyuv's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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withlivjones's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This is a really interesting and unusual collection of short stories that celebrate weirdness. There were definitely a few that fell a bit flat for me but the ones that don’t - especially the stories that follow the central theme of food - are absolutely fantastic, bizarre and toe-curling. My favourites out of the collection are “A Magnificent Spread”, “Hatchling”, “Eating the City” and the titular “Life Ceremony”. This book is perfect for newcomers to short stories and avid readers alike, especially if you enjoy horror or stories that will make you say “what the hell did I just read?”

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achedester's review against another edition

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dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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kymzii's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Body Horror and Culture Shock
This is a collection of short stories that deal (somewhat metaphorically) with issues surrounding culture, food and lifestyle. However, it is the way Murata approaches these subjects that lift these stories out of banality i.e.

one story involves cannibalism and fertility rituals and another involves using dead human bodies as clothes and furniture.

Her tone is cool and removed and her characters seem a little closed off even when they are baring their souls. My one criticism is that some of her stories go nowhere and the collection would have been better without them e.g. the story where

a woman things she is a building (I'm still not sure what actually happened) or another when a woman is describing how she has a different personality with different friend groups (it just didn't go any where and her husband gets needlessly upset about the whole thing).

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