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lunxchloe's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-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
This was a wild ride. I found the different stories to be greatly differing in quality. While I enjoyed Two's Family, Eating the city and Hatchling, I didn't enjoy A summer night's kiss or A magnificent spread.
As disturbing and weird as some of the stories were, I found myself invested in some characters despite the short time one spends with them. New concepts of love and family are established and mostly women-centered at that.
Some stories I would rate 1*, others I would rate 5*. So I'm settling for the middle, 2,75*.
As disturbing and weird as some of the stories were, I found myself invested in some characters despite the short time one spends with them. New concepts of love and family are established and mostly women-centered at that.
Some stories I would rate 1*, others I would rate 5*. So I'm settling for the middle, 2,75*.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Death, and Sexual content
Minor: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail
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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Cannibalism, and Confinement
Moderate: Death, Gore, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Stalking, Medical content, and Incest
Minor: Alcohol
A lot of talk about semen.edgaranjapoe's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Sexual content, and Gore
Moderate: Death, Incest, Alcohol, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Acephobia/Arophobia, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Excrement, Homophobia, Stalking, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Animal death, and Blood
yuyuv's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Incest, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Homophobia, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Gore, Death, Dysphoria, and Acephobia/Arophobia
withlivjones's review against another edition
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?”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Vomit, Death, and Alcohol
Minor: Stalking
kymzii's review against another edition
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).
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Cannibalism
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Stalking, Grief, Gore, Excrement, Toxic friendship, Infertility, Eating disorder, and Cancer
georgialee01's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Cannibalism, Body horror, Excrement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Sexual content
dreamingofeternalreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
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
3.75
I've read Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings and Life Ceremony is more similar to Earthlings in theme and shock value than it is to Convenience Store Woman. Life Ceremony is a collection of 13 short stories about human nature and being different to the rest of society. I had mixed feelings about the collection as some stories I liked more than others.
Below are my thoughts on each.
A First-Rate Material - alright, sets the tone of the collection well 3.5⭐
A Magnificent Spread - really enjoyed this one, all about how different people eat and how we view foods as edible or inedible 4.5⭐
A Summer Night's Kiss - Cute and wholesome about two women who are best friends and one of them is aroace and the other is promiscuous 4.5⭐
Two's Family - continuation of the previous story exploring these women's family, very wholesome and sweet 5⭐
The Time of the Large Star - not giving what I wanted, at only four pages long 3⭐
Poochie - Again, very short, weird, not much context 2.5⭐
Life Ceremony - Probably my favourite in the whole collection, about how society is ever changing and the morals and values we hold could completely shift in the future, very freaky and disturbing 5⭐
Body Magic - repeat characters from Earthlings, this one made me uncomfortable which is no surprise as Earthlings made me uncomfortable too 2.5⭐
Lover on the Breeze - sad but interesting perspective 3⭐
Puzzle - this one was actually disgusting 2.5⭐
Eating the City - not for me, I was a bit bored 2⭐
Hatchling - I related to the main character in a way that freaked me out, about identity and I couldn't help but think of DID when reading this and I don't know if that was the author's intent or if DID was just poorly depicted here, but ignoring that not knowing who you are is scary so this story did resonate with me 4.5⭐
A Clean Marriage - asexual marriage, trying to conceive does so in orthodox way 4 ⭐
Overall I rate Life Ceremony 3.75 I took my individual ratings are got the average but pumped it from 3.5 to 3.75 taking into account that overall I enjoyed the reading experience.
Below are my thoughts on each.
A First-Rate Material - alright, sets the tone of the collection well 3.5⭐
A Magnificent Spread - really enjoyed this one, all about how different people eat and how we view foods as edible or inedible 4.5⭐
A Summer Night's Kiss - Cute and wholesome about two women who are best friends and one of them is aroace and the other is promiscuous 4.5⭐
Two's Family - continuation of the previous story exploring these women's family, very wholesome and sweet 5⭐
The Time of the Large Star - not giving what I wanted, at only four pages long 3⭐
Poochie - Again, very short, weird, not much context 2.5⭐
Life Ceremony - Probably my favourite in the whole collection, about how society is ever changing and the morals and values we hold could completely shift in the future, very freaky and disturbing 5⭐
Body Magic - repeat characters from Earthlings, this one made me uncomfortable which is no surprise as Earthlings made me uncomfortable too 2.5⭐
Lover on the Breeze - sad but interesting perspective 3⭐
Puzzle - this one was actually disgusting 2.5⭐
Eating the City - not for me, I was a bit bored 2⭐
Hatchling - I related to the main character in a way that freaked me out, about identity and I couldn't help but think of DID when reading this and I don't know if that was the author's intent or if DID was just poorly depicted here, but ignoring that not knowing who you are is scary so this story did resonate with me 4.5⭐
A Clean Marriage - asexual marriage, trying to conceive does so in orthodox way 4 ⭐
Overall I rate Life Ceremony 3.75 I took my individual ratings are got the average but pumped it from 3.5 to 3.75 taking into account that overall I enjoyed the reading experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Sexual content, and Gore
allyjshand's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-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
3.0
Social norms and taboos explored through a collection of short stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Body horror, and Gore
Moderate: Vomit and Death
Minor: Animal death and Incest
librarycowboy's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Body horror, and Stalking