Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

5 reviews

lucyduller's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

I love a short-story collection; it’s a great way to get to know an author’s style and get vignettes of many different stories. I also really like Sayaka Murata’s novels, in particular the wildly popular Convenience Store Woman, which I highly recommend you read! 

 

This however, was really disappointing. It’s tricky because for many of these stories, I get what she is doing…I think. 

I think she’s trying to subvert norms and tell a story from the perspective of a societal outsider. In some cases, I think that worked quite well. The short stories I actually enjoyed were: Hatchling, A Summer Night’s Kiss, Two’s Family, The Time of the Large Star,  A Clean Marriage and Body Magic 

 

The rest however were pretty disturbing. Cannibalism, being a human building, an affair with a curtain (yes a literal curtain). Some of them felt like half formed ideas, where the story gave gruesome detail about the weird disturbing parts without the reflection or the zoom out on the bigger picture that makes the story make sense. So for a lot of this book, I had a confused face, as pictured in the post, teehee. 

 

I can confidently say these stories are unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I think it would be interesting for anyone interested in social anthropology to read, but otherwise, I’d recommend skipping this one and read Convenience Store Woman instead. Unless of course you would like to read some disturbing, disgusting, gruesome, odd stories — if that is the case then this collection of short stories is for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Stalking, Excrement, Incest, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Death, Sexual assault, and Excrement

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

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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

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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

jessthanthree's review

dark reflective fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, and Vomit

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia and Alcohol

Minor: Excrement, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Death of parent, Animal death, and Incest

leonineliterature's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Amazing short story collection! I absolutely loved every wild ride - and each of the stories really was a wild ride.

I'll certainly return to this book and reread my favourites again! I especially enjoyed "A Magnificent Spread", "Two's a Family", "Life Ceremony", "Body Magic", "Eating the City", and "Hatchling". Impressive to find so many favorites in a collection of short stories!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia and Stalking