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jennreadsallthetime 's review for:
Earthlings
by Sayaka Murata
About a week has passed since I finished this and I needed the time to recover from the experience of reading this book. Blurbs on the bookcover include "hilarious" and "funny" and "intoxicating" and I have to completely disagree with those descriptions.
It starts out innocently enough. Natsuki is the outsider in her family of four and her parents are mean and cruel to her and we really don't know why as she tries very hard to be obedient and to please them. She knows she doesn't fit in and begins to plan for a future where she won't have to participate in the "Baby Factory" - getting married, having kids, conforming to society.
Natsuki kind of puts her feelings into a stuffed hedgehog toy and she looks to him as guidance, like an oracle from outer space. She and her cousin connect in their feelings of not belonging and that gets a little weird for them and the family - and us readers - when they are caught consummating their pretend marriage ceremony.
Then her teacher does some absolutely despicable things to her and though she tells her mother, she is not believed. And now this is a full on disturbing book.
Natsuki marries a man who also doesn't want to participate in the norm and they have an agreement to pretend to be a typical husband and wife yet they live separate lives. And then it gets even weirder, culminating in cannibalism. My psyche needed a full on cleansing and just writing this review makes me want to scrub my brain.
It starts out innocently enough. Natsuki is the outsider in her family of four and her parents are mean and cruel to her and we really don't know why as she tries very hard to be obedient and to please them. She knows she doesn't fit in and begins to plan for a future where she won't have to participate in the "Baby Factory" - getting married, having kids, conforming to society.
Natsuki kind of puts her feelings into a stuffed hedgehog toy and she looks to him as guidance, like an oracle from outer space. She and her cousin connect in their feelings of not belonging and that gets a little weird for them and the family - and us readers - when they are caught consummating their pretend marriage ceremony.
Then her teacher does some absolutely despicable things to her and though she tells her mother, she is not believed. And now this is a full on disturbing book.
Natsuki marries a man who also doesn't want to participate in the norm and they have an agreement to pretend to be a typical husband and wife yet they live separate lives. And then it gets even weirder, culminating in cannibalism. My psyche needed a full on cleansing and just writing this review makes me want to scrub my brain.