A review by booksaurus98
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

challenging dark medium-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? No

5.0


Children's lives never belong to them. The grown ups own us.

I think there has been times in most of our lives when we have looked at some aspect of the daily grind of life and just though,'why?'. I'm sure that there are cultural and societal norms that we feel don't benefit us, and indeed may not benefit anyone at all. The main character, Natsuki, has the ability from a young age to cast a detached eye on society and clearly see its absurdities - especially the absurdities of the lives of the adults in her life.

Eleven year old Natsuki knows that she has been burdened to protect the Earthlings. This is her mission, given to her by a plush hedgehog toy Piyyut from the planet of Popinpobopia. She has been endowed magical powers which she must use to protect herself and sometimes others from the evil forces at play in her strange world. A world where all the adults are obsessed with baby-making and working all day. The one good thing in her life is the summers she spends in her grandmother's mountain house with her cousin Yuu, who also has links to Popinpobopia. After a shocking incident occurs between the cousins, the summer is yanked away from her and she is left to survive as best she can amongst the earthlings. All grown up, Natsuki finds a kindred spirit in her asexual husband and the two propel eachother to try to finally shake off the earthlings keeping them hostage.

There is so much to talk about in this heartbreaking and bizarre little book. The effect of child abuse and neglect that follows people throughout their lives; the feeling of being isolated from society and the genuine bizarreness of earthlings.

This is a story that becomes weirder and weirder towards the end, but at every step I felt Murata knew what she was doing and that every twist and turn in the story was ultimately inevitable
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