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A review by librovermo
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
4.25
I read (and enjoyed) Convenience Store Woman not long before Vanishing World and I gotta say… if you thought the former was odd, you are going to think the latter is way beyond that.
The bizarre future Sakaya Murata created in this book is so much wilder than I thought it would be. Like, okay, all the babies are born via artificial insemination and not many people have sex anymore - that’s not too weird, right? Add in the belief that sex with your husband/wife is considered incest because you’re family and everyone falls in love with anime characters instead of real people and it gets much weirder! Yeah! It’s super weird now!
Being inside Amane’s mind was a trip. She’s one of few people that still has an interest in sex, but not for reasons you’d expect. It was interesting how clinical and matter-of-fact sex was for her. She always had to teach men how to do it, and there was no shyness or self-consciousness even during her first time - just “okay, we’re lovers now, here’s where you put your penis.”
Vanishing World is about more than just a strange, sexless world. It made me think about the conformity and the things humanity leaves behind as it evolves (and whether or not that evolution is always a good thing). It brought forth the question of how important family is (or isn’t) to us all, and how much love and attention children need to grow into healthy, fully-functioning adults. It just did that in the weirdest possible way, and it was super entertaining.
Unfortunately, because it was translated, I can’t really tell if it was done on purpose or if it’s a product of translation, but there was a lotttt of repetition. To say it bothered me feels a little strong, but I guess it did ultimately have an effect on my rating. It definitely doesn’t make the book any less worth a read though, especially if you’re a Sayaka Murata fan or you just like offbeat books.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic, from whom I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley.
The bizarre future Sakaya Murata created in this book is so much wilder than I thought it would be. Like, okay, all the babies are born via artificial insemination and not many people have sex anymore - that’s not too weird, right? Add in the belief that sex with your husband/wife is considered incest because you’re family and everyone falls in love with anime characters instead of real people and it gets much weirder! Yeah! It’s super weird now!
Being inside Amane’s mind was a trip. She’s one of few people that still has an interest in sex, but not for reasons you’d expect. It was interesting how clinical and matter-of-fact sex was for her. She always had to teach men how to do it, and there was no shyness or self-consciousness even during her first time - just “okay, we’re lovers now, here’s where you put your penis.”
Vanishing World is about more than just a strange, sexless world. It made me think about the conformity and the things humanity leaves behind as it evolves (and whether or not that evolution is always a good thing). It brought forth the question of how important family is (or isn’t) to us all, and how much love and attention children need to grow into healthy, fully-functioning adults. It just did that in the weirdest possible way, and it was super entertaining.
Unfortunately, because it was translated, I can’t really tell if it was done on purpose or if it’s a product of translation, but there was a lotttt of repetition. To say it bothered me feels a little strong, but I guess it did ultimately have an effect on my rating. It definitely doesn’t make the book any less worth a read though, especially if you’re a Sayaka Murata fan or you just like offbeat books.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic, from whom I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley.