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blusocket 's review for:
Earthlings
by Sayaka Murata
I really appreciate Murata's sense of irony and the matter of fact tone she takes toward human darkness (both CSA and social pressure to conform) as an artistic choice and an intellectual exercise but I felt so sad for Natsuki throughout so much of this book. I think it does a disservice to Murata's writing to frame the novel as purely or prinarily a story about trauma -induced psychosis , but that's definitely still the emotional valence Earthlings brought out in me. The last quarter of the book was quite sweet despite the cannibalism , and the eccentricities and taboos explored in that section were more what I expected from Murata, versus the more grounded cruelty depicted in the first 3/4.
It is really interesting to see how many ideas from Murata's short story collection reappear to be iterated on here! Not just the core themes of examining the nature of social norms, but specific motifs such as food(human meat and wild herbs) , a diffuse and self-contained sensuality, cousin incest, odd couples, etc.
It is really interesting to see how many ideas from Murata's short story collection reappear to be iterated on here! Not just the core themes of examining the nature of social norms, but specific motifs such as food
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Vomit