A review by jamierose
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Autistic readers proceed with caution. The main character is clearly coded as autistic, and while at the beginning I found her portrayal exaggerated but realistic, as the book goes on I found it became uncomfortable and hurtful as she was portrayed as basically emotionless, machine-like and even describes herself at the end as "not human" because she feels she doesn't fit into the view of a normal society. The family who are supposed to be loving and supporting are just waiting for her to be "cured" and she faces continued misogyny and ableism throughout the book.

I am only one person and I have read other autistic reviewers who say they related to her, but the way she was presented to me personally was very unpleasant to read, and since the only other main aspect of the plot involves
a misogynistic, unpleasant, manipulative male character who tries to use her to live an easy life
there was nothing to redeem it.  

Expand filter menu Content Warnings