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A review by vigil
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
despite the claims of unhinged surrealism, confusion, and shock value, earthlings is very clear about what it is about. sayaka writes in a blunt but not unkind tone, leaving little to the imagination, unless she'd deliberately choosing to.
the premise, that natsuki, a young disaffected japanese girl and eventually woman, believes that she is not of this planet and doesn't fit into life with all the other earthlings, is the long and the short of the novel. we meet her as a young girl, visiting her extended family's home, which is also the home of her beloved cousin and boyfriend yuu. we move through her life first as a child, helpless at the hands of the adults around her, then as an adult woman trying to find ways in which she can bend herself towards the hands of society, and which ways she can't.
earthlings to me, is a study in the way that trauma lays our foundations of ourselves, and our perception of the world. early on in the novel, it rapidly becomes apparent that natsuki is being abused by her cram school teacher, scenes that cause her most vivid and explicit disassociation from reality. yuu is a similar case, trapped in an emotionally incestual enmeshment with his mother, who lacking a husband but possessing a son, uses him as a replacement. murata is quite scathing about the ways children are treated by society, and the oppression they face from the adults at large. she writes in multiple spots throughout the book natsuki begging and pleading to be protected and taken care of by the adults around her, even though they are the ones causing her the most harm.
there is no other way to say it, earthlings is about child abuse, in it's destructive and reconstructive nature. everything in the novel ties back to it. the factory, the invisible but present concept in the novel, is dedicated solely to the production of babies, is the arbitrator of normality. the factory's brainwashing starts in childhood, when natsuki learns that her body does not belong to herself, but to the adults around her, and the factory at large. when not referring to herself as alien or popinpobioian, she talks about herself as a tool or reproductive organ. to her family, she is a dumpster, something to lay all ther trash on when they get too full. it's made clear that the abuse she has suffered has both destabilized a potential identity and reshaped a new one for her.
this novel is outrageous in some parts, but heartbreaking in others. it reckons with the actual idea of being an alien from another planet, trapped on earth, and finding a new way of living within it's structures to the most logical, extreme, and absurd conclusion. even at it's weirdest and most concerning moments (of which there are plenty) earthlings still finds unwrapping the ball of tension between society and the self. i don't think any review i could write could convey how i feel about this novel.
the premise, that natsuki, a young disaffected japanese girl and eventually woman, believes that she is not of this planet and doesn't fit into life with all the other earthlings, is the long and the short of the novel. we meet her as a young girl, visiting her extended family's home, which is also the home of her beloved cousin and boyfriend yuu. we move through her life first as a child, helpless at the hands of the adults around her, then as an adult woman trying to find ways in which she can bend herself towards the hands of society, and which ways she can't.
earthlings to me, is a study in the way that trauma lays our foundations of ourselves, and our perception of the world. early on in the novel, it rapidly becomes apparent that natsuki is being abused by her cram school teacher, scenes that cause her most vivid and explicit disassociation from reality. yuu is a similar case, trapped in an emotionally incestual enmeshment with his mother, who lacking a husband but possessing a son, uses him as a replacement. murata is quite scathing about the ways children are treated by society, and the oppression they face from the adults at large. she writes in multiple spots throughout the book natsuki begging and pleading to be protected and taken care of by the adults around her, even though they are the ones causing her the most harm.
there is no other way to say it, earthlings is about child abuse, in it's destructive and reconstructive nature. everything in the novel ties back to it. the factory, the invisible but present concept in the novel, is dedicated solely to the production of babies, is the arbitrator of normality. the factory's brainwashing starts in childhood, when natsuki learns that her body does not belong to herself, but to the adults around her, and the factory at large. when not referring to herself as alien or popinpobioian, she talks about herself as a tool or reproductive organ. to her family, she is a dumpster, something to lay all ther trash on when they get too full. it's made clear that the abuse she has suffered has both destabilized a potential identity and reshaped a new one for her.
this novel is outrageous in some parts, but heartbreaking in others. it reckons with the actual idea of being an alien from another planet, trapped on earth, and finding a new way of living within it's structures to the most logical, extreme, and absurd conclusion. even at it's weirdest and most concerning moments (of which there are plenty) earthlings still finds unwrapping the ball of tension between society and the self. i don't think any review i could write could convey how i feel about this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Sexual harassment