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A review by dreamingofeternalreading
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I've read Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings and Life Ceremony is more similar to Earthlings in theme and shock value than it is to Convenience Store Woman. Life Ceremony is a collection of 13 short stories about human nature and being different to the rest of society. I had mixed feelings about the collection as some stories I liked more than others.
Below are my thoughts on each.
A First-Rate Material - alright, sets the tone of the collection well 3.5⭐
A Magnificent Spread - really enjoyed this one, all about how different people eat and how we view foods as edible or inedible 4.5⭐
A Summer Night's Kiss - Cute and wholesome about two women who are best friends and one of them is aroace and the other is promiscuous 4.5⭐
Two's Family - continuation of the previous story exploring these women's family, very wholesome and sweet 5⭐
The Time of the Large Star - not giving what I wanted, at only four pages long 3⭐
Poochie - Again, very short, weird, not much context 2.5⭐
Life Ceremony - Probably my favourite in the whole collection, about how society is ever changing and the morals and values we hold could completely shift in the future, very freaky and disturbing 5⭐
Body Magic - repeat characters from Earthlings, this one made me uncomfortable which is no surprise as Earthlings made me uncomfortable too 2.5⭐
Lover on the Breeze - sad but interesting perspective 3⭐
Puzzle - this one was actually disgusting 2.5⭐
Eating the City - not for me, I was a bit bored 2⭐
Hatchling - I related to the main character in a way that freaked me out, about identity and I couldn't help but think of DID when reading this and I don't know if that was the author's intent or if DID was just poorly depicted here, but ignoring that not knowing who you are is scary so this story did resonate with me 4.5⭐
A Clean Marriage - asexual marriage, trying to conceive does so in orthodox way 4 ⭐
Overall I rate Life Ceremony 3.75 I took my individual ratings are got the average but pumped it from 3.5 to 3.75 taking into account that overall I enjoyed the reading experience.
Below are my thoughts on each.
A First-Rate Material - alright, sets the tone of the collection well 3.5⭐
A Magnificent Spread - really enjoyed this one, all about how different people eat and how we view foods as edible or inedible 4.5⭐
A Summer Night's Kiss - Cute and wholesome about two women who are best friends and one of them is aroace and the other is promiscuous 4.5⭐
Two's Family - continuation of the previous story exploring these women's family, very wholesome and sweet 5⭐
The Time of the Large Star - not giving what I wanted, at only four pages long 3⭐
Poochie - Again, very short, weird, not much context 2.5⭐
Life Ceremony - Probably my favourite in the whole collection, about how society is ever changing and the morals and values we hold could completely shift in the future, very freaky and disturbing 5⭐
Body Magic - repeat characters from Earthlings, this one made me uncomfortable which is no surprise as Earthlings made me uncomfortable too 2.5⭐
Lover on the Breeze - sad but interesting perspective 3⭐
Puzzle - this one was actually disgusting 2.5⭐
Eating the City - not for me, I was a bit bored 2⭐
Hatchling - I related to the main character in a way that freaked me out, about identity and I couldn't help but think of DID when reading this and I don't know if that was the author's intent or if DID was just poorly depicted here, but ignoring that not knowing who you are is scary so this story did resonate with me 4.5⭐
A Clean Marriage - asexual marriage, trying to conceive does so in orthodox way 4 ⭐
Overall I rate Life Ceremony 3.75 I took my individual ratings are got the average but pumped it from 3.5 to 3.75 taking into account that overall I enjoyed the reading experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Sexual content, and Gore