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A review by alexblackreads
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
5.0
Do I tag this as horror? It's kind of horror, which makes it one of the only horror books I've ever enjoyed. This also cements Sayaka Murata as one of my favorite authors. I adored every second of this very short book.
It is so horrifically sad in a real world sense. This poor young girl is being abused in so many ways and she uses a number of very unhealthy coping mechanisms to do so. It's heartbreaking. She quite literally deludes herself while offering scathing commentary on the state of the world and the people in it. She survives by separating herself from the "earthlings," as she refers to them.
But then it takes a turn into the horror genre with a lot of gore, and it becomes horrific in a very different way that hits just as hard. I've never read a book that took such a turn like this and worked so well. It genuinely felt like two different books, but they flowed into each so well that I genuinely couldn't separate them if I wanted to. Like there was no other place for this story to go, yet I could not have seen it coming in a million years. It was beautifully written.
I don't think this one will have nearly the wide appeal of Convenience Store Woman, and to be honest I don't think I love this one quite as much, but this was a stunning book. It felt like a gut punch. It broke my heart and made me want to throw up and completely changed my perception while it was doing so. This is a masterpiece and I adore Murata's writing. My favorite book of the year so far by a wide margin.
It is so horrifically sad in a real world sense. This poor young girl is being abused in so many ways and she uses a number of very unhealthy coping mechanisms to do so. It's heartbreaking. She quite literally deludes herself while offering scathing commentary on the state of the world and the people in it. She survives by separating herself from the "earthlings," as she refers to them.
But then it takes a turn into the horror genre with a lot of gore, and it becomes horrific in a very different way that hits just as hard. I've never read a book that took such a turn like this and worked so well. It genuinely felt like two different books, but they flowed into each so well that I genuinely couldn't separate them if I wanted to. Like there was no other place for this story to go, yet I could not have seen it coming in a million years. It was beautifully written.
I don't think this one will have nearly the wide appeal of Convenience Store Woman, and to be honest I don't think I love this one quite as much, but this was a stunning book. It felt like a gut punch. It broke my heart and made me want to throw up and completely changed my perception while it was doing so. This is a masterpiece and I adore Murata's writing. My favorite book of the year so far by a wide margin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Cannibalism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse