TW: This review mentions sexual abuse, incest and cannibalism

'Earthlings' is both one of the best - and most unique - books I've read in 2020. Like many others, I greatly enjoyed 'Convenience Store Woman,' which featured a unique character trying to fit into the mould society wanted to place her in and ultimately rebelling when she realised she wanted to live her life her way on her terms. While there are similar themes in 'Earthlings,' here Sayaka Murata takes us into an entirely new place by making her characters break every single taboo imaginable. There's sex with cousins in a graveyard, sexual abuse , cannibalism - and that's just for starters. But Murata's intent here isn't to shock for the sake of it. She makes important points about the lengths people go to to try and fit other's expectations of them and how freeing it can be when you decide to live your own life on your own terms. When you feel like an alien, why should you live your life adhering to 'human' values? And who gets to decide what's moral and what isn't?

This is a short read, but it's probably best to take this one in stages because it packs a lot in very quickly. It's one of the most singular pieces of fiction I've ever read and I can see it being remarkably divisive. You will either love 'Earthlings,' or hate it. Either way, you won't stop thinking about it after you've read it.

*smacks the kindle* this bad boy can fit so much weird shit in it.

This book is bonkers. And, if I’m being totally honest, I have no idea where to even begin so I’ll start with the important bits:
Content warnings for pretty much everything you could think of – child abuse, sexual abuse, incest, cannabilism and probably a whole chunk more after my mind went a little numb.

I’ve read Convenience Store Woman and, whilst you could easily say I wasn’t a fan, I figured this book could be the one that won me over. But no one prepped me for the utterly chaotic ride I was about to jump on. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE SAY ANYTHING?!

This is the story of Natsuki. A Japanese girl who’s an alien with magical powers that will do anything to avoid ‘The Factory‘ and breaks every norm that the country holds.

Now is she actually an alien? Probably not, but she absolutely doesn’t fit into society’s shitty expectations of how she should behave. So she breaks that mould. She shatters it into so many pieces that it would blend into the sand.

Natsuki upbringing was cruel to say the least. Not one ounce of kindness was shown to her from her parents or her sister to the point where she’s not only beaten by them, but she’s sexually abused by her teacher. The heartbreaking part? No one believes her and she clearly asked for it. Fuck them. Fuck them all.

The person who had given birth to me said I was a dead loss, so I decided that it must be true.

Natsuki – Earthlings
And with that, she curled up into her imagination hoping to return home to Popinbopoia and we fade to black until she’s 34.

This woman is frozen in her childhood. Whilst she’s giving in to some ‘Factory‘ ways, she found a guy who is on her wavelength. They’re married to keep families off theirs backs, but they’re living up the solo lifestyle just under the one roof. Needless to say, their ‘lifestyle’ choices were soon dragged out.

The entire book is a wild ride – one that I only really got once I was off. Yes it’s unsettling and it feels like I’m getting sucker-punched repeatedly in the noggin, but it raises a lot of horrifically valid points.

Oh, and I’ll 100% guarantee that you will not predict the ending.

If travel restricting open up, get me a one-way ticket to Popinbopia.

This is an incredibly difficult book to review! I loved Convenience Store Woman so I couldn’t wait to request a copy of Earthlings. I have seen so many photos of the physical proof on social media during the past few months and the general consensus is that the cover design is ‘adorable’. However, I hadn’t even read the blurb before requesting my copy so to say that I was surprised was an understatement!

The narrative voice is, at times, reminiscent of Convenience Store Woman, and the protagonists share an unwillingness to conform to society’s expectation that women should marry and have children. However, that’s as far as the similarities go! Murder, incest, child physical and sexual abuse, cannibalism... oh and that’s not even considering the ‘earthling’ plotline itself!

Overall, I love Murata’s writing style and I love that she didn’t just write CSW again in a different guise. I will definitely read her next book to be translated into English, I’ll just adjust my expectations next time! Never before has a cover design been so hilariously misleading. As a bookseller, I will have to hide my smirk the next time someone comments on the cute cover...

You guys! CONTENT WARNINGS OUT THE WAZOO for this one: child abuse, sexual abuse, child sex, incest, murder, cannibalism. I mean... I could go on 👀

What on our Lord and Saviour Dolly Parton’s green earth did I just read? If Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is gentle, funny and adorably weird: Earthlings is its evil twin. A mirror image. The same tone, the same themes, the same focus on society and womanhood, but a different beast entirely. It’s such a leap from its predecessor; risky and dark and gruesome. With every taboo and trigger warning imaginable, Earthlings is not quite the book I was anticipating, nor is it one I can say with a straight face that I particularly ~enjoyed~ but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t one of the most fascinating, brilliant books I’ve ever read.

Natsuki is eleven years old when we meet her for the first time. She’s not like other girls... no really. She can do magic. Maybe she’s an alien? She has a little hedgehog-looking pal who helps her navigate her abnormal experience of what should be a normal life. Cute, right? Fuck no! Natsuki is experiencing profound abuse at the hands of the adults in her life. She finds refuge in her cousin, Yuu, who validates her experiences. He too is an alien after all. But their families decide to keep them apart. For their own good and for the good of the factory...

Twenty years later, Natsuki is trying to fit in to a world she was never meant to be a part of and thus begins a spiral so sick and so delicious I can’t even tell you how ill-prepared for it you are. Thick with double meaning and clever observation, Earthlings is a book of contradictions. It is multiple things at once. Both touching tale and disturbing read. Both true story and wild fable. Both fairy tale and gruesome campfire story. Both literary fiction and gutter humour. Both a parody of the horror genre and a true, awful body horror. Both a breath of fresh air and a suffocating experience.

I’m not recommending this book. I don’t want that on my conscience hahaha. It’ll ruin your whole day and I’m quite convinced it’ll stay with you your whole life. It’s brutal and it’s terrible but relevant and so clever and wholly cathartic. It’s extraordinary!

Huge huge thank you to granta books, netgalley and the author for the advanced ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I have heard so many great things about Convenience Store Woman that I knew I had to grab the opportunity when it offered on NetGalley. I still haven’t read that book but after this one, I am very intrigued about that one too! This book, with its cute cover, fools the reader into walking a road that is so far away from what the reader might expect to be on.

Natsuki, the lead character, leads a tough life. She’s not shown kindness by her parents or siblings and she’s been sexually abused by her teacher and it is becoming harder to keep a lid on everything that’s happening in her life and in order to deal with it, she just tries to lose herself in her imaginations. Then there’s her cousin Yu, he’s not what people call normal and even his mother agrees with that assessment. Yu, himself, doesn’t feel like he actually belongs with all the other humans. They sort of fall in love with the idea of them being together and then they are torn apart.

Then, we are thrown to the future, where Natsuki is in her 30s who’s married to a man who agrees with her about her life philosophies. They don’t want to be contained within the societal norms, they do not want to procreate or be the image of what’s expected of them by the society. Natsuki feels like her dream of living her life is still a dream and she’s surviving her life just as she was doing back in her childhood. They travel to the old family home where she first fell in love with Yu and found a connection for the first time.

It’s only after they decide to make their own bubble in which to live that we get to see the dynamics and the shocking decisions they make as they along this journey. Natsuki and her husband don’t really want to have sex in general, Yu has his own journey and all these things cumulate into something horrifying and frankly, quite brilliant. Now that I have sat down to write review, I can see once more why this book deserves all the praise and more. It’s simply unsettling and upsetting and all the things that come with a novel that’s a mixture of gore and psychological deviations of the mind after its been under such horrifying stress. I would definitely recommend it to people who can stomach all the things that are involved in this novel.

Content warnings: Misogyny, incest, murder, cannibalism (don’t ask), etc. I can’t think of more at the moment but for more warnings, go to Goodreads reviews without spoilers, I guess.

Honestly one of the most bizarre books I have ever read! As I started reading, I found myself chuckling along at some of the oddities however quite quickly the story got dark and filled with abusive situations and characters.

There is a theme here similar to Murata's other books of societal expectations (particularly of getting married and having children) as well as interesting metaphors for the human condition. Although it's unclear whether this was the intention, the narrative and perceived experiences of the protagonist depict how children process situations such as abuse which I found very poignant.

It's very hard to tell whether the viewpoint of society is accurately depicted or if the author has a warped sense of the idealism in Japanese culture. The expectations of the 'factory' appear ludicrous and unbelievable, but is it just a magnified version of real life?

Part metaphor for the 'perfect life' as viewed by society, part indecipherable ramblings of a madwoman! The story is unpredictable and grotesque, detailing some of the worst behaviours of humanity (or Popinpobopians to be accurate). It takes the human condition and warps it into something unthinkable.

A well-written and emotive piece of fiction and certainly one that will stay with me.

Earthlings is a seriously weird ride. Centred around the main female protagonist's disaffection from normal society, what she calls 'The Factory', we follow her as she hides from childhood trauma with a construction that she is actually an alien being. This novel is one of the weirdest I've ever read; it is not for the faint hearted and should come with absolutely every trigger warning going. It is daring, violent - sometimes gratuitously so - and bizarre. It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea but I appreciated what the author was trying to say about the nature of Japanese society in particular, and the world as a whole. Overall, approach with caution.

W o w! Do I know what I just read? No? Did I love it? I think so?????? Gripping, smoothly written with lots to think about, it’s one to question what life is about and what life is for. Fantastical but also painfully down to earth, I will definitely be recommending this book.

As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favour her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest, a place that couldn’t be more different from her grey commuter town. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial and that every night he searches the sky for the spaceship that might take him back to his home planet. Natsuki wonders if she might be an alien too.

Back in her city home, Natsuki is scolded or ignored and even preyed upon by a young teacher at her cram school. As she grows up in a hostile, violent world, she consoles herself with memories of her time with Yuu and discovers a surprisingly potent inner power. Natsuki seems forced to fit into a society she deems a “baby factory” but even as a married woman she wonders if there is more to this world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them. Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and wonderful, Earthlings asks what it means to be happy in a stifling world, and cements Sayaka Murata’s status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.

An eccentric and deeply disquieting novel, Earthlings depicts the dissatisfaction and discontent asexual Natsuki feels towards the world and the way it treats women. Natsuki is a fascinating character who is extensively developed and Murata really manages to get across to the reader the fact that she feels as though she doesn't fit in anywhere, however, she does find a kindred spirit in her husband, Tomoya. Those who enjoyed Convenience Store Woman will find much to love between the pages in this strange and exhilarating story. A humorous, heartbreaking and quintessentially human read. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Granta Publications for an ARC.

This is the oddest book I have ever read. At times it left me baffled and disturbed. Trigger warning for some scenes of child sexual abuse, incest and murder. At the same time it's magical and left me with a major book hangover when I finished. I finished it on my lunch break at work and genuinely struggled to concentrate for the rest of the afternoon because it left my brain so frazzled. It kind of reminded me of Perfume in how disturbing it was,... but with aliens. Can you see why I'm finding it hard to put a coherent review together? Basically if this sounds of interest to you, then please read it. It's actually weirder than how I'm managing to describe it.

Wow, this is one rollercoaster of a read. Very very different to the authors first book,
We are given a very deep into the mindset of a very damaged child, damage done that she could only save herself by finding survival in another world.
Very strange and dark, surreal in a way in how ones mind can try save us from ourselves.
Proceed with caution.

This novel begins with a family gathering, different generations joining together at the grandparents house in celebration. Natsuki a young girl sees herself as an outsider, the world wants her to breed and be a Fatory tool but she doesn’t have these ambitions; she is an alien that doesn’t want to live by the same rules as Earhlings. We soon learn that Natsuki’s life is not at all pleasant, her mother beats her and considers her stupid and useless and her young male teacher abuses her. Natsuki finds like minded people in her husband Tomoya and her cousin Yuu and all three decide that the rules created by earhlings are an illusion and they will live by their own logical and rational thinking. All this leads to a bizarre novel that becomes more outrageous with each page. The message in the end is clear but the path the novel takes is not for the faint hearted as, one by one, it ticks off taboo subjects.

Extremely unsettling and yet highly entertaining.

Earthlings is the story of Natsuki, an outsider who wants to became a useful member of the society/factory when she grows up because she doesn't want to be worthless and useless. Poorly treated by her mother who prefers her older sister, and a distant father leave her virtually alone in a world where there is plenty of danger. She grows up to be married to another misfit, and together with him and her cousin Yuu they decide to reject the world which has never accepted them and become true aliens.

Having read Murata's Convenience Store Woman(CSW), I was ready for an outsider's perspective and that I got. What I wasn't expecting was this deeply unsettling story of our alienness. Compared to CSW, this is gorier and more cynical. But the book is easy to read and I read it in one sitting. Its strength is its detachedness and while the content made me uncomfortable it never made me want to put down the book.

While I did like this book, I liked CSW better. It does have the shock value going for it, but in the end I was left wondering if anything was really said. This type of weird fiction is what I like, but this book fell short perhaps because of the expectations raised by CSW. Not my favorite of hers, but definitely a weird book which you should pick up for its radical surrealism.

Rating: 3.5 ⭐

(This review will be posted online on 01/10/2020)

This book hits you hard, it will literally leave you feeling confused and deflated. The plot line is so outrageous but so incredibly well written.
The story is full of symbolism. “The factory” is used to depict society. Over and over again we are taken through questionable segments of the book where we are told what society expects of our protagonists, but what if we don't fit in with “The factory”?
Why must we be controlled by what is deemed correct by what family and friends see as appropriate.
when we do not conform to what society dictates we are frowned upon, excluded, exiled.
This book covers some very weighty issues.

“Society was a system for falling in love. People who couldn’t fall in love had to fake. What came first: the system or love? All I knew was that love was a mechanism to make Earthlings breed”

We are thrown into Natsukis’ childhood, where we are taken through some crucial traumatic events that set the narrative for the story. My heart broke reading about how Natsuki and yuu were treated as children and how even as adults it didn’t stop there.
I won't go into the plot too much. Experience this for yourselves.
There were some beautiful moments too.
The end of the book is left open for interpretation. Very thought provoking.

Warning this is not a fluffy book , there are some hard to swallow moments, child abuse, sexual assault are a few. All told from A first person perspective. Again society dictation intervenes and the reader is left reeling by the response.

My nerves were shattered by the time I finished reading this. Honestly I loved this book, for just how thought provoking and how it questions “the factory”.
If definitely had the required effect.

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

Having read Convenience Store Woman by the same author-translator combo last year, I was really looking forward to reading Earthlings. I wasn’t disappointed.

Earthlings is a much darker and weirder book than Convenience Store Woman and tackles some really difficult subjects. The novel starts when the protagonist Natsuki is eleven years old and ends when she is in her thirties, but it’s not really a coming-of-age novel because she doesn’t become a functioning adult member of society. The first person narrative gives a compelling insight into Natsuki’s experiences and how they cause her to break from reality in order to cope.

Despite the traumatic subject matter, there were some lighter moments and overall the book was not a harrowing read for me. A recommended four stars as long as you have a strong stomach.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

To say "Earthlings" by Sayaka Murata won't appeal to everyone is a massive understatement and I can't see it being a pick for Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime" any time soon ........actually ever.
Yuu and Natsuki are young cousins who have always been close,not least as both are suffering traumatic childhoods. Yuu is constantly told that he's an Alien,Natsuki takes this literally and decides that they're both from the planet Pompinpobopia....along with her plush Hedgehog Piyyut. At 9 years old the Cousins commit to each other romantically,at 11 they hold a wedding ceremony after which they're caught naked by relatives by their Grandfather's grave on the night of his funeral after consummating the "marriage". By this time the reader is getting the idea that this book is something a tad different.
The cousins are separated and don't meet again until both are in their 30's.....which is when things get seriously weird.
I'm not sure I enjoyed this book, I was more grimly fascinated wondering what the heck I was going to be hit with next, a bit like much of Chuck Palahnuik or J.G Ballard's work. Ms Murata is undoubtedly a very talented author and the reasons for and process of Netsuki's descent into madness are skilfully, if horrifically related and I was still onboard until the last few chapters which just left me confused as any sense of reality was cast aside.
This is a very well-written book,it just got too weird for me towards the end,otherwise I'd have given it a 5 star rating . It's horrific,moving and shocking,potential readers should be warned that many unsettling subjects are tackled, including graphic descriptions of grooming and child abuse. Definitely a book that will split opinions.

Thanks to Sayaka Murata, Granta Publications and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata is a pretty strange book to describe.

The book centres around Natsuki, a 11 year old girl who bonds with her cousin Yuu as they both believe they’re aliens from Popinpobopia. Pretty much everyone in her life (aside from Yuu) is horrible to her, she is physically and mentally abused by her mother and a teacher who sexually abuses her. After a series of events Natsuki and Yuu are torn apart and then we jump ahead to Natsuki in her thirties.

Natsuki has entered a marriage of convenience and still believes she is a alien but is wanting to become a Earthling. Natsuki and her husband try to push back against the societal norms disobeying their families who want them to provide grandchildren.

I can’t really say much more without giving away the ending which is very dark and unpredictable.

Overall the book is a critique of the patriarchy that still exists in traditional Japanese families and the toxic attitudes that surrounds sexual assault. There’s a lot going on in this novel and I’m sure not many people could predict that ending!!!

I highly recommend Earthlings and will definitely be looking forward to more translations of Murata’s works.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a ho eat review.

Loved Convenience Store Woman and had high hopes for this. It started strong but veered a little too bizarre for my taste in the end. Well written and well translated, interesting insight into pressures of Japanese marriage culture.

Having enjoyed "Convenience Store Woman," I was looking forward to this new novel by Sayaka Murata. It begins with eleven year old Natsuki, driving to her grandparents house in the mountains, with her parents and elder sister. It quickly becomes apparent that this is the highlight of her year, where she looks forward to meeting her extended family - especially her cousin, Yuu.

This is a much darker novel than the previous one I read by Murata. Natsuki is the odd one out in her family and clings to a stuffed toy, Piyyut, which she got at a supermarket at the age of six. She believes he is from the Planet Popinpobopia and that he gives her magic; meanwhile Yuu believes he is an alien and is waiting to be collected by a spaceship to be taken to his home planet.

Part of this novel takes place during childhood and part when Natsuki is older, and married. This novel covers some dark themes - trauma, abuse, cannibalism and what it takes to fit into a society that rejects us. I found it a somewhat distressing and uncomfortable read, but this novel does have important things to say. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

while sayaka murata's 'convenience store woman' has elements of strange behaviour, 'earthlings' gives in completely to the bizarre and- overwhelmingly- horrifying.

as a child, natsuki begins to believe that she's a magician. emotionally and physically abused by her family, sexually abused by a teacher, she comes to view the world around her as a factory: one where everyone has their set roles, and any deviation must be destroyed. the only way she copes is through depersonalisation, and complete acceptance that she deserves what is done to her.

her cousin, yuu, has been told since birth that he is an alien. the two are best friends and the thought of one day escaping earth together is what keeps them going. after a tragedy occurs when they are younger, the two are split up for over 20 years, only to reunite when natsuki travels to their grandparent's home with her husband.

sayaka murata tears apart feelings of alienation and hopelessness, complete mental ostracisation from society, and puts the pieces together in any way she sees fit. the narrative is fast moving, never really lingering on the horror in the moment, forcing the reader to adjust to the breakneck speed of suffering these characters endure.

in spite of that, there's a definite feeling of love between these three characters. while they are all bullied and beaten by their families, their friends, who have all been brainwashed by the factory, they find solace in understanding one another, and while the ending can hardly be considered a good one, it's definitely a positive for these characters in finally feeling content in a world that's so against them.