I really enjoyed this short story collection. Each of them is more of a set up scene, with an interesting premise that is then developed. The plot here is secondary, and often cuts off right where some action would begin. Personally I find it fascinating. The reader gets a peak at characters who perceive the world in unusual ways, and is left to make their own judgement, or wonder how they would adjust to the situation. The stories really leave a lot of space for reflection and insight. I know I will keep thinking about them in the future. I think it is an interesting way of writing about heavy topics without making them unbearable. But I also really enjoyed how the author takes small every day events and makes them strange, other, disturbing. It was funny at times, but in the way where you catch yourself laughing and start to reconsider your moral viewpoints. Personally this is what I like best about any short story collection.
The only negative I find about the book is that sometimes setting up the little scene takes a lot of repetition- especially in the first story, I felt like I'm being told over an over "we do X. husband thinks X is bad". I do think it's a part of the style, but may be tiring to some readers.

I don't quite know if there is anyone else writing like Sayaka Murata at the minute. Yes this short story collection is 'horror' but it's a very specific kind of horror that more-so presents itself as a fascination with the human body.

A few of the stories told of a grandmother's house in the mountains which was very reminiscent of her previous novel, 'Earthlings', so I really enjoyed this callback.

My favourite was the titular story, 'Life Ceremony' which was disgusting and beautiful in equal measure. Well, maybe not equal. Perhaps a 70/30 split. I also loved 'Eating the City' which is about foraging in a city because fresh vegetables are just too expensive.

Will always look forward to reading something new from Murata.

Thanks to NetGalley and Granta for the opportunity to review this book!

[3.5]

Although defined as a horror-fiction story collection, I feel a whole new self-titled genre for Sayaka Murata would be a more fitting categorisation!

Murata’s trademark societal observations told with her unrepeated prose made this collection so individual and electric. As with most collected works, ‘Life Ceremony’ can be inconsistent, but the stories that hit are stunning, eccentric and individual.

Most of Sayaka’s stories are based on the mundane, relatable lived experiences of humans; our identity, food, life, death, our bodies and relationships — but they all have a foot in Sayaka’s bizarre, lucid, dream-like world.

I can’t decide whether to pin the blame on the collection itself or the fact I read this in one sitting, but some of the shorter stories I found to be forgettable. The titular ‘Life Ceremony’ and ‘A First Rate Material’ are the stand out entries for me, and are stunning examples of Murata’s talent and inventiveness.

Sayaka is easily one of the most original minds in her genre, and whether she is for you or not, her immense talent is undeniable!

Thank you so much to Granta Publishing, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this ARC.

This is a very strange little collection, quite uneven at times as is often the case with short stories. A few were reminiscent of Earthlings, including a few where the main character remembers childhood holidays during Obon in the countryside. A lot of them had to do with bodies and identity, and felt quite… earthy, nearly feral at times. The titular story was the strangest, with society having moved on from burying or cremating the deceased to using them to make food and furniture. It was disturbing and somehow I found it only disturbing rather than containing a deeper meaning around remembrance and waste. My favourite was Eating the City, with the main character, a young woman who works in an office, starts foraging in Tokyo to feed herself and remembers fondly the vegetables she used to eat in the countryside.
Overall they were fun and entertaining and definitely surprising, but the stronger ones would benefit from being longer, while shorter ones I could have done without.

This was a book of short stories which had a bit of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror feel about it. It explored some very interesting concepts with a focus on connections, relationships, life, death and food. The push the reader out of their comfort zone and for some may feel a little unsettling, but I found Sayaka brings you on the journey to see out the metaphor of the story. Really interesting topics to dive into and think about.

Not all of the stories in this worked for me, but the ones that did, REALLY did. Folklore, adolescence, body horror and the strange ways we interact with the world weave together to make a compelling and cohesive collection.

4 stars
This is such a quirky and unique collection of short stories, my jaw literally dropped when reading certain ones. Murata’s short story collection surrounds society’s ideals and conformities and it’s explored with such compelling prose with the most bizarre ideas. I love how Murata is able to challenge society’s conformities whilst also offering different perspectives in such an imaginative way. Once I got over the gruesome nature of some of the stories, I was able to appreciate the rawness and tenderness of some of the stories , and also Murata’s commentary on the idea of what it means to be ‘normal’. Overall, such an unconventional and witty collection !!

Life Ceremony is a collection of quirky, at times grotesque, short stories. A common thread through a lot of these stories is taboo and what is considered normal.

The title story relates to our attitudes to death and cannibalism. A Clean marriage concerns an asexual couple who want to start a family. Hatchling relates to personality - how much is 'us' and how much are we influenced by others - taken to an extreme.

A bit 'hit and miss' for me personally, but some very good stories in here, the best of which do what all great writing should do, and help us see the world through different eyes.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Sayaka Murata has done it again with these thought-provoking horror stories that leave you questioning humanity while also glad you don't have to go through the life ceremonies these characters do.

(Note: I got this book as a proof from NetGalley.)

I love Sayaka Murata's work, and the way she imagines and subverts our "real" world. I love her imagination and the ballsiness, if I can say that, of her characters.

These stories are in line with that. Be forewarned that they are rather creepy and deal with some topics like food and death (sometimes together), so if you're squeamish about unusual food in books, then this might not be for you. I personally loved that, and I am very interested in the interplay of gender, social norms and food - so I really enjoyed reading those stories. There is a lot about the body, about what we are expected to do with our bodies and how we internalise discomfort around these norms, and it is exquisitely uncomfortable.

In terms of craft and ideas, I think I like her longer and less speculative work slightly more - just in terms of writing. But the conversations in this book are arresting - I could listen to/read these characters talking all day.

I don't generally like short stories, but since I loved Convenience Store Woman (and Japanese fiction on general), I wanted to try it. It intrigued me more than most short stories and the writing flowed in such an interesting way. This book is UNUSUAL 😂 Please know that you feel strongly towards this if you're a bit squeamish, but once I got past the gruesome elements, it had interesting themes about modern society and social norms. I didn't love it as much as her novel, but I did enjoy it and feel that someone who does enjoy short stories would love this!

This book is easily my favourite short story collection I've ever read. Despite finding myself reading short story collection after short story collection, I generally find them too hit and miss for me to be able to say if I liked them or not, so I don't usually rate them very highly but this book... I honestly got something out of every single story (even if what I got out of it was "....what?!?!?").
This book of stories is strange, engaging and completely immersive. Each story takes place in a world like ours but slightly off-kilter. For instance, in the first story, it is perfectly normal to wear clothes and jewellery made from a deceased human, whether it be a human hair jumper or teeth necklace. In another, a woman worries about her sister making a meal for her new fiancè from her "home planet". Two stories involve the same two characters and tell two love stories of different kinds where the details are changed subtly but are still clearly meant to be the same characters. The themes in these stories are that of conformity and culture, but also the importance of interpersonal relationships and individuality, but don't expect the story to deliver you a nice clean moral at the end, because sometimes the ending is the most confusing part.
I really enjoyed this strange collection of stories and highly recommend checking this book out.

I just really enjoy everything Murata so far published in English. These are weird stories, but with something familier in all of them. I like the writing style, very easy to read even if the stories are not always easy.

"Instinct doesn't exist. Morals don't exist. They were just fake sensibilities that came from a world that was constantly transforming"

This collection of short stories was...strange, Very Strange. But strange can be good, and as Sayaka Murata highlights throughout this collection, 'normal' is an ambiguous concept.

The stories centre around different societies, and how norms and customs change to adapt, leading to some creative and fascinating portrayals of topics such as life, love, food, consumerism and the after-life, leading us to often question society as we know it.

Whilst I found some stories more memorable and enjoyable than others (some favourites were life-ceremony, hatchling, and a first-rate material), overall it was a captivating collection and I would definitely recommend...Just maybe don't read it when you're eating.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

3 stars

it started with strong.

love the weirdness and mild horror stuff. nothing so gore except the cannibalism part. that's pretty sick.

others were pretty confusing to me but the weirdness is still there. it's just so freakish weird.... i guess it is not for me. i can give full attentions but the story isn't really compelling or too many metaphors usage that i was some what of just blindly read.

but the last story is just so weak for me. it was a 'meh' to me.

Didn’t really know what to expect after only reading convenience store woman. Really liked the themes of food, relationships/human interaction and just general life. Some of the stories were a bit bizarre, others I related to, so it was quite a varied mixture of short stories

There are a lot of interesting ideas and characters in a series of stories which are both horror filled and humourous with reflection. The fact that over time our societies idea of morality has been shaped and it is a product of popular opinion among the powerful is shown in this oddly twisted world where popular opinion means that human products are worn and revered. Or where reproduction is a ceremony... The ideas were so intriguing yet the setting and the style of the writing presents them as utterly normal. This definitely makes you think!

The short stories found in “Life Ceremony”, present us with cannibalism, incest, chandeliers made from human fingernails, several very unusual approaches to sex and conception, and somehow once you’ve gotten through all of that, there’s still more to come.

All of the stories involve at least one outsider to a culture that would also be deeply unfamiliar to you and I. The collection opens with “A First-Rate Material” and which follows a woman preparing for married life in a world where human bodies are harvested for materials after death. After gushing to her friend about how she loves her beautiful and expensive human hair sweater, she visits a furniture showroom to select pieces for the home she will share with her future husband. Underneath the pink glow of the human fingernail chandelier hanging in the store, she laments the fact that she will be missing out on these creations as her fiancé finds the use of human materials barbaric (and is in turn seen as barbaric himself for being okay with wasting those materials). This was a good introduction to the collection, the titular story of with includes a society who partake in “life ceremonies” - a variation on the funeral that involves…eating the deceased before the guests pair off for “insemination” (in this case, insemination is shorthand for “having sex outside”) as an antidote to a population on the decline. This is likened in the story to cockroaches laying a large amount of eggs immediately before death before being eaten by other cockroaches.

Humans becoming more animalistic is a theme that carries through much of this book as well, along with cultural eating preferences. Without throwing too many spoilers out at you, “A Magnificent Spread” tells us what might happen when strange and unique cultural dishes are served up to important guests from out of town as a young woman who believes she originally had another life in a magical city that may or may not exist prepares to host a dinner party for her future in-laws. My personal favourite from the collection is “Eating the City”, the protagonist of which begins eating meals cooked with wild vegetables and weeds collected from around Tokyo after reminiscing about time spent in the countryside with her family. Over the course of the story she views herself as growing more wild, exploring that idea of becoming more animalistic that appears in a few of the other stories.

There are some true gems in this collection. I will admit that my favourites were the less gruesome stories, but the thoughtful and philosophical approach taken to those themes got me through them easily enough. I think that I would recommend this collection to more or less anyone who isn't turned off by the themes being explored.

I’m not a usually a big fan of short stories but I loved Life Ceremont. I don’t think Murata could write anything I wouldn’t like. As usual, her trademark weird meets piercing observations of society. I will devour everything she ever writes, for all eternity.

I’ve absolutely adored Murata’s previous novels. She has a way of taking the ordinary mundane of life and interweaving the unusual and weird that makes us question what we view as normal. Nothing exemplifies that better than we collection of short stories that range from the relatable to the uncomfortable.

However, as short story collections usually are, there are some stories that are better than others. Murata has some great concepts and I wish more of them were fleshed out and explored. The human furniture is one that comes to mind, as I feel it ended too soon or wasn’t taken far enough. Others were way too short, or not memorable at all. So very hit and miss, but I’d definitely recommend it because when Murata had a hit it hits hard.