I read Earthlings in 2023 and it blew me away like no other book. I still think about it all the time and I’m constantly chasing that high. When I found out I was accepted for an eARC of Murata’s upcoming release I near enough screamed.
This is such an interesting concept. The book explores a world where everyone is conceived from artificial insemination and sexual relationships between husband and wife is considered incest, Amane is trying to navigate her place in this world.
The book has themes of relationships, conformity, sexuality, homogeneity, parenting, even parasocial relationships.
In typical Murata fashion, it had me staring a wall when I finished. My only issue is it was a bit repetitive and I maybe I was expecting more twists.
It’s still brilliant. It’s graphic, blunt, disturbing and just plain weird. All the stuff I look for in a book.
Thanks to Granta and NetGalley for this arc!

Thank you to NetGalley and Granta for providing me an eARC to review!

I think most similar in tone to Earthlings (though it has been a while since I read it), Vanishing World includes some interesting reflections on the changing nature of family and romantic relationships in the modern world. While the subject matter wasn't entirely up my alley, I liked how it tackled important themes that are relatable to a lot of people (even if the plot itself is wild).

Murata explores how our obsession with convenience and comfort is changing how we relate to the opposite sex - and if we don't need each other to make babies anymore, what these relationships them mean. I could see how it could come across as 'bashing' ideas of more modern partnerships such as living with friends or living alone and seeking satisfaction outside of the home, but I think that this is a pretty natural continuation of the ideas Murata has been exploring in all her works, and is more in dialogue with these concepts. These are things that a lot of young people will relate to in some sense - for example the same idea about comfort I also found in Intermezzo.

I think it also did a good job of showing how the speed of change of societal attitudes to love/sex/relationships can isolate younger people from their parents or other adults, even causing them to purposefully rebel. Murata touched on the idea of filial responsibility, and how children can be conceived for more practical reasons like filling the gap in the social safety net rather than purely out of love/desire to have a family. I also liked how she explored the idea that women are valued (and exploited) for their wombs, and when men are also able to carry children on their own, how this changes the relationship between genders but also between women and their bodies. The story also heavily commented on the commodification of sexuality by media/corporations, and the impact this has on our conceptions of romantic love and satisfaction.

It was definitely weird and went to a far extreme in many cases, but one to try if you are interested in these sorts of ideas but want something a step outside of the contemporary literary fiction genre. There were some explicit mentions of taboo relationships which were uncomfortable, but I can see how they tie into the broader themes being explored and I don't think Murata is condoning them. The protagonist is morally complex, and I think this will stick with me for a while!

'Normal is the creepiest madness there is... the most terrifying madness in the world.'

Vanishing World is the latest of Sayaka Murata's works to be translated into English (by Ginny Tapley Takamori) but was actually published in Japanese earlier than Convenience Store Woman, Life Ceremony, and Earthlings (the only one I have yet to read). So it makes sense that it feels sketchier, more incomplete, than the fiction she wrote afterwards, which picks up on similar themes about what it means to be 'normal' but handles its ideas more subtly. Nevertheless, I'm always delighted by Murata's willingness to be properly daring, even when the execution isn't quite there. Our protagonist Amane has grown up in a world where sex between married couples is considered an incestuous taboo, and while people still 'copulate' with their lovers, it's becoming even more popular to experience romantic love only through anime characters. Amane is drawn to create a family with her platonic husband while they both happily continue to see other people on the site. But when they move to Experiment City, this familial ideal is shattered once again, as they learn that all citizens are expected to contribute to reproduction but not to maintain ties with their children; the trade-off is that the communally raised children, or Kodomo-chan, are expected to be loving to, and loved by, all.

Murata depicts Amane, refreshingly, not as a rebel but as somebody who is content conforming to social norms, as she explains to her mother: 'whichever world you're in, around ten percent of the people there will always feel out of place... [But] I'm one of those people who never feel out of place no matter where I am.' Because of this choice of perspective, Murata allows the reader to question what is 'normal' rather than giving Amane strong instincts - another word that is continually analysed in Vanishing World. I was especially fascinated by her depiction of a world where parents willingly relinquish ownership of their children, supposedly giving them more freedom, but where children actually end up performing more emotional labour because of the expectation that they be affectionate to the entire adult population. Yes, the writing is clumsy and sometimes too on-the-nose, and I would have liked to spend longer in Experiment City, but the thinking behind this one is just so good. 3.5 stars.

Sayaka Murata never disappoints, as werid, dark and uncomfortable as I expected! I love how Murata makes me comfort social norms that exist in our current society, why do we tend to just accept certain things as 'normal' and other things as 'abnormal'? Who decides this and what will happen if society just conforms to expectation without questioning anything.

Interesting concept but the books a whole felt quite repetitive. It goes over the same ideas again and again at the expense of any world building, especially in the first two parts. The book is dialogue heavy which I usually like but this didn’t help the repetition in this case. I also found the ending disturbing, which was the point I think!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC copy of this book.

So... what can I say about this book?

I read Convenience Store Woman by the same author and really liked it. However, this book got too weird for me 😅
I found the concept interesting, but the execution felt slow and repetitive. It definitely became eccentric and even repulsive by the end.
That said, it was successful in getting its message across, for sure.

Thanks for the publisher and the author for the ARC.

Netgalley thank you

I enjoyed how Murata turns social norms into fiction with her style of weirdness. The themes of love and building family feels so close to our lives, but when normal becomes weird, things like having sex with your own husband or wife, giving birth to babies become abnormal, I can't imagine a world like it. Yet this crazy world that Murata creates, sounds so impossible but scary, that somehow to some extent because of AI, our world could change in a short time. This book is very reflective though compare to her other works, I found this slightly less engaging, but would totally recommend!

Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

Oh my, Sayaka Murata. You did that.
I genuinely don't know how it's possible to fuck a book like that. This was a 4 star read from me, and at 97%, yes 4 minutes from the end of the book, it dropped to a 0.5. I truly believe that ending should be cut from the book. There is a fucking line, and Sayaka Murata completely sprints past the fucking line. Disgusting, horrifying, I'm upset.
I was so ready to praise this book for its unique concept, for the humour that I always find in her writing, for some lines that I even highlighted that hit so deep, I freaking got emotional and teared up at one point!
I want to rant more but it isn't worth the energy. I would never recommend this to anyone, and I'm actually going to actively discourage people from reading this. Genuinely if I could've rated this a 0, it would get a 0. This is easily my lowest rated book, by a mile. Oh, and read the fucking trigger warnings, I BEG you.
0.5 stars (rounded up to a 1 on NetGalley)

Thank you to NetGalley, Granta Publications and Sayaka Murata for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads and StoryGraph.

Sometimes, there are books that put you off at the start, but quickly redeem themselves and pull off an amazing landing. Then there are books like this one, which you’re convinced are one of the best things you’ve ever read, until the ending goes and ruins it all.

I’ve never read any Sayaka Murata, and I really thought I knew what I was getting into. I knew it would be weird, but I like weird. The speculative fiction angle was fascinating, and explored so many different angles of human relationships, be they romantic, familial, platonic, sexual, or something else entirely. There was a really clear ‘what if’ that opened up so many different questions to be explored. I really got a sense of this world, which is so alien to us, being completely normal for the people living in it.

And then we got to the final scene (which I won’t describe because a) spoilers and b) I don’t want to – the content warnings are available on StoryGraph and I recommend checking them). I don’t understand why it’s there. It didn’t add anything to the rest of the book; if anything, it took away. Maybe I just don’t know enough about literature to understand the final scene, and honestly? I’m okay with that. I look at the praise this book gets, the people who loved every moment of it, and I wonder if I’m too horrified, too busy clutching at my pearls to understand it. But frankly, I’m okay with that too. I don’t know the last time – if ever – a book disturbed me to the level this one did.

I’m glad I gave it a go. I’m glad I read the first 97% of the book, because it really was brilliant. Safe to say, Murata isn’t an author I’ll be returning to, but at least I know that now.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

Vanishing World is easily the strangest book I’ve read in a while. In an alternate modern day Japan, sex is considered abnormal, the average family set-up is very different and babies are created artificially, with men also able to get pregnant. We follow Amane all the way from childhood to adulthood as she tries to work out what her relationship with intimacy looks like.

While I loved the cover and premise, this just didn't hit for me. It felt very repetitive, with characters seemingly having the same three conversations again and again. The ending felt incredibly jarring, and I didn't like it at all.

Thank you to Granta Publications and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warning for going into this, it ends on a scene in which an adult coerces a child into sexual acts but the line between whether the adult fully understands what they are doing is blurred due to the way sex is not fully comprehended within their society.

I have loved Murata’s other works; however this was slightly repetitive, and I struggled to follow along with a plot. I found it to focus more on the world and what that was rather than having a story.

Everything was well explained; you can tell the world was well thought out with there being a solid background and history to this concept. But sometimes everything was a little too overexplained and I was being told something I’d already been told, just in a different way. The concept was interesting and unique, in which husbands and wives both have lovers and artificial insemination is the normal but being told about this concept over and over again didn’t do it justice and I felt being shown this would have been more interesting than being told.

The characters weren’t memorable to me, which sometimes I feel doesn’t matter too much, however this was a character driven plot. We were following them navigating this new society so I think this kind of story would have benefitted from more rounded characters. Our main character was born through copulation, rather than artificial insemination which is what makes her different to those around her.

The main character, Amane, and her husband, going to live in Experiment City doesn’t happen until about the 65% mark. At this point, there’s a change to the story and the pacing picks up, but in my opinion, it happens a little too far into the book. Them going to live here does provide some new interesting plot lines, such as their pregnancies. We also see some character development while they adjust to a new society that differs from their typical idea of a family system.

Murata’s writing was still strong so I could picture the story vividly, but I became bored over time as nothing new really happened. If I was more interested in the characters, this wouldn’t have mattered so much. For example, ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by the same author, also has a non-complex plot in which we follow a woman working in a convenience store, however I really loved the main character in this and found the writing flowed more. In this, I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.

Overall, I just didn’t enjoy this all that much. The exploration of changing our societal norms to ‘fix’ certain things could be interesting, but the way this was executed just wasn’t for me. There could have been some in depth discussions throughout, but I found a lot of the comparisons to be surface level and not delved into enough. Also, to brush over paedophilia and almost make it seem like its ok because that’s the nature of that character, is strange to me, no matter the storyline of the book. It was almost like sex being weird was the same concept as sex with a child, if that makes sense.

So yeah, little disappointed with this one.

This is one of the strangest books I’ve read this year. It’s set in an alternate modern day Japan, where IVF treatments were used during WW2 to ensure that birth rates weren’t affected and the technology was perfected to the point where everyone is born via IVF and natural conception is seen to be “wrong” and primitive. I thought this was a clever look at how the world’s values around family are shifting and how many people are no longer in “typical” family arrangements. I found the paradise city so creepy and the description of the children made me shudder. There’s a recurring theme of brainwashing throughout the book, and I think it’s a really relevant idea for current times. Overall I enjoyed this one and I’d recommend it, but be prepared for a bizarre time.

There really is no one else doing it like Sayaka Murata.

I came into this with a very clear understanding of what to expect, especially after reading which is genuinely like nothing I've read before or since [complimentary]. While I wasn't as big a fan of 'Vanishing World' as I have been of her other work, it's still an illuminating look at modern attitudes towards sex, relationships and the concept of the nuclear family.

The book is in three acts, seeing the protagonist go from a child with an open and honest curiosity about sex, muddled with shame about her being conceived 'naturally' and not via artificial insemination like her peers (sex between husband and wife tends to be frowned on in this universe). The second act moves on to her being a married woman who is happily having love affairs and sexual relationships outside of wedlock with the tacit approval of her husband - who is also merrily fiddling his way around their area, and the third act sees them moving to 'Paradise-Eden,' a city designed to make conception as easy as possible, where men can give birth via artificial wombs, where children are raised communally and everyone is 'mother.'

I would have liked to have spent more time in the 'ideal' imagined city in the third act. I felt that this section was a bit rushed compared to the world building we see prior to their decision to move there. I also thought the 'kodomo-chans' sounded creepy as hell. The thought of a gang of kids clinging to me constantly and calling me 'Mother' makes me feel exceptionally uncomfortable, so thanks for that Sayaka!

This isn't my favourite of hers, and I feel it suffers from being a bit muddled in terms of what the narrator wants or how she feels about sex, love and relationships. I'm not sure what to take from this, although it's definitely giving me a lot to think about. Saying that though, a three star Sayaka Murata book still wipes the floor with most other new releases 🙌

In true Murata fashion, this book sent me spiralling into an existential crisis. A speculative fiction discussing a scarily believable dystopian reality, where artificial insemination has become the norm for all. The author poses questions of family, gender roles when reproduction is taken out of the picture, and the necessity for emotional connection and media literacy in a time of high political manipulation. In this sense, there is no better time to read this book.

The ending did not sit well with me at all, which is why I delayed writing this review. But after considering the book’s themes of dystopia and brainwashing, it made me think about who created the definitions, laws and regulations by which my own life is governed, and why I’ve always followed some of them so blindly. This book made me feel disgust, disbelief, and utter horror over our own future.

We all think of each other as so high and might — we all know what’s best and have separate opinions we don’t want to budge on. But Murata poses some of the most important questions of the decade: Which narrative is actually true? What is really normal? Who sets that standard? Is there a human in the world that hasn’t been brainwashed?

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
⭐⭐ 2.75 stars
Publication date: 24th April 2025

Thank you to Granta Publications and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother.


This book is ever so unhinged, which is great - we love weird. But, I didn't really like this, and no-one is sadder about it than I am because the premise of this book really hooked me. I really appreciated Murata’s take on love, attraction, sex, family, normality and conformity, and the discussion around parasocial relationships was so interesting. The social commentary was great, although I wasn't always quite sure which side of the argument I was supposed to fall on, or even if there was a good side to fall on to start with.
I think I simply didn't click with the writing style. This book is only 240 pages long; this should have taken me a day to read, two at most. It took me five days! I really wasn't motivated to read it, and even found it a bit repetitive and boring in places.
It can also be quite disturbing, which I was fine with, but I'd recommend checking content warnings if you need to because yikes!

I’m still reeling from this book. Sayaka Murata has this way of writing that makes you feel like you’ve slipped into a parallel universe, one that’s eerily quiet, emotionally detached, yet totally absorbing. I read it in almost one sitting because I couldn’t look away. Every sentence is so sparse and precise, but the emotional weight behind it creeps up on you.

The world in this story is crumbling, but it’s the calmness of it all that’s so disturbing. There’s no drama, no resistance, just quiet acceptance, and somehow that makes it even more haunting. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it means to be human when everything familiar vanishes. It reminded me a bit of I Who Have Never Known Men in how it lingers and unsettles.

Murata does alienation and detachment better than anyone, and this might be my favourite of hers yet. If you’re drawn to strange, quiet dystopias that make you question absolutely everything, please read this. It’s short but devastating in the best way.

I am always drawn to dystopic novels of this style where the dystopia could, in theory, happen at some point although I desperately hope it won't. Murata seems to have a similar curiosity for exploring what would happen if humanity decided to follow one singular tangent through to an entirely bizarre and yet not inconceivable conclusion.

The novel is split into 3 parts which split the life of the protagonist into 3 clear periods of childhood, early adulthood and finally middling to late thirties. Throughout Amane's life reality as we know it is pushed further beyond the boundaries of what we as a society would currently consider normal or acceptable. The simplistic description in Murata's writing lull the reader into a false sense of familiarity and as with previous works of hers it is only when I came up for air that I realised how utterly horrific the world Murata has built would be as a prediction of our own future.

“Amane, thank you for eating me.”
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This is not my first Murata rodeo, the only other book I’ve read from her collection is ‘convenience store woman’ an excellent portrayal of contemporary Japan. A country I find myself living in.
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Similarly, this book rings a lot of bells for me. Cultural nuances that I’ve observed in friends and relatives around sex and dating. Combined with a work environment that often demands much in time and energy, leaves many of my friends less interested in romance, and more interested in finding a partner to share the load of a capitalist society. Although Murata takes this concept to the uncomfortable extreme, at times the conversation doesn’t feel all that different to what I’ve experienced and encountered.
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That being said, I found the dialogue to be really rather repetitive, with much of it varying around physical sex and open relationships constantly making the characters almost seem robotic. I did find at times some of the scenes to be darkly funny - but I’m not entirely sure that was intentional.
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Ultimately though I found this a rather interesting but shallow read. Like the clear fluid that emits from the characters during sex, it has little substance.

“Normality is the creepiest madness there is. This was all insane, yet it was so right.”

‘Vanishing World’ is a wonderfully weird and unique experience. It is the kind of book that will challenge your perspective, make you think, and ultimately leave you questioning everything. What are social norms? Where do they come from? How are they any less crazy than the alternative?

“Is there any such thing as a brain that hasn’t been brainwashed? If anything, it’s easier to go insane in the way best suited for your world.”

It feels like a thought experiment and a social commentary, and yet it never tells the reader precisely what to take from it—instead leaving it entirely to the reader’s individual interpretation—and it never sacrifices story. This enables the reader to engage with the book at whatever level suits them: as a simple glimpse into a character’s world, or as a springboard into an exploration of the underlying ideas/theories. (For anyone in the latter category, Elif Batuman’s profile piece on Sayaka Murata in The New Yorker is a good place to start.)

Personally, I loved this book and will be thinking about it for a long time, but enjoying this book definitely requires a certain appreciation for the unhinged and will perhaps be too much for some readers. The frank discussion of sex and biological processes might also be off-putting. However, if you are comfortable with being challenged, this is undoubtedly a worthwhile read!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sayaka Murata and Granta Publications for the ARC. My review will be posted on Instagram, Amazon UK, GoodReads and The StoryGraph nearer to the publishing date.

This was, well, bizarre. I have read Muraka before and so I knew it wasn't going to be straightforward, but with every book she writes she seems to explore the endlessly weird possibilities of our lives in the future. It seems to be one of the trends in more recent Japanese fiction to write about the kind of dystopian future that is a little too close for comfort. There has been a considerable drop in childbirth in Japan and South Korea and maybe this is an attempt to broach this subject with a wider audience. As I don't read Japanese I had to rely on the translation and I sometimes wonder how the language contributes to the atmosphere of the story, but I assume the translater did a good job. It's food for thought and in spite of its weirdness remains believable throughout. Give it a go if you like this kind of thing.