Weird Girl books are back and I for one, am here for it.

I love relationship dynamic books, especially when they don't follow the norm and Sayaka Murata always ALWAYS hits the nail on the head. So many people focus on the shock value and the sheer weirdness of her books but they're so nuanced. Throughout Vanishing World, there's a consistent theme of loneliness, otherness and just sadness.

This has got four stars only because I just liked some of her other books better, I don't think this is Murata at her best but it sure hits right.

A lot of people focus on the shock value of Sayaka Murata’s books, which, fair, but I feel like not a lot of focus goes to the emotional element of them? I’ve never read a Murata book that wasn’t intensely… sad. Not merely melancholy, not depressed, but wholly and completely sad in all sense of the word. Vanishing World is also immensely sad as it grapples with the question at the core of our existence: what is family? How do our sexual desires separate – or group us with – other mammals, other animals? What is the next stage of our evolution as humans?

How is sex regarded in a sexless society, when a some of it is already considered taboo in our world? It’s deep and detached. Innocent and somehow, not at all erotic? It’s shocking and uncomfortable but also deeply philosophical.

Ultimately I think her books are explorations of loneliness and human behaviour attributed through the feminine lens and they always, to me, feel deeply moving and very personal, especially when it comes to ideas on womanhood and a woman’s use in society. They are bizarre but always familiar, intense but always engaging. I read this in the space of one evening and feel a disturbed and a little sad. But very much going away from this book with a lot of thoughts.

This was high on my wishlist of books as I really liked Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. I knew to prepare for weirdness. Amane has been conceived naturally unlike the other children she knows who are all conceived by artificial insemination. Their parents don't have sex unless it is with lovers outside the marriage. Amane grows up and wants to find a love match despite societal norms. Amane wants to have a child but her husband also wants to conceive and carry a child himself. They have read about an experiment town where this is possible for anyone regardless of gender. However, they find that in this town all the children look identical, everyone lives alone and is called "mother," the children are raised in daycare and anyone can play with any child or care for them as all babies belong to the community. I loved this world building but I found the book dragged in the middle, I found 10 year old Amane's sexual experiences disturbing and not realistic. As the book progressed to the end there was a lot more that was disturbing. It certainly is thought provoking.

Even though I’ve had Earthlings sitting on my shelf for a while, this was my first dive into Murata’s bizarre world. The speculative future she creates is definitely intriguing—it raises thought-provoking questions about societal norms surrounding sex, love, and marriage. But while the concept itself is compelling, the writing never really delves deep enough to explore these ideas in a meaningful way.

As much as I enjoyed the dystopian setting, the actual storytelling felt weak. The protagonist comes across as flat, and her dialogue and actions rarely feel natural or believable. The novel is short, so it’s still worth a read if the premise interests you, but overall, it left me wanting more substance beneath the strangeness.

Thank you Granta for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was as weird and unsettling as what is becoming a Murata trademark. At times i had to pause reading to stare at the wall.. Amane is an easy and likeable character that makes adjusting to this strange dystopian world possible. While there seems to be little plot, this explores sex, relationships, families and parenthood. I'm aware some of this is a commentary on the current state of Japanese declining birth rates and the increase of non-daters, this was not necessarily shoved directly in the face of the reader. But once you know you can see it's impact on the themes.
I actually really enjoyed this little book and while it probably won't be for everyone, it's defintely a book that will get people talking.

2.25*
I have read 'Earthlings' and 'Convenience Store Woman' by Sayaka Murata so was excited to be given the chance to read 'Vanishing World'. I was intrigued by the concept as I have never read anything with a similar story line before. Whilst I enjoyed Part 1 and the initial set up, I did find it to be quite slow paced and the plot didn't really develop. The ending left me with mixed feelings and it made me feel quite uncomfortable and it could have been done in a different way. On the whole I enjoyed reading 'Vanishing World' but I can't get past the ending which is what made me rate it quite low.

Vanishing World is the new novel by Sayaka Murata, exploring a world in which family, love, sex, and parenting have changed. Amane grows up feeling like an outsider because her parents actually fell in love and conceived her, rather than everyone else who were conceived by artificial insemination and brought up by parents in "clean" marriages that made them a family. Romantic love is for outside of the family, either with real life people or fictional characters, and sex becomes less and less common. Amane grows up, has both real life and character lovers, and finds a husband in the societally acceptable way, but then her husband wants to move to Experiment City, where they are trialling a new utopian idea where all children are raised equally and people are inseminated simultaneously, so that he might carry a child using a new artificial womb.

After Earthlings, it isn't surprising that this book is weird, pushing different ideas about love, sex, and family to various limits to explore convention and how easily things can change. The story itself is simple, following Amane as she grows up, tests what love and sex mean to her, and then ultimately ends up in Experiment City seeing a very different version of society. There's a lot of interesting things about the world Murata has created (indeed, both worlds), from the obsession with the heterosexual nuclear family and the "uncleanliness" of sex going hand in hand in the ordinary world to the extreme off getting rid of family as well, but still revering the idea of bearing children. Fears about birth rates mix with conservative ideas around sex, showing how these things come into conflict even in a space in which people want to believe both, and generally this book feels like it might read quite different in and outside of Japan.

I'd say the start and the end are perhaps most impactful, and also the parts most likely to put people off, with the middle being slower and more conventional. Like with Earthlings, the ending ramps up the weirdness, pushing some its ideas to the limits whilst not coming to any kinds of conclusions. Vanishing World is the sort of book that throws a lot of ideas at you, and I think for some people those ideas might unsettle, for others they won't really go far enough to say anything, and then there's people who already live outside of some of the conventions explored through these ideas, for whom it can feel like a quaint novelty (such as queer people, who are explicitly not part of the world of the novel in which marriage still must be between a man and a woman even when artificial insemination is the norm). The novel itself was a gripping read, but I think ideas-wise it sometimes gets lost, almost encouraging people to have the kinds of disgust that also seem to be satirised through the characters.

Review: Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata 👶🏼👀 😥

Will you be picking this one up?

Vanishing World was on my most anticipated releases of 2025 because I am a massive Murata fan and love an unsettling commentary on societal norms.

Vanishing World confronts and redefines our view and expectations around relationships, family, fertility, intimacy in a weird and disturbing way. In true Murata style she addresses these taboo topics with twists that shock (i’m still recovering).

but WTF was that ending?! (with Murata it’s to be expected but this was on another level)

In this book we are introduced to a sex-less dystopian future where children are only conceived through artificial insemination, and marriages are formed purely to create a family unit to raise kids. There’s an experiment city where they are making progress on male pregnancies and it is frowned upon to do it alone, or with a same-sex partner.

Amane, our protagonist, is unique in that she craves physical intimacy within relationships and is seen as weird. Eventually she marries, and her husband wants them both to have a child so they move to experiment city where they both fall pregnant. This city is SO strange, as children all look identical and are brought up by everyone in the community (who are referred to as Mother) - it’s super creepy.

I was intrigued and hooked till that point, and really enjoyed reading and exploring this concept, but I just can’t get away from the ending which for met let it down. There are many many uncomfortable moments in this book - some related to parasocial relationships with characters, and others which were just weird 😆

I’m still low-key shaken by it and my thoughts are still all over the place. The ending of Vanishing World pushes the boundaries further than Earthlings and the last few pages have me so conflicted that I still don’t have a finished rating for this one. This is also a warning to check out the TWs before picking this up.

She will still be an auto-buy author for me as noone but her could manage to write these bizarre books lol but Earthlings and Convenience Store Women will always be my favourite. I love her blunt writing stytle and reading about things that leave a sour taste in your mouth.

I confidently say, if you know Sayaka Murata already, then fret not to just blindly go and read whatever will be published next. Murata manages it to lure you in with a likeable character, just to throw you into a world that leaves a strange after taste. I really like books like this, eventho they are short, they manage to make you rethink everything you read and thought you understood.
I think that makes Murata unique and I hope more and more people will read her books.

The type of book I would recommend people to go into blind. I’d trust Murata to put anything into my hands at this point, and be confident in knowing that it will be alien, intriguing, and new. Embrace the weird and uncomfortable, and expect to be left with a sour taste in your mouth.

A piece of speculative fiction that critiques gender expectations, the “modern” family unit, and the role sexuality plays, not just in our relationships, but in the way we structure society as a whole. Parallel to this is commentary on humanity’s increasing physical isolation, and its impact on our engagement with media — the development of amorphous yet powerful parasocial relationships with the distant or fictional. All the while, the animal needs for connection and reproduction assert themselves as inconvenient and distasteful necessities.

If Murata will do anything, it’s write a compelling, bizarre main character. In this case, Amane generally holds to modern sensibilities, but within the world Murata creates, readers will also begin to question her choices as immoral or perverse.

Short and sharp, in just 130 pages <i>Vanishing World</i> accomplishes the creation of a eerie, harrowing, and somewhat believable vision of a future in which what makes us human is slowly, but surely, vanishing.

A warm thank you to Granta Publications and NetGalley for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy of this book for an honest review.

Sayaka Murata is back with her signature satirical and grotesque fiction that seems like it's right on the edge of reality.
While I usually really enjoy her writing, this one was not my favourite. About a dystopia that honors 'clean' reproduction and decenters sex and family, this had a really unique perspective on society's role in family structure. Reading this how quickly even the most well-intentioned people will cave at a seemingly harmless societal change; Murata is excellent at showing instead of telling, and one thing I always enjoy in her writing is how the protagonist/narrator has a slipping sense of saneness that reflects their descent into conformity or instability by the end of the book. This is really well written overall; it just wasn't the one for me, and I would advise reading the trigger warnings if you intend to read this.

I finished Vanishing World yesterday, and I’m still struggling to gather my thoughts on this one—it’s a tough one to review.
In a nutshell, this is a futuristic dystopia where sex between a married couple is considered incest, lovers are universally accepted, all babies are conceived via artificial insemination, and experimental cities are being developed where anyone, regardless of gender, can be artificially inseminated. In these cities, everyone lives alone, babies belong to and are raised by the entire community, everyone is a "Mother," and you can play with or care for any child (all with similar haircuts, all referred to as "Kodomo-chan"), almost like a surreal version of a "cat café."
The premise sounded intriguing, and it definitely delivered on a thought-provoking level—though at times, it was a bit too unsettling. Unfortunately, it also felt repetitive, especially in the middle section. The protagonist's thoughts are explored over and over again, and she has the same conversations repeatedly with different characters. I wish other themes had been touched upon occasionally, but everything really revolves around sex, artificial insemination, and these new forms of relationships.
The ending is deeply disturbing and unsettling—I had seen this mentioned in other reviews, but I never could have predicted just how far it would go. Yes, it made me worry about the future and the societal changes we can’t yet foresee. Yes, I understand it’s meant to be shocking to drive its point home. But for me, it was a bit TOO much, and the repetition of the same ideas started to wear on me.
That said, the book—especially that ending—will be living rent-free in my head for a while. 😬 If you want to know why… well, give it a go! 😅

Really couldn't get it to it at all. I thought about not finishing it but I persevered, however it just was too weird for me as a story concept. I was disappointed as I'd loved Convenience Store Woman and Life Ceremony. Some of it was a good idea, but I wish it leant more in the dystopian / artificial insemination side rather than starting with a school girl talking about sex etc. it just didn't feel right to read somehow? It felt flat and repetitive in some parts also.
It's really hard to explain, but I didn't enjoy this, but other people did so maybe it just wasn't for me.

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

Sayaka Murata's new novel is about a girl Amane, she 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 these beliefs. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage, sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest. Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?

If you have read Sayaka Murata's books before then you will be familiar with how this author loves to explore bizarre and unconventional ideas in all her stories. In this novel she does just that by pushing the envelope on ideas of what this society deems acceptable over what is forbidden.

As expected many parts of this story will feel a little uncomfortable at times however in the authors signature style she faces issues and ideas head on. Daring to put forward ideas some will find otherworldly or out right crazy.

Overall I liked that it was as unconventional as it could be however having read a lot of this author's other books and enjoying them, this one wasn't my favourite. It was strange in a good way but it just didn't grip me as her previous works had.

The concept of family, artificial insemination, sex and gender. Interesting take on society and where it could be headed, as usual extreme and with uncomfortable content.

This was an incredibly difficult book to rate. I found the concept of a world where children are created by artificial insemination, and consequentially sex has pretty much disappeared to be fascinating. In this dystopia husbands and wives live chastely, and intercourse between them would be considered to be incest.
The story is told in such a blunt, unsettling way, and is designed to provoke, but it worked for me for the most part.
My issue was that I really struggled with the ending. I can see the symbolism of it, but it made me feel very uncomfortable to put it lightly.

Sayaka Murata will always be my favorite author. Period. She just has the most unorthodox, unique stories to tell that are anything but the wash, rinse, and repeat you find in all other books, tv, and movies. Her books are alwaaaays at the tip top of my recommendation list for other readers. Since it's my opinion that she is in a league of her own, I have to compare this novel ONLY with her other work and not other authors. With that in mind, while this story was still unconventional, it unfortunately wasn't my favorite of hers. I appreciated her new take on what it means to love, but it wasn't as captivating as Earthling, for instance. Maybe it was the translation to English (and only I can be at fault for not being able to read it in the original language). Do not get me wrong, I am still obsessed with anything she writes and am sooo thankful to be given an ARC. Looking forward to whatever she comes up with next!

Vanishing World is a thought-provoking and unsettling speculative novel that explores themes of social isolation, conformity, and the evolving definitions of family, love, and identity in a futuristic Japan where sex between married couples is considered taboo and procreation occurs through artificial insemination.

This book is weird and unhinged. Komodo-chans are cringe. And lastly, this had me feeling a lot of emotions all at the same time. This is also the kind of book that is not for everyone.

For anyone wanting to read this, go into in with an open mind. Certainly not for those who have a certain kind of mindset.

Sayaka Murata has done it again. This was a uniquely written dystopia - certainly not quite an idea I would have ever thought up, and it worked exceptionally well. From my (limited) knowledge of the current climate in Japan regarding the decline of the family, Murata taps into this feeling well across all her books

I should have gathered my thoughts before reading the ending because... wtf. It sure goes out with a bang.

The concept was truly intriguing, but I think the execution fell a bit flat at times. The first part contained too many repetitive elements and conversations, which made it difficult for the story to fully reach the depth I had hoped for. That said, once we get to the section set in Experiment City, the pace really picks up, and I found myself completely hooked. The atmosphere, absurdity, and sense of unease in that part were truly gripping, and I couldn’t put the book down.

While it doesn’t quite reach the same level as Earthlings or Convenience Store Woman, I still found it to be a unique and thought-provoking read.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!