Earthlings: A Novel

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata might be my favorite of all the books I’ve read this year. It’s dark literary fiction with a weird, speculative edge. I went in blind, and I’m happy I did, so if you haven’t read it and want that experience, by all means, stop reading now! But if you want my thoughts, by all means continue. Trigger warning for child sexual abuse.The story follows Natsuki, a young girl who feels she doesn’t quite fit in. On an annual family visit, her cousin Yuu confides that he feels the same way, and he believes himself to be an alien. Natsuki agrees with this sentiment, deciding that she too must be from another planet. A planet called Popinbopopia. The two agree to become a couple, eventually deciding to look for the spaceship that brought them to earth when they next meetup. This eventually leads to an incident which causes the family to keep them from one another, leading to a long period of separation.During this separation, Natsuki feels increasingly out of place in her society, which she equated to a factory. The factory has its parts, people, and they are meant to grow up, pair up and create babies to perpetuate the factory. Natsuki feels no desire to do this, and her sentiments are aided by manipulative, abusive incidents with a teacher. She’s more or less totally put off the whole sex thing.The second half of the book follows Natsuki as an adult, navigating the factory and trying her best to appear as though she fits in. Eventually her husband, who is more like a roommate, and feels the same about love and sex as she does, also decides he must be an alien, and they meet up with Cousin Yuu at the old family house.Without getting too in depth or spoiling anything, the plot and execution both get pretty out there, in the best possible ways. Reality starts getting fuzzy as the trio decide to start living as aliens rather than humans. The narration here becomes less and less reliable, leading to a dreamlike feel with its own internal logic.Though written from the point of view of a Japanese citizen, and set in Japan, the themes of being a cog in a machine can still relate to a western reader, though it’s clear that these societal norms are far more strict in the far east. I enjoyed the swathes of gray, the way the story toys with morality and gives very few clear stances on anything. Total freedom is both lovely and dangerous.What I love most about this story is the way Natsuki desperately wants to be normal, to conform to what she thinks she’s supposed to be, but can’t. She tries her best, but still can’t quite make it work.She’s an outsider yearning to be brainwashed. I feel like that isn't addressed enough in media. There's plenty of "I pretended to fit in until I came to terms with myself," But there's not always a legitimate, non-judgmental presentation of desperately wanting normalcy despite oneself. To willingly stand in line for the lobotomy.There are no concrete answers given in this one, and I love that. No one is presented as either 100% right or wrong, which puts the onus on the reader to decide or leave it be. I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of literary fiction, but really, I’d recommend it to anyone who thinks they can handle a story with a relatively graphic, though not-gratuitous, depiction of child sexual abuse. There is so much to love about this story.

I was both disturbed and intrigued by Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings: A Novel. The story is well-written and initially presents themes that, while unsettling, felt grounded in recognizable social critique. However, as the narrative progressed, it veered into territory so extreme and morally jarring that I found myself questioning why I continued reading. Some of the themes felt like grim reflections of reality, while others crossed a line that made me deeply uncomfortable. This is a book I’ll never revisit, but one I won’t easily forget.

This book is… weird. There’s really no other way for me to describe it. You have an FMC who has grown up thinking she’s an alien from another planet who’s stuck on earth with no way back home. Her cousin and later her husband start to believe the same thing which in turn leads to a lot of weird and sometimes disturbing events. And that ending? Did they… eat each other?!? **Boombastic side eye** I know the author is using this book as a way to show how societal demands affect us and how in some ways it can take away from our individuality, but she went about it in a way that was so over the top and outrageous that I felt that this message was pushed back and instead highlighted severe mental illness. In any case this book is strange and I’m glad I got it on sale. I did find it interesting and read it from beginning to end but IT’S STILL WEIRD. LOL.𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐

This story shows views on society in a very brutal light. It is strange and weird and addictive. I loved this book. It was very disturbing and shocking. If you like books along those lines it's for you!

Natsuki at age eleven is convinced she’s from another planet. Why else would her mother and sister so viciously torment her? Her plush toy talks to her constantly and tells her she has magical powers, with terrible consequences.This novel is not pleasant reading — but it compels you to read it. The writing is excellent. Murata portrays childhood abuse in such realistic detail, it’s hard to bear. When she switches to the adult Natsuki, we see the damage her traumatic childhood has done. She is completely alienated from society, and married to a young man who’s sure he's an alien like her. When Natsuki’s childhood friend Yu enters the picture again, he too is an alien.So we have three aliens against the world. As warped as their thinking may be, society is not much better. Earthlings is a shocking portrait of how cruelly conventional, aggressive, and destructive Earthlings can be.While the young aliens do wacky and repulsive things, the Earthlings in their lives are not much better. Maybe worse. It’s up to the reader to decide.I don’t think Murata really knew how to end her remarkable book. I did not find the ending convincing or in any way satisfying. But I should mention that I loved Convenience Store Woman. Marata has a quite a talent for creating characters who are bizarrely out of step with society.