title: Earthlings by: Murata, Sayaka published: 2021-09-21 read: 2022-10 preview

After Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman, I had to get her other translated book.  And it’s quite similar, in a way, but perhaps less gripping for me.  At the same time, it’s a nightmare sequel to the previous one, from a dystopian society point of view.

Earthlings is about a woman who cannot find a normal road in life.  Being a victim of child sexual abuse and the whole nightmare life that followed after that, she cannot cope with society’s desires and requirements for a normal life.  That makes her set up a dysfunctional marriage – dysfunctional by the definitions of society.  But not by hers, and as reader I was more willing to follow her definition of function.

The book culminates when she and her husband end up in a countryside house of her by now dead aunt, where she rediscovers a youth love and the trio “feast” their way into self-destruction.  

A dark book, which takes the concepts of the previous one a step further,  Beauty in the book is the emotionless writing style.  It’s really up to you, dear reader, to interpret this whole charade!

“That day, my body became completely my own.”  This one sentence completely sums up the pain in this book.