Earthlings

This book seems marketed as a quirky, cutesie novel about a woman who thinks that she is an extraterrestrial, but that is a very superficial and somewhat misleading description. This book is dark. The pivotal scenes are disturbing – a child being sexually abused by an adult teacher, an incestuous underage sexual encounter that shatters a family and a fantastical and extended description of cannibalism. Yeah, this is a thought-provoking critique of society and the pressure on people, especially women, to conform to societal norms and that is valuable; but this book was unpleasant reading to an extreme in my view. I don\’t understand all the praise.

There are some really beautiful aspects to this book. My main complaint is the innocent cover and the fact that its categorized as a \”coming of age novel.\” This is 100% a psychological horror novel. It is disturbing, and it will haunt you. Read some literary reviews of it before buying this book so you know what you\’re getting into.

While the societal commentary is spot-on and the prose is beautiful, this book starts weird, becomes deeply upsetting, and lands on revolting. I can count on one hand the number of books I wish I had never read because they left such strong, repulsive afterimages in my head and kept me awake at night. I can\’t decide which is the least revolting part of the book, the emotional abuse or the child-on-child incest. Be aware that it just gets MUCH WORSE from there.

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.

Nah. A little too “unsettling” for my taste. I like convenience store but this one just left me feeling disturbed

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