This is one of the wildest books I read in the last year or so. The story is totally unpredictable and it gets darker and darker as it develops. No spoilers, but I can say that the ending will stay with you for a long time. I am going to give it five stars for originality and courage.

This one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. It was enchanting, sad and just plain weird. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.

The author draws you right into the main character—Natsuki’s—inner world. I felt fiercely protective of this earnest and strange kid.

The book has an essence of sci-fi. I’m not a sci-fi reader so that flummoxed me a bit. However, the story and characters were so interesting I wanted to follow them wherever they went.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*Thank you to NetGalley & Grove Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Sayaka Murata is so phenomenal at writing from the perspective of an outsider. In her last translated novel (Convenience Store Woman) she writes about a lonely outsider who doesn't adhere to society's expectations. In this book, Earthlings, the author explores similar ideas, but through a character that felt stronger, deeper, more experienced (even if a lot of that experience is a result of a lifetime of abuse and childhood escapism).

Which brings me to the escapism. In the description of this novel, it's said that Natsuki believes herself to be alien. She speaks of her toy hedgehog as a fellow alien, sent to help her. She also has a cousin named Yuu who tells her that he's an alien too. She forms a deep bond with Yuu and the two believe they have fallen in love with each other because they are the same (if only they could find their spaceship to take them back to their planet!)

Except, this book has a Pans Labyrinth-ian quality, wherein which the main character is a child and due to the extreme abuse they're facing, they create a reality in their mind that helps them to survive (because if they are an alien and can escape to their real planet where they belonged, then there would be some hope of escape in their future).

This book deals with deep psychological trauma and what happens when childhood trauma isn't dealt with as a person enters adulthood (thus forming destructive coping skills and mental health disorders).

The ending, however, was absolutely bonkers and I just can't explain or rationalize it in my brain other than to say: wow and also what the hell?!

I was so completely invested in this book that I read it, in its entirety, in one night. I knew I liked this author after her last novel, but now I'm truly blown away by her work.

This book is off the hook.

If I try to explain what happens in the plot, I will sound insane. And it is. The plot is outrageous and over the top - the oppression, the abuse, and then the equally shocking response to it. It's wild, fearless, and what makes it even stranger is that it's told in this completely simple, straightforward, conversational tone. It draws you in, with the ease of a YA novel. You almost think, hey, this is about 11 year old kids. I'm not that interested. But don't be fooled... it's about to get about as dark and twisted as your worst nightmare.

So yeah, I would like to avoid sounding insane. But I'd also like to avoid spoiling the experience for you. It's best, I believe, if you read this knowing as little as possible going in. Go for the ride. It's one of the most freaky-deaky in the whole amusement park.

It's freaky because as crazy as the main characters' actions seem, I supported them. Why? Because living in "The Factory" - society - isn't easy. Don't you ever feel like an alien? I sure as hell do. Don't you ever feel like you'd rather die than conform to what is expected of you? Or if you do, doesn't it feel like a slow death?

"The Factory" is often propagated most by those closest to us. I lived this way, so you need to, too. This is what you do now, and this is what you do next, and there's no room for you if you don't. There's no room in the factory for individuality. For those healing from scars or trauma. For those who have a unique-to-them path.

Murata's characters make room. This story is told vastly outside the box. And I love it because of that.

Wow this is truly a unique read. Uncomfortable at times, and unsettling whilst being very entertaining. Do not judge a book by its cover, especially this one......because what you read is a complete shock and you won’t be able to put it down

It's been about a week since I finished reading this and I still can't put in to words how I feel about it. After reading The Convenience Store Woman which was pretty heartwarming, I was expecting more of the same and was caught completely off guard by this book. It follows the main character from the age of about 11 up to mid thirties and focuses heavily on her life trauma and how she copes with living in a world she feels that she doesn't belong in.

This book covers a lot of heavy topics so there are trigger warnings for pretty much everything so please be aware that this is not an easy read. I really enjoy the author's writing and found it hard to put this book down even though the subject matter was pretty dark, the story was totally gripping.

Overall I would say I really enjoyed this for what it was and I would recommend if you enjoy stories that arn't the norm and deal with heavy topics.

“The person who had given birth to me said I was a dead loss, so I decided it really must be true.”


A few days before reading Earthlings I read Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman and I really loved its humour and eccentric narrator. So, perhaps I approached Earthlings with the wrong expectations. Or maybe I was fooled by its cute cover (I mean, just look at that hedgehog!). Fact is, Earthlings is an altogether different beast to Murata's previous novel. I can say, without the shadow of a doubt, that Earthlings is the most bizarre novel (and I've read a fair amount of books).
If you thought Convenience Store Woman was weird, well, be prepared as Earthlings is on an altogether different level of weird. Narrated by Natsuki, a young girl who is made to feel like an outsider within her own family and is regularly subjected to verbal and physical abuse from her mother and her sensitive older sister. Natsuki seems resilient enough though and finds reassurance in the belief that Piyyut, a plush toy hedgehog, is an alien from the planet Popinpobopia. Natsuki is eager to help Piyyut on his quest, and reveals only his true identity to her cousin Yuu who in turn tells her that he's an extraterrestrial. Both of them live in difficult households and are made to feel like burdens. Their bond strengthens, so much so that they begin to call each other 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend', keeping their relationship a secret from the rest of the family. Sadly, the two are only able to meet up in the summer during their visits to their grandparents (who have a house in the mountains of Nagano).

“With my eyes closed, drifting in space, it felt as though the spaceship from Planet Popinpobopia really was close by. I was immersed in my love for Yuu and my magical powers. As long as I was here in this space, I was safe and nobody could destroy our happiness.”


Natsuki's school life takes a turn for the worst when an 'attractive' young teacher begins to make sexual advances which will escalate to abuse. These horrific encounters will plague Natsuki into adulthood, as she will find it impossible to form an intimate relationship with another man. Her memories of Nagano and Yuu do lighten her days. However, to keep her family at bay, she forces herself to obey the norms of society and marries...but her married life is far from conventional.
There are many explicit scenes in this books. Some of them were simply vile, and frankly gratuitous, while others were so outlandish as to be funny (in a fucked up sort of way). This novel has quite a few scenes that made me drop my kindle and wonder, out loud, "WTF did I just read?". Here are some examples (readers' discretion is advised): (view spoiler)

What started as a dark coming of age soon morphed into a nightmarish and feverish horror show.
The book delves into disturbing subjects in a surreal and occasionally abrupt sort of way. The horrible things that keep happening to Natsuki and her alienation (towards her family, society, reality) are mediated by her unnervingly enthusiastic tone. She's perfunctory when noting what her parents and sister feels towards her and criticism of society's fixation on reproduction have a spring to them:

“Everyone believed in the Factory. Everyone was brainwashed by the Factory and did as they were told. They all used their reproductive organs for the Factory and did their jobs for the sake of the Factory.”


Similarly to Convenience Store Woman the narrative of Earthlings interrogates existing notions of normalcy as well as questioning what being a 'useful member of society' entails. While Convenience Store Woman was far from subtle, it allowed more room for interpretation, Earthlings, on the other hand, is far more obvious. Natsuki, and two other central characters, use the 'Factory' metaphor in most of their discussions concerning their society and lives. It was a bit on the nose for me.
The ending was baffling and made me wonder what the point of this novel was. Certain scenes were so ludicrous as to be amusing and Natsuki's narration certainly held my attention but even so I wonder whether those really graphic scenes served a purpose other than 'to shock' the readers (I don't think so). Murata's treatment of emotional and sexual abuse is also rather questionable.
My advice is this: be weary of Earthlings.

After the wonderful Convenience Store Woman from the same author/translator this was a relative disappointment, albeit still a very quick and addictive read.

In Convenience Store Woman, Keiko struggled to fit in to conventional life or to understand other people - here Natsuki literally believes she is an alien. When the novel opens, with her age 11 she tells us:

"I hadn’t told my family, but I was a magician, a real one with actual magical powers. I’d met Piyyut in the supermarket by the station when I was six and had just started elementary school. He was right on the edge of the soft toy display and looked as though he was about to be thrown out. I bought him with the money I’d received at New Year’s. Piyyut was the one who’d given me my magical objects and powers. He was from Planet Popinpobopia. The Magic Police had found out that Earth was facing a crisis and had sent him on a mission to save our planet. Since then I’d been using the powers he’d given me to protect the Earth."

but as she matures to her 30s if anything her belief that she herself is from Planet Popinpobopia, and that she has to resist being sucked into the work and baby-producing Factory of the Earthlings, only strengthens.

But where in CSW, Keiko was developed as a character with whom the reader can have sympathy, here the novel's main technique is to simply continually dial things up a notch each chapter and see which taboo it can break next (indeed Natsuki and some fellow Popinpobopians express this as their specific intent). There is a strong critique also in here of the treadmill of life, particularly for women, but it felt too exaggeratedly done to have any real satirical bite.

3 stars.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (Conveinence Store Woman) is like nothing I've read before and as much as it took for me to wrap my head around it, I was struck with evolving insights long after I closed the book. As a young girl, Natsuki, is an outsider who suffers constant abuse and ridicule. To cope, she escapes to a world of fantasy where her plush toy hedgehog, Piyyut, an ambassador from Planet Popinpobopia, tells her she must use her powers to save herself from the "factory" of baby-making and other Earthling ills. As the story progresses, Natsuki, her husband and cousin embrace the Popompobopia lifestyle finally freeing themselves from Earthly constraints and expectations. This is a book that you have to experience and uncomfortably process as each layer is revealed, both sympathizing with and recoiling from the heroine's actions. This is not a book for everyone, but best for those who can immerse themselves in a narrative that is truly dark and surreal.

Advanced copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Available October 2020.

Trigger warnings: emotional and physical abuse, pedophilia, death, victim blaming

If you've read Murata's Convenience Store Woman, I think you will be familiar with her characters' awkwardness. They tend to not fit into society's mold, though they try to conform because that's what we are conditioned to do. However, Earthlings takes a look at social aversion beginning in children.

Natsuki and Yuu are cousins who see each other every summer when the entire Sasamoto family gets together at the Akishina house to honor their ancestors during the Obon festival. The Obon festival is the one time a year when Natsuki gets to see someone who likes her, when she isn't a dumpster for her family or dreading her summer cram school with Mr. Igasaki, who Natsuki describes as "a little bit not okay," and when Yuu can be free from acting like the man of the house for his widowed mother. Yuu tells Natsuki that he is an alien and he searches for his crashed spaceship around Akishina every year in hopes that he can escape Earth and go home.

Both Natsuki and Yuu have a difficult home life, both are viewed as weird children by their immediate family, and maybe this is why they eagerly await the next summer when they can be together again. Natsuki becomes more and more desperate each summer, and convinces Yuu that her stuffed bunny Piyyut is from the same planet, Popinpobopia, and that the spaceship is in Akishina and can carry them both away this upcoming summer.

Unfortunately they don't escape Earth that fateful summer, and they go from being alien children to non-conforming adult members of The Factory. This is what Natsuki calls society. The factory's job is to conform - work, get married, produce children and contribute to society. All one has to do is fit in.

"Everyone believed in The Factory. Everyone was brainwashed by The Factory and did as they were told. They all used their reproductive organs for The Factory and did their jobs for the sake of The Factory."
This is where Murata doubles down on her social commentary, especially when it comes to sex and sexual attraction, but in Earthlings she introduces the reader to the characters' childhood traumas and experiences - letting the reader wonder at nature v. nurture.

By the end of the story, Natsuki, Yuu, and Natsuki's husband Tomoya, have entered a sort of fever dream that leaves the reader gaping and wide-eyed. I personally couldn't decide between covering my gaping mouth or cackling in bewildered macabre humor as the trio embraces their alien-ness. I think it depends on whether the reader is an Earthling or a little bit Popinpobopian.

I enjoyed Murata's Convenience Store Woman, so I was excited to receive this advance copy. Earthlings is nothing like Convenience Store Woman and it is exciting to see the interesting workings of Murata's mind when it comes to her writing. This book is quite odd and has disturbing parts for sure, but there is also great beauty in the descriptions of the different locales where the book takes place. I think it has a lot to offer, especially to readers with an interest in and some knowledge of Japan.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the free ARC.
A follow-up to Convenience Store Woman paints the same picture of Japanese culture, you need to have a great life and make the family proud. Our title character wants anything but that. Another interesting look into the Japanese way of life.

I completely enjoyed the author's earlier novel The Convienence Store Woman and was looking forward to this one. While this narrative was nothing at all like her earlier work, I enjoyed this one even more. I loved the subversive narrative and found the satire to be spot on.

I am so moved by this novel. It's entirely unique and yet it flows mysteriously in the same mighty river of fiction that has sprung up in these last years, written by women from all over the world, who are suddenly writing in a fierce and visceral and entirely new way about what it means to be a woman.

This novel is outrageous and funny in some parts, and it's outrageous and heartbreaking in others. I never knew what to expect, but then, every time the unexpected happened on the page, I thought: "of course. I know this feeling. I've lived this feeling, even if I've never thought about it quite this way before now."

I wasn't entirely on board for Murata's previously translated novel, "Convenience Store Woman," which struck me as accomplished, but a little safe. EARTHLINGS, in contrast, is radically risky. It's likely to be one of my favorites of the year. Murata invites us readers to take a leap into the unknown with her story, only for us to discover later that we know all too well what she's writing about.

I wanted to read this book because I really enjoyed Convenience Store Woman (Saya Murata's other novel). Earthling is a kinda short but it is also a really catchy book. Even though the cover suggests that it is an innocent and sweet book, the story is really dark. Earthlings covers many trigger warning topics such as incest, child sexual abuse and cannibalism. The message of this book was really poweful and realistic. I would totally recommend this book for those who can handle the topics it covers.

3 1/2 stars. Hello Kitty has gone dark. I loved the bright blithe spirit of Keiko, the heroine of the author's previous book, [book:Convenience Store Woman|38357895]. This book takes that same spirit, subjects it to childhood trauma and awful parenting, and gives us a new heroine, Natsuko - a woman like no other I've met in fiction. Natsuko is the concoction that results from throwing female compliance into a blender with Sci Fi, satire, and a dash of the movie 'Parasite'. The cover couldn't be more perfect.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Earthlings.

I'll be honest - my interest was drawn in by the adorable cover and the author, whose previous book I read, so I was super excited when my request was approved.

Earthlings is definitely a book you shouldn't judge by its cover.

The cute image belies the very dark, very disturbing, and very tragic story of a young girl searching for comfort and solace from the very people who are supposed to protect and comfort her.

She is verbally and physically abused by her indifferent parents and older sister, abused by a pedophile teacher and retreats into a fantasy world as a way to escape the horrors of her abusive childhood and molestation.

The book is short, but not for the faint of heart.

There are heartrending triggers like sexual violence, suicide, child abuse plus disturbing topics like incest and cannibalism. The story wasn't weird; it was just sad. Disturbing. Dark doesn't even begin to describe how I felt as I was reading.

The author is also taking jabs at the societal expectations expected of men and women, mostly women, which she also tackled in her first book.

The ending is a shock, but not unexpected.

Earthlings is not just about refusing to conform to the expectations society expects an able bodied women (and men) to conform to, but it's about alienation, confusion about one's place in the world, and how we perceive ourselves when no one seems to care about you except you so who cares what people think.

Earthlings is not a book for everyone, but if you're looking for something uncomfortable, unsettling and very different, give this a try.

Well that was unexpected. Our heroine (?) has a truly miserable life- abused verbally and physically by her mother, her whole family dynamics are awful, and her teacher is outright molesting her. But to make things worse the only person she seems to love is taken from her in a brutal way when she tries to save herself (as best she can) from her reality. Throw in a treatise against modern life and the factory that is societal expectations and it’s a heck of a ride. And then it really twists at the end.

This is nothing I expected, but I think it will haunt me. Just read it.

I don’t know how to describe this book without giving too much away. It’s pretty short and I don’t want to spoil anything, but know that this book is super fucking weird, but you can’t stop reading. Do not be fooled by the cute hedgehog on the cover, this isn’t for the faint of heart.

(I’ll put some content warning below under a few line breaks for those who want to go into it a little more prepared than others – I should have looked up content warnings before I read).

Earthlings centre’s the story of Natsuki at two times in her life, the first as a primary school aged child, and the second as a woman in her thirties. As a child, Natsuki has an imaginary friend of sorts, an alien named Piyyut from the planet Popinpobopia who inhabits a plush hedgehog. Natsuki retains this connection to the planet Popinpobopia as an adult, as events and people from her childhood follow her.

I read this book as a hyperbolic fictional depiction of expectations placed on women (and men) by society and how these social pressures manifest in different ways. How Murata relates the Earthlings to the Aliens in the story is a really interesting exercise, but I’ll admit that sometimes it was pushed a bit far for me.

I would recommend this book to people who like strange stories with ‘taboo’ subjects. If you liked The Vegetarian by Han Kang or Bunny be Mona Awad you might like this, it’s not similar to either in plot, but in the general feeling of being unsettled as what you are reading gets stranger and stranger and you wonder how far it will go. Out 16 October 2020 from Grove Atlantic.
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Content warnings for detailed depictions of: child sexual abuse, incest and cannibalism.

I enjoyed Murata’s previous novel Convenience Store Woman, and was prepared to really like this one, but it was a little too over the top. Sex with cousins, adult male teachers who do despicable things to our young narrator, abusive parents, suicide, murder, graphic cannibalism….like every trigger warning forever. This book is basically like the darker, more obvious sibling to Convenience Store Woman. It felt a little like the author took the same themes and ideas, turned the ‘dark and messed up’ dial way up and spat out the same book. I expect this was intended to have an effect similar to the movie Parasite, but without any of the brilliance.