I knew what I was getting myself into when I requested this ARC. I enjoyed Murata's previous works because of how otherworldly and distorted they are. This novel, though, was from another galaxy. And don't even get me started on that ending.

We follow Amane, who was naturally conceived through sexual intercourse, which is seen as a barbaric way to be conceived, compared to artificial insemination, which is this society's norm. Amane explores her complex relationship with love, romance, sex, and touch, and what that ultimately means to her, and the way she brought into the world with both fictional and real lovers. She tries to suppress her intense, sexual desires throughout her life. Marriage is now perceived as a sibling relationship, and sex with your marriage partner is the equivalent to committing incest. She lives in a sexless marriage with her husband, as they plan to live their lives in an utopia-experimental city, known as "Paradise Eden" where nuclear families don't exist. No matter who gives birth to a child, that child belongs to everyone, and everyone is that child's parent.

This book delivers intriguing commentary on socio-cultural norms, modern sexuality, familial ties, and pushing the boundaries between how the government dictates sexuality. I could write an entire thesis on this novel and the declining birth rate in Japan: how they are regulating birth rates and reproductivity. While this book did offer fascinating discussion, the novel itself fell flat at times. It felt redundant and very repetitive at times when Amane would have the same internal struggle with her sexuality on every other page. Murata's commentary was also very blatant and obvious about what she was attempting to convey, occasionally using her characters as placeholders to drive her philosophy to the readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a book I will be able to forget anytime soon and I mean that. Not only does Murata have superpower abilities to make you think and for me maybe overthink to the point of existential level thought (hello anxiety, I see you) it was thought provoking and interesting nonetheless. Most people won't be as triggered by the amount Murata makes you think, this book did trigger me but like I said I think maybe that's more a sign to proceed with caution if you're a sensitive reader like I am, rather than something that needs to be reflected in a review. When looking through my notes to write up this review, the most consistent note I wrote was 'fascinating' - I kid you not, I wrote that word at least 5 times whilst reading this masterpiece.

Amane as a character is such a great protagonist and person to experience this book through. She's a risk taker, a thinker and she conforms in some ways but definitely colours outside the lines in other ways - a truly well rounded character. I also feel like she represented an extreme, she's almost plagued by her desires and love. She has an insatiable need to fall in love and to feel loved which felt really relatable in parts which I think is a benefit of presenting a character with such extremes, it feels inevitable that the reader will see themselves somewhere along that spectrum even if they don't join the character at the extremity. Also she has so many heartfelt moments of sacrifice and profundity. One of my favourite quotes from this book is when she says to Mizuto 'appreciating what's under the skin is what love is all about, isn't it?'. She's so wise and her thoughts were a privilege to read.

There were some moments where Amane felt problematic for me - especially when she manipulates Mizuuchi into having sex with her, not cool. And most of Amane's sexual interactions with men did feel a little forced almost to the point where I felt like she was perhaps putting pressure on guys she met by introducing sex to them. Also her having sex with her art teacher and him becoming her 'lover' - what?! She's literally a kid, this felt icky.

I found her mum really interesting to read about, she was very memorable for being so rebellious but also was an incredibly clever mechanism of illustrating how the older generation lived and their society (which ironically enough, rooted this book in some reality because it felt like her mum's generation mirrored ours and she was almost living in a futuristic world that we have yet to see). Juri was also a great character to read in contrast to Amane, she was such a stickler for the rules and conformist that her perspective almost seemed pessimistic when put next to Amane's but it was interesting to balance out Amane's character once again.

Seeing Amane's early parasocial relationship in childhood, with Lapis particularly was really fun to read and resonated with the boyband crushes I had growing up. Despite the worlds being different, it once again felt like a parallel between her world and ours. I think this is also how the dystopian world remains interesting to read about, because it has enough sprinkles of 'real life' to feel realistic whilst still remaining wildly different and inventive.

Also, the world that Murata has created is exceptional. It was so well thought out, I couldn't find any loopholes or weak spots it was absolutely amazing. I was so hooked the whole time and even though this book isn't particularly lengthy, I knew the world and its constructs so proficiently by the end of the novel. I was, and remain to be, obsessed with how much Murata's world flips the norms and challenges the society we currently live in. A world where it's seen as incestuous for married couples to have sex and men can get pregnant - fascinating! I also loved how Murata used the world to create parallel between today's society and thus reflect some of the ways our society still needs to progress. For instance, in Murata's world, Juri and Amane are irritated because they're besties but can't get married and Amane remarks that 'it's so behind the times' for her country to 'keep insisting on only recognising marriages between men and women' - this resonates so deeply with gay rights (or lack of) to marriage in today's society.

I also liked that one of the unspoken rules of marriages in this book was that you could have sex outside of your marriage and would openly discuss your dates with your husband/wife. In today's society this would either fall into the category of polyamory or cheating (if you were in a monogamous relationship), and whilst I don't necessarily condone cheating or have interest in polyamory myself it was cool to see a world where this was the norm. It felt really refreshing to essentially see a world where jealousy doesn't exist.

Speaking of dating, it really felt like Amane met her match when she met Mizuto and it was a shame that he kind of disappears out of the plot without their situation resolving properly. Their dynamic and sex was really interesting to read as they approached it from such a technical and mechanical way ('so now we have to stimulate our brains. Then our sexual organs will naturally get ready') that it felt like there was so much mutual respect between the two of them.

This book did feel apocalyptic in patches, which is probably partly due to how the society in this world is evolving in a direction where population growth is being controlled and dictated. Despite this, there were moments of human connection and utter warmth such as when Amane's husband says to her that he's not scared, 'not as long as I'm with you Amane. After all, we're family'.

The theme of development of medicine and technology is woven into the inner tapestry of this book and definitely leaves lots of room for thought. The ethical and existential question of whether medicine is helping or hindering humanity and whether something as biologically based as medicine could ironically be removing us from our initial biological beginnings and create a biological reality that isn't even 'real'. I also think the question of intent comes up a lot here, all the advancements seem to have good intentions to make reproduction less messy and more efficient but their outcomes sometimes felt like they weren't worth the new reality the advancements were creating for society. Also brings up the idea of what truly belongs to the individual and whether we should own others in the context of a family or if humans should be shared as part of humanity as a whole.

I have one minor critique, but it's very small. When Mizuto's wife comes home and Amane is there chilling with Mizuto, his wife starts talking to her and asks her if she's staying for dinner. She replies with 'Hiya' - this feels really weird to do. Who says hi in response to someone asking a question? Not sure if this was to show Amane's awkwardness or uncomfortableness in the scene but it just really stood out to me.

Also, not a crazy amount happens in the plot. It wasn't particularly fast paced per say and there wasn't drama or action sequences - but this isn't that sort of book. Stuff does happen, but it's gradual and the majority of time is spent presenting you with these characters and this world and making you think so I didn't mind. This book raises ideas, not necessarily crazy plot lines in the way other books do. For instance, the dystopian nature allows hypotheticals to be explored - like a large scale baby cafe where people play with babies and then give them back? Wild.

A book short of incredible that looks out sex, religion, family, humanity and technology all through the lens of a creepily dystopian society. It's such a good read if you're not easily spooked on existential stuff.

This is the first book I’ve read by Sayaka Murata but it definitely won’t be my last. It was unhinged and completing engrossing. I just couldn’t get enough. It was weird, at tiles uncomfortable, and definitely unique. I can see this being divisive, but I enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC

I love Sayaka's novels. They're always something else and no one can write unhinged as her. I always feel weirdly engrossed in the stories and connected with her characters in a way even though they're weird. I love stepping out side of the box and read something totally random but enjoyable

“Normality is the creepiest madness there is.”

What a banger!!!

Many reviews say this isn’t as strong as her other work, but I have to disagree! The only thing that is less strong is maybe the prose as it is very very repetitive, but that’s a characteristic of Japanese fiction/communication in general, so I always keep that into account.

This is classic Sayaka Murata, so be excited for this “new/old” release if you already like her stuff!

As always, the main theme is questioning what “being normal” means and what’s it’s like to not live up to societal expectations, and who’s even deciding what “normal” means? Are “normal people” just full-on brainwashed?

I’m so glad we can always rely on her books to offer something fresh, unique, revolutionary in the sea of copy-and-paste stories that make up the litfic genre.

I loved every second, and as always I also found the book hilarious cause of the absurdity of it all, and how she would just casually drop the most insane lines in the most serious of tones!

Also, every time I watch a new episode of Severance I can’t stop thinking that she could have written that show, cause… same vibe!

This was such a memorable story and I loved it much more than expected!!!

Unfortunately this was really disappointing. It was a great concept with some interesting themes explored but the execution was bad in my opinion. It was repetetive and I think that was on purpose to drive a certain point home but it really didn't work for me and I think it could have been done in a subtler way. In general it was very heavy-handed. Everything was spelled out and there wasn't much room for me to figure out or interpret things on my own which made the book quite boring.

The first two parts could have been much shorter as they felt more like exposition for part 3, which I think was the most interesting part of this concept. The third part had so much potential but it didn't have enough time to be developed and felt rushed. I understand the need to establish the world and the characters, and how those change over time, for the third part to make sense and be effective, but spending so much time on the first two parts really messed with the pacing. A lot of details in the first two parts seemingly went nowhere and didn't really add to the world building or character development, so along with the repetetiveness there was definitely a lot that could have been cut.

I didn't like where the story went with the ending but that's more a matter of my taste. I don't think 'weird' fiction is quite my thing so someone who is into that might enjoy it more, but this wasn't really my main issue with the book. The weirdness aspect made the story interesting but the writing and pacing let it down. This would have been much better as a short story and with more showing instead of telling.

For starters, I'll read anything Sayaka Murata writes. That's a fact by this point.

Vanishing World is set in an alternate Japan where sex between married couples no longer happens and children are born from artificial insemination. People give a new meaning to love and sex and what it means to have a family and to exist in the world.

The novel was very clearly written before her other works, so it goes to show how much Murata has improved and polished her storytelling, while still discussing topics like social norms, the bizarre, the grotesque and family. I really appreciate the way she tells her stories and how she has a signature style.

While Vanishing World was not my favorite by her, I can appreciate it for what it is and for the commentary it presents (the unhealthy parasocial relationships feel much more relevant to be discussed today than it was 10 years ago, for example). It did feel repetitive at times but it was a pretty quick read. There's the ever present wtf ending and the discussion around what the human experience really means.

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

In Vanishing World, Murata imagines a world where humans only conceive via artificial insemination. Amane feels like she is abnormal because she is the product of her parents copulating, an antiquated practice now considered taboo amongst married couples. In this society, romantic love is a vestige of a bygone era, and humans merely procreate for the survival of the human race. Amane and her husband Saku are intent on having a child and move to Experiment City, a new city where men can become pregnant thanks to the advances of science. Children are raised by the inhabitants and are not subject to the 'imperfect' setting of the family dynamic. In this highly sanitized and compartmentalised world, Amane feels like an outsider as she struggles to conform and to manage her own urges and beliefs.

Murata examines the narratives we have created around paradigms to ensure the continuation of the human race, the 'insanity' of normality, and the challenge of non-conformity. She also astutely questions the ever-increasing isolation created by the convenience facilitated by technological advancement and the ensuing loss of human interconnectedness.

Murata is often called the Queen of Weird. Tbh, I always feel this gimmicky moniker really undermines the depth of social criticism found beneath the engaging storytelling in her books. Her stories feel a bit like looking at a negative of a picture capturing our values and norms as a society- it looks like us, but something is off... I found this book really fascinating, but it does get a little gross in typical Murata fashion. Nonetheless, I would recommend it!

A huge thank you to @groveatlantic and @netgalley for the ARC!

Vanishing World is out on April 15th!

Vanishing world is set in an alternate Japan where sex is no longer common. Everyone is fitted with a contraceptive device when they reach puberty and all children are born via IVF. Couples marry for companionship and financial reasons but sex between married people is considered incest. Instead, people fulfil their sexual urges by taking lovers outside marriage or by using anime-like cartoon characters for mastubatory purposes.

Vanishing World is told from the perspective of Aname. Unlike most of the people in her community, Aname was conceived from copulation, something her mother told her over and over again throughout her childhood. From a very young age, Aname is obsessed with the idea of sex, both between humans and with her "lovers" - characters from TV shows she falls in love with. Everywhere around her, humans are becoming disconnected from love and sex and more solitary. Nowhere is this more demonstrated than in the nearby city of Paradise-Eden/Experiment City, where everyone including men give birth to children who are raised collectively.

Vanishing World is a very weird book! For starters, I have never talked about sex this much in a Goodreads review before (and honestly, it is making me a bit uncomfortable, lol). The book addresses so many issues that are true for much of wider society and specifically true for Japan, such as people turning away from traditional ideas of family and increasing loneliness in society. The idea of men carrying children is a really fascinating one, as is the idea of collectively raised children. But - and this is a big but - all of these ideas are channelled through Aname, who is obsessed with sex. Like really, quite disturbingly full-on obsessed with sex. I'm sure this is a deliberate choice by the author, but it did making reading parts of this book really tedious because Aname's expressions of desire were so repetitive. So, a very middle of the road three stars for this not-at-all middle of the road book.

“If my weird sexuality went contrary to societal norms, I would probably spend my life being dragged around by it.”

In Vanishing World, we meet Amane as she struggles with the fact her parents had sex to bring her into the world, rather than the new norm of artificial insemination. In a world where spouses having sex is considered despicable and labelled ‘incest’, Amane thinks of herself as cursed and struggles to find where she fits. As Amane grows up, she finds herself constantly falling in love, with real people and anime characters and dealing with the issues that come along with that.

This obsession with love continues even after Amane marries her husband Saku, with the couple supporting each other in their romantic endeavours outside of their marriage. The pair end up moving to ‘Experiment City’ where children are taken from their birth parents and raised by the community, with each person being considered ‘Mother’. Experiment City is considered revolutionary in lots of ways, with men being able to get pregnant with artificial wombs and the children all being known by the same 'name', sharing Will Amane discover her forever home in the City or want to go back to her Vanishing World?

Sayaka Murata has done it again; written an absolutely batshit yet enthralling and well-written book with scathing commentary about society throughout. And I absolutely devoured it.Sayaka Murata has done it again; written an absolutely batshit yet enthralling and well-written book with scathing commentary about society throughout. And I absolutely devoured it. I am still deeply perturbed by the ending but that’s Sayaka Murata for you… Huge thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of Vanishing World.

I found some aspects of the book to be quite repetitive, but overall a very interesting commentary on parasocial relationships and familial structures.

Vanishing World offers a lot of ideas on society and how malleable human nature is or isn't. The world is lightly sketched, and many of the dialogues and thoughts of our main character feel distinctly repetitive in a sense, making full appreciation of the concepts quite hard
Times change. What’s normal also changes. Clinging on to what was normal in the past is insanity.

Sayaka Murata has carved out an oeuvre that comments on the professed normality of life, and the absurdities that especially the female body is subjected to in society. In Vanishing World we have a Japan where sex is slowly disappearing, with human sexual desires finding an outlet in anime and manga for the most part. Amane Sakaguchi, the main character, grew up cloistered by her mother and is one of the last humans who is conceived in the old-fashioned way through copulation. Population decline and war led to major leaps in innovation in respect to insemination, with everyone now sterile through mandatory body implants and children being born via IVF. This alternate world is only told to us, and the level of immersion is definitely less than those worlds that for instance Kazuo Ishiguro gave us in Klara and the Sun or Ian McEwan in Machines like Me. In a sense the world made me think a bit of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, where also major societal changes is contemplated through technological advances.

Part one focusses on societal pressures the main character is subjected to, as she is still seeking "unhygienic" sexual intercourse while her schoolmates all move away from the body. Quite an interesting metaphor for porn addiction undermining the chance for real connections and reflecting plummeting sex and birthrates in millennials and younger generations in a sense. These nonhuman lovers being AI companions would have been a more dynamic, realistic rendition of the concept. The commentary that love and sexual desire only as vehicle for capitalist exploitation is very clear nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the writing is so much focussed on the thoughts and statement-like observations of Amane that it all feels rather superficial. She tries to build up a family in the middle section of the book, sexless and with physical relationships strictly out of the marital bed, but even this polyamory is rather boring and bloodless.
The final section of the book is a sort of Brave New World, with children communally raised (Kodomo-chans, calling everyone Mother, and being heralded as children of all humankind) and the concept of family destroyed. People use cleaning stations to "dispose" of their sexual desires efficiently in 1 to 5 minutes. I was reminded strongly of Equals, a sterile movie with Kirsten Stewart and Nicholas Hoult of people no longer allowed to feel emotions and living in communes, the high-tech white buildings as sterile as the interactions between people.

The conclusion in an experimental city dubbed Paradise-Eden, with collective AI powered virginal insemination at 24 December, has hints of Earthlings, with so much societal change (and society at large proving a construct) that breaking taboos seems inevitable and logic. Getting there took a long, long time and I feel this book could have been much more impactful if the ideas had been given more time to breathe and Amane would have been a more emotionally invested, more do and less show, kind of main character. A frictionless, convenient world in the end is also deeply a boring world we are led to conclude - 2.5 stars

I’m not sure I even know where to begin with this review. Murata’s writing is excellent and easy to read, the imagery so well written you can almost see the scenes.

However, I have no idea what the heck I read, in a good way? The world that was built in this book was one that made the reader uncomfortable, uneasy, and wondering what the heck just happened. The core plot and idea of this world is scary in a way and really reduces the importance of love, family, and warmth, warning us of what could happen in a distant future if we ignore those things.

This book was a WILD ride, emphasis on the wild and that ending?!?

3.5/5 - what a weird and uncomfortable but well written story. I will def check out more of Murata’s works!

Vanishing World was a very interesting read, the core concept is particularly peculiar and in keeping with Murata’s style, yet I felt it only truly picked up in the last few pages. Up until the final part, the narrative felt repetitive and somewhat convoluted. There were too many layers to the world that ultimately had no impact on the story line and confused the overarching theme of a sex-less world. The entire second part felt unnecessary and the second husband expendable. The writing style was good and at moments very beautiful, but unfortunately not enough for me to recommend. I liked the concept, but not the execution. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Grove Press for the eARC.

I enjoyed this one for two reasons: I love Murata's writing and storytelling, it always captures my attention and the idea of this book was fascinating.

However, I constantly felt like I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking for. Admittedly, I don't know much about Japanese love and dating culture or their views around family so I'm probably not the target audience, but I just had the constant thought of, what am I supposed to be critiquing here or what message am I supposed to be taking from this book? It felt kind of scattered for me, personally. One thing I will say is that it made me think about family dynamics, community, human instinct etc., which perhaps was Murata's end goal.

I have previously had mixed experiences with Sayaka Murata's work. I loved 'Convenience Store Woman' but disliked 'Earthlings', so I wanted to see how I felt about this new book. My feelings are quite complicated, but I liked it overall.

The story is a strange and uncomfortable alternative future where the idea of family is disappearing, and babies are starting to be made in an almost factory-like way. At first, I didn't think I liked the book, but then the social commentary aspect clicked, and I found myself thinking a lot about how possible this future could be. The ideas are presented by a well written unlikable main character who is constantly questioning her normality in this changing world. The ideas were very interesting and provided an interesting take on the importance of family vs. individuality.

This story was seriously strange and made me uncomfortable at some points, so I wouldn't suggest picking this up if you want an easy read! However, I enjoyed it, and it's made me want to give 'Earthlings' another shot.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for the ARC copy given in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll start by saying this one’s not an easy read. The story is set in an alternate Japan where everything we know of a normal family are basically upside down. Here, sex and copulation (a word repeatedly used in the book, which I found to be a strange choice) is a taboo, considered incest and ‘dirty’ between married couples. The whole attitude towards sex is: sex is dirty, unnecessary, emotionless. The relationship between married couple is platonic, safe, ‘clean’ and most importantly, devoid of any falling in love.

Amane, the main character, lives in a sexless but peaceful marriage. She and her husband both keep ‘lovers’ (real humans or otherwise) outside the marriage to keep the marriage itself ‘clean’ and safe. They also want a child, and in this society, artificial insemination was the norm, and males can get pregnant through an artificial womb. They made their way to the Experiment City (or Paradise-Eden) to have their child, and there, all children are Kodomo-Chan, all the adults are Mothers, and all the children born share a communal care – they belong to humanity, not to any specific couple. No one gets to take them home. They live and grow up in the Experiment City.

Murata depicts what is to me, a very possible future society if falling birth rates becomes critical, basic human relationships continue to be distorted, loving sexual intercourse between committed people are removed, family units distorted, children become parents-less to remove the problems of dysfunctional parents, etc. It’s so, so bizarre, but also eye-opening in that this may be utopia for some. The ending also had me turning my face away from the book.

Trigger warning: all kinds of bizarre sexual distortion.

It’s a bizarre, difficult read, with some parts being somewhat repetitive and long-winded, but overall, I’d give this 4/5.

Vanishing World publishes 15th April 2025!

#bbbreviews #VanishingWorld #SayakaMurata #GroveAtlantic #NetGalley #ARCreads #ARCreviews #japaneseliterature #translatedliterature

This was weeeeird. She hit the right notes of uncanny and “yeah this seems ok”.

I felt like it was maybe a bit too on the nose at some points, but also I feel like that’s fine.

in a world where artificial insemination is thriving and individuality comes to a close… where basic copulation is eliminated and romantic love is seen as degrading… we get Amane, our main character who doesn’t seem to fit in and justifies it by being cursed by her birth mother. She does everything to stray away from her mother’s ‘traditional’ ideas of childbirth and marriage, but can’t seem to deny her own instincts. This novel read easily and had the same weird flair that Murata usually graces us with! This might be her most demented one yet… it definitely won’t bode well with everyone.
Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the arc!!