Matsuda's flash fiction collection ranges from three-sentence fragments to brief sketches, which explains why so many of these pieces felt rushed and underdeveloped when I was expecting traditional short stories. The feminist messaging is often unsubtle and heavy-handed, and I found myself relying on the author's explanatory notes at the end to understand what many of the stories were actually about. I ultimately DNFed it halfway through because it was starting to feel like a frustrating slog through someone's unedited notebook rather than a cohesive collection.

The Woman Dies is a thought-provoking collection of short stories, with some creative meditations on womanhood, identity, and mortality.

Overall, I enjoyed the originality and would happily read more of Matsuda’s work. However, I think this collection could have benefited from more focus in the editing. The book felt a bit chaotic, with the stronger stories losing some impact by being placed alongside others that felt more like drafts or fleeting ideas. I think it would have been more powerful as a tighter collection, with fewer but more developed stories.

My only problem with this book is that it's chaotic and hard to grasp. I get that's it's supposed to be a little bit experimental, but it doesn't work that good in translation – it just might be the translation though.

What I want to say is this: this book tackles a very important subject but it's too round-about about it. Some chapters are great but some are just plain confusing.

This book was a compelling and enjoyable read from start to finish. The writing was engaging, the pacing kept me hooked, and the characters felt authentic and well-developed. It struck a strong emotional chord and left a lasting impression. Highly recommend to anyone looking for something thoughtful and impactful.

I have really been loving short story collections recently. I found that this one was very unique because it spans across different genres, you never know what to expect from the next story. I really loved the cover of this book and I’m so glad it was translated to English so I had the chance to read it.

Fun, feminist short story collection. In translation and keeps a good amount of humor and wordplay throughout.

Light, dark, silly, serious, sad, scary, and ENRAGED.

This is a very weird one, and some stories were definitely better than others, but wow this was fun. The title is great (shades of Women! In! Peril!) and the cover is excellent. Five stars all 'round, and let the ladies be filled with righteous rage.

I absolutely love short story collections. There’s a portion with brief commentary about the inspiration which I greatly appreciated. It’s fast paced, the stories are incredibly short so you’re almost instantly going into the next one. I enjoyed it

It’s hard to rate and review a book of short stories. There is a lot of worldplay that may have been lost in translation. I liked many of the short stories while others were lost on me. The writing style engaged me with wonder and whimsy but was also discombobulating which considering the book description was the goal. There were so many unique stories and perspectives. There is even one told from the point of view of an anthem…the song itself. I found it intriguing and unique. To be a song and to find someone who refuses to sing you brings up these base human struggles of wanting to be liked, wanting to be accepted, wanting someone who doesn’t care for you to care for you. As is the namesake, many of the stories are commentary on society specifically on the experience of women. There was a lot of material that resonated in that regard. There’s a reason this was translated because even though there were a lot of culturally specific things to japanese culture, there was a lot of commentary that is universal.

Grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced reading copy!

I loved this. It was exactly what creative writing should be: free, witty, and completely imaginative. Being able to take a small concept and make a great story out of it is so interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The translation unfortunately felt extremely clunky in this book. I have adored Polly Barton’s other translated work so I felt a bit let down by this one. The general premise was so weird and outlandish that it made me intrigued but it was unfortunately very hard to get through.

ARC Review: The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton
Release date: Sept. 02, 2025
Rating: 4/5

The Woman Dies is a large collection of quirky Japanese micro-fiction; short-as-hell stories and spells and poems. It’s feminist, it’s subversive, it’s angry and silly and ever-so-unique. There are 52 pieces in this collection, but my 10 favorites are as follows:
Bond - a social gathering of Bond women
Starry Night - from the perspective of a resident of Van Gogh’s painting
English Composition no.1 - a hilarious (mis)understanding of power suits
I Hate the Girls That You Like - feminist poetry in short story form
The National Anthem Gets it Bad - my absolute favorite in this collection, the national anthem has an unrequited crush on a student who refuses to sing it
This Precious Opportunity - secret messages under yogurt lids ridiculing you and humiliating you for licking the very lid they expect you to lick
The Woman Dies - totally agree this is a lazy plot enhancement, I’ve ranted and raved about this for years, and then WOW what a twist of topics! Memorable, loved it.
We Can’t Do It! - amazing feminist Rosie the Riveter-inspired poem, I want this tattooed on my back
To You, Sleeping in an Armory - a beautiful elegy to the horrors of war
Bette Davis - the most epic seance, I wished it were longer, it would make an incredible movie if expanded upon!

The Woman Dies is out TOMORROW! It is fun and short and well worth your time. I’d love to compare favorites with anyone else who’s read this collection! I feel I could read this in another sitting and have an entirely different set of favorites (although I know I will always be partial to that heartsick national anthem).

Thank you to Europa Editions @europaeditions for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley (@Netgalley). All opinions expressed are my own.

Okay, I kind of loved this? At first I wasn't sure about it since I've never read any flash fiction before. While I was starting to read I was asking myself, "What's the point of all of this?" and then the author stuck her middle finger up at me and I realized there isn't much of a point and that's the fun part.

With that being said, there were some harder-hitting stories and most of them had an undertone (or in some cases, a satirical, intentionally heavyhanded overtone) of cultural critique, especially surrounding misogyny, consumerism, capitalism, and nationalism. The stories revolved around the author's random preoccupations but often had a deeper social critique if you thought about them too hard. There was an overall sardonic, absurdist tone that was genuinely a lot of fun. I really like this idea of the author being randomly inspired by seemingly mundane objects or thoughts and turning them into works of mini-fiction.

Though the stories felt random, there was some cohesion too. For example, there's a recurring story that features Japan's national anthem as a personified character -- it falls in love with a singer who refuses to sing, then later it goes on vacation and writes in its diary. Or, similarly, there were some mini cat stories that seemed to be the author's random musings on how much they love cats.

It's the kind of work that you can try to find deeper meaning in, or you can just have fun and get lost in Matsuda's playful writing. The stories being so short mean that the author put a lot of thought into which words to use, which images to create, which symbols to highlight. There's a lot left unsaid too, so the reader can find as much or as little analysis out of the stories as they want. The vibe is very much unfettered creativity and allowing stories to be strange and kooky, but also the surface-level fun being a little misleading because it clearly takes a lot of skill to make them work this well.

Beyond the craft, these stories were just weird, unapologetically so. I genuinely laughed out loud multiple times reading these stories because they were so unexpected and filled with a ridiculous, sardonic humor. I'm not someone who typically laughs at books so this one really surprised me.

Finally, the author finishes with a short chapter that gives a one-line explanation or summary for each story, and that made me laugh even harder and made me want to revisit the stories. Like, there's a story where a salesperson demonstrates gruesomely dismembering a body that they call "misogyny" in order to sell knives, and later Matsuda explains the story was inspired by Big Boo from Orange is the New Black. Like what? I love Matsuda's freaky little brain and the weird connections she made.

If you want to try something different, I can almost guarantee you've never read something like this before. If you're a fan of biting humor, weird girl lit, scathing social critique, and absurd imagery, this book will make you very very happy.

This collection is like stepping into a surreal theme park built by feminist ghosts and glitchy vending machines. Matsuda blends sharp social critique with dry humour and uncanny storytelling.

August with Matsuda, again brought to us in English by Barton, has been a blast (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7809372280). My favorites from this massive collection are The Android Whose Name was Boy, The Purest Woman in the Kingdom, and The Woman Dies, obvi. Sorry for the basic list, which includes the title track and opening number. An honorable mention goes to Dissecting Misogyny, a bloodbath of a live demonstration that odorously reeks to high heaven once the lady in charge splits open the cadaver.

At the end of the book, Matsuda includes brief commentaries on the inspiration behind all of her (very) short stories, and I appreciated these explanations. I wondered if some of the stories should be removed in order to strengthen the overall project—I puzzled over some of the content found in the final third. In the end, I got into the groove of the fast-paced movement and enjoyed the author’s modus operandi of capturing an idea or feeling as it emerges in real life. I picture her Notes app always open for convenient, on-the-go jotting (e.g., “I like lipstick with intriguing names”) so that she can workshop the bullet points into a narrative in the quieter hours of the evenings.

I rate The Woman Dies 3.5 stars.

My thanks to Europa and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on August 28, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7814346543).

First of all, can we talk about the cover? It's beautiful! I would like it as a poster on my wall. Second, the book is astonishingly good. Short, almost bits, of stories that take you aback and actually make you feel something in a such small amount of words.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Aoko Matsuda’s The Woman Dies is strange in the best way—short stories that slide between satire, surrealism, and feminist critique without losing their bite. Everyday sexism, violence against women, and the absurdities of modern tech culture all show up here, refracted through deadpan humor and dreamlike turns. One story gives voice to inanimate objects, another unspools like a word game that morphs into something more jagged and true.

Some pieces lean heavier on concept than character, but the collection thrives on its inventiveness. Matsuda is at her sharpest when she skewers the ways violence and prejudice get normalized, finding comedy in the discomfort and making the critique land even harder.

It’s a slim book but a layered one, best read slowly to let each story echo. Fans of Where the Wild Ladies Are will recognize the sly humor and feminist edge, but this collection pushes into even weirder, more unsettling territory.

Thank you to Europa Editions and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A great pick for Women In translation month here. The Woman Dies gives us 52 short-stories and flash fiction about, often showcasing the societal pressures and violence inflicted in our societies. Most of the stories feel like a flash of lightening, a simple and tiny little glimpse, but sure still pack a punch.

The Woman Dies by Aoka Matsuda, translated to English by Polly Barton is a collection of short stories which centres around feminism and the bizarre experiences of being. The title story was definitely my favourite and I can see why it was chosen to be the title piece. It explores how women are portrayed in media to move the plot along in a punchy and raw way.

My other favourites of this collection include a story of a woman who falls ill and spends the early hours of the morning vomiting other people’s meals, and “the masculine touch”, for its thought provoking absurdity.

I was also taken aback by a quote in one of the stories towards the end: “Sometimes it took time to notice that something was youth and sadness” which I have not been able to stop thinking about!

Thank you to the author, translator and Europa Editions for the ARC copy of this collection.

I was really interested in this collection, which consists of fifty-two stories, but I don't think this was personally to my taste. This is an eclectic mix of short stories and flash fiction--some of the stories contained within the pages of this book are only a page long--which doesn't give us room for being invested in the stories beyond a small snippet of what we can see of these characters and themes. These stories are very fun and I can see the satire elements throughout, especially with how it pertains to critiques of gender roles and sexuality in society, but I wanted to be invested in these characters beyond a small bite-sized piece. I can see how someone else might love this collection more than I did though!