Item: Earthlings
Rating: 4.00
Author: kiracanread

by Sayaka Murata

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. As youths, she and her cousin Yuu spent the summers in the wild Nagano mountains, hoping for a spaceship to transport her home. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the cousins for ever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what.

Now, Natsuki is grown. She lives quietly in an asexual marriage, pretending to be normal, and hiding the horrors of her childhood from her family and friends. But dark shadows from Natsuki's past are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains, Natsuki prepares for a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it? Dark, sharp and with a deeply unexpected twist, Earthlings is an exhilarating cosmic flight that will leave you reeling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Granta Publications for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warnings for this book include: paedophilia, sexual abuse, incest, cannibalism, murder.

Sayaka Murata is one of the most incredibly unique writers I've ever had the honour of reading from. Following her book 'Convenience Store Woman' I didn't think they could possibly produce something more incredible, yet here we have 'Earthlings'.

Earthlings is the story of Natsuki, who we see at ages 11 and 34 being pressured to conform with societal norms, whilst dealing with past traumas and abuse, along with her cousin, Yuu, and husband Tomayo who've also suffered. The trio believe themselves to be aliens from the planet Popinpobopia in order to process what they've been through together.

This book was an absolute roller-coaster, I laughed, I was hurt, I found parts incredibly hard to read - yet when it all came together this was so incredible and intense that I just couldn't stop. Sayaka Murata will definitely be an insta-buy author for me from hereon-out.

If you're seeking an intense, hard-hitting but short novel, 'Earthlings' is the one for you.

Earthlings

by Sayaka Murata

Reviewed by kiracanread on Aug 10, 2020

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