Reviews

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

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snuffmumii's review against another edition

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3.0

har sådan et love/hate relationship til sayaka murata og deres fucked up tankegang

mayarosa's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved every one of these stories. They are so imaginative and thought provoking. They examine our societal expectations and consider new ways of thinking, highlighting how humans are so fascinating and always changing. This was recommended online as a horror collection, which it unfortunately is not, but it was beautiful and captivating. Highly recommend.

mirivalente's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

2.75

pryingblackbird's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

afternoonlight's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

weird, often disgusting, but surprisingly funny.

Content Warnings

wordsareworlds's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A solid anthology, Murata uses a lot of extremely weird and unsettling elements as a way to comment on life and society. I enjoyed it, but felt like some of the stories were really heavy handed in their commentary, rather than letting the reader infer anything.

Not all the stories were weird in a body horror/dealing with mortality way. One was about a love triangle between a girl, her boyfriend, and a sentient curtain hanging in her room, and I did really enjoy that one. My favorite overall was Puzzle. None of them were a complete miss, but there was one (or two nested together) about the ways the relationship between two women could have gone that were the most "normal" but also the least interesting in how they flowed with the rest of the anthology.

There are elements of gender essentialism I find on par with most other Japanese literature I've read, but I don't think it really veers into anti-queer or anti-trans sentiment.

I'd recommend this to people who are looking for the literary version of Black Mirror that deals with society and mortality using bodies and extreme personalities instead of technology.

Content Warnings

bellorie's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is a series of short stories touching on magical realism and speculative fiction. For me, the stories made me see things in a different light and see new ways of thinking. Each story can be pretty shocking, but the author pulled it off in a way that makes the stories feel real and believable. It may be the recency effect for me, but I felt like the last story (Hatchling) was my favourite because it had me thinking for a while - even though the character's actions may sound extreme, it’s not far from reality.