A review by sanmeow
Faith by Sayaka Murata

challenging reflective fast-paced

4.75

god, i love sayaka murata so much 😭 in this story, she talks about cults and the psychology of them, what reality is versus what we consider delusion, what is socially acceptable for a person to spend a lot of money on, etc. she does this through the character that is nagaoka, and two people she used to know in school who want her to start a cult with them. one of them, saizawa, used to be in a cult before, where she was selling water filters and genuinely believed it was making her happy. nagaoka has been criticized throughout her life for seeing 'reality' as it is, and calling out what she perceives as scams. her sister even cut her off because of this behavior. so nagaoka joins the new cult saizawa has started, wishing she would actually get brainwashed.
i'm always impressed by how thought provoking sayaka murata's stories are, even when they're this short. i love the clever commentary on societal expectations and norms. i love her peculiar characters. i just adore her work and will read literally anything she comes up with.