This was an incredibly difficult book to rate. I found the concept of a world where children are created by artificial insemination, and consequentially sex has pretty much disappeared to be fascinating. In this dystopia husbands and wives live chastely, and intercourse between them would be considered to be incest.
The story is told in such a blunt, unsettling way, and is designed to provoke, but it worked for me for the most part.
My issue was that I really struggled with the ending. I can see the symbolism of it, but it made me feel very uncomfortable to put it lightly.

Sayaka Murata will always be my favorite author. Period. She just has the most unorthodox, unique stories to tell that are anything but the wash, rinse, and repeat you find in all other books, tv, and movies. Her books are alwaaaays at the tip top of my recommendation list for other readers. Since it's my opinion that she is in a league of her own, I have to compare this novel ONLY with her other work and not other authors. With that in mind, while this story was still unconventional, it unfortunately wasn't my favorite of hers. I appreciated her new take on what it means to love, but it wasn't as captivating as Earthling, for instance. Maybe it was the translation to English (and only I can be at fault for not being able to read it in the original language). Do not get me wrong, I am still obsessed with anything she writes and am sooo thankful to be given an ARC. Looking forward to whatever she comes up with next!

Vanishing World is a thought-provoking and unsettling speculative novel that explores themes of social isolation, conformity, and the evolving definitions of family, love, and identity in a futuristic Japan where sex between married couples is considered taboo and procreation occurs through artificial insemination.

This book is weird and unhinged. Komodo-chans are cringe. And lastly, this had me feeling a lot of emotions all at the same time. This is also the kind of book that is not for everyone.

For anyone wanting to read this, go into in with an open mind. Certainly not for those who have a certain kind of mindset.

Sayaka Murata has done it again. This was a uniquely written dystopia - certainly not quite an idea I would have ever thought up, and it worked exceptionally well. From my (limited) knowledge of the current climate in Japan regarding the decline of the family, Murata taps into this feeling well across all her books

I should have gathered my thoughts before reading the ending because... wtf. It sure goes out with a bang.

The concept was truly intriguing, but I think the execution fell a bit flat at times. The first part contained too many repetitive elements and conversations, which made it difficult for the story to fully reach the depth I had hoped for. That said, once we get to the section set in Experiment City, the pace really picks up, and I found myself completely hooked. The atmosphere, absurdity, and sense of unease in that part were truly gripping, and I couldn’t put the book down.

While it doesn’t quite reach the same level as Earthlings or Convenience Store Woman, I still found it to be a unique and thought-provoking read.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

i will read anything sayaka murata writes!!! this book definitely did not disappoint. thank you so much for the galley!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I of course have read Earthlings so got excited when I saw this book and requested right away. I really enjoy the way Murata writes. I feel when I am reading the information I am being given is always so insane but also has so many layers to it regarding criticism of society as a whole. I feel I cannot put into words how crazy this book is and the ideas it delves into as I am still trying to process it. The ending was abrupt but I also understand why. I need people to read this when it comes out so they can discuss with me.

Sayaka Murata once again crafts an unsettling and thought-provoking narrative that lingers long after the final page. Vanishing World is a masterclass in exploring the eerie intersection between reality and the absurd, delivering a story that is both deeply psychological and socially reflective. The writing is hypnotic, the themes haunting, and the world-building surreal yet eerily plausible. A must-read for fans of speculative fiction that challenges societal norms.

Sayaka Murata’s new novel Vanishing World follows the logic of her defamiliarisation of the modern world and culture in relation to sex, desire, and family. Amane begins as a young girl discovering revelations about sex through school, her peers, and her inquisitive nature - however Sayaka’s protagonist has just reached the precipice of a new world, one in which children are primarily born through artificial insemination as a result of sexless marriage as sex between husband and wife is deemed ‘incestous’ due to the tenuous link of husband and wife as family. Amane learns of her own conception as being far from the immaculate conception that has become the norm, and instead is shocked when ‘in sex education class […] I discovered that I had been conceived by an abnormal method.’ The beginning of Vanishing World sets out to question our cultural norms and values, not accepting them as common sense, or biological necessity but carefully constructed on a sociological level, impacting our views shared with peers, our disgust at those who do not conform (Amane’s mother), and presented as fact at impressionable young ages in schools.

Throughout the novel, the world Amane inhabits leans further into a sexless society - and interestingly her formative years provide space for younger generations to develop their sexuality in ‘a sterile space.’ Through her exploration of copulation, masturbation, marriage, and eventually Experiment City Sayaka comments on an objective and sterile view of humanity removed from primal animal urges and moulding society into a unified and singular consciousness. I know Murata’s work does not fit everyone’s taste but in terms of her ability to defamiliarise all we deem as normal, and make normal the strange there is no better living writer.

Vanishing World nestles nicely between the mundane of the Convenience Store Woman and the completely bizarre and uncomfortable Earthlings with all three questioning societal expectations particularly the notion of family bonds, romance and sexuality.

Like Murata's other novels the main character in Vanishing World Amane is depicted as somewhat of an outsider, and a bit of an unreliable narrator at times. Set in a dystopian alternate Japan, in a society where families as we know them, sex and romance have completely disappeared and artificial insemination is considered the normal natural answer and physical relations frowned upon, amane learns early on her mother is unusual having amane naturally and the books she gives her to read being frowned as out of date. This setting is very much in the same vein as a lot of classic dystopian novels like The Children of Men in the world that exists is completely alien to modern society.

Thank you netgalley & granta for the e-ARC. I'll be having to buy a copy when it's released in April.

2.5 stars
What did I just read?? This was clearly supposed to be a commentary on loneliness and the future of society, but it felt unfinished and underwhelming in parts. I enjoyed Amane as a character but her actions were confusing and cruel at certain points. Part One and Two were slow and boring to read, whereas Part Three was almost overwhelming with information and plot points. It just fell short for me. The idea was there and I could see what Murata was trying to say, but it wasn’t developed enough.

We follow Amane from earlier in her life and throughout her adulthood. Set in a society where sex and romance have almost completely vanished, artificial insemination is the norm, we get glimpses about how this society functions, but never delve much into it.
This is a well-written and translated book and a quick read.
The dialogue flows very well.
To be fair, I did not fully grasp the satire and any underlying layers fully, and instead felt like it needed more plot, more details, a more nuanced touch (judging by what Amane communicates with us is the societal messages).
I am keen on reading more by Murata.

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It forces you to question your own moral and ethical boundaries, that's for sure.

Vanishing World is one of those books that challenges everything from societal norms to human instincts, and makes us question ideas about love, reproduction, and relationships. Sayaka Murata isn’t afraid to push boundaries, and the result is both unsettling and fascinating, like a never-ending debate about modern society turned into a novel. Even though the world in this book feels extreme, it reflects real issues, especially how human relationships are changing. This story doesn’t give clear answers, but it forces you to ask yourself: Are my choices really mine, or have I just been conditioned to accept certain things as normal? Whether you agree with its ideas or not, Vanishing World is the kind of relatively short book that brings up a lot of topics to be discussed.

This book examines how far people will go to conform to, what they are told, are social norms. How far will they take themselves out their own comfort zones. I enjoyed that within the book beliefs were constantly questioned, either within conversation or by the narrator, Even if people almost always conceded to follow the party line.

Narrated by Amane we explore a world where sex, especially for reproduction, is almost extinct. Instead people fall in love with anime characters and have children through artificial inseminations. However, Amane is an outlier. She still falls in love with real people and still has sexual desires. We follow her from childhood to her late 30s as her feelings towards sex, love, and family life evolve and change. We follow her experience struggling to remain within social norms and the fall out on her relationships.

Like most of Murata's books this examines what is normal, what is natural, and why we believe these things. And like most of her books, this is an uncomfortable read, it makes you squirm and ask 'what on earth is going on'.

An interesting side question raised is how many rituals of love are simply driven by capitalism and how the state benefits from, and controls, our emotions and desires. It also explores parasocial relationships and how these create isolation.

Sayaka Murata is an auto-buy for me but I always have to wait a couple of days to put into words how I feel about her books after reading.
Vanishing world is expectedly weird, although it is clear it is the norm for the characters. It does give rise to questions as to whether this would happen and the consequences of this.
I couldn't put it down for want of knowing what would happen to the world and characters. I would definitely recommend for anyone who likes strange and dark fiction.

I was SO excited to be given an ARC of this, as Sayaka is one of my favourite authors and i’m so glad to say she didn’t disappoint once again. This might just be the weirdest, most unsettling book of hers i’ve read and I loved every minute of it.

Whilst this novel appears to be quite explicit it does make a very valid point about the future of humankind. Twenty years ago I’d have put this down as a great sci-fi read but with the way the world is going I’d say this is going to be a reality, but hopefully not in my lifetime.

The protagonist, Amane, was conceived naturally, and her Mother never let her forget it. The new way of giving life was all very controlled and done by artificial insemination, with no love and intimacy between people but for purposely raising children, known as Kodomo-chan, to be almost identical and perfect. Amane was conflicted by this, being conceived ‘the old way’ and with her peers only knowing ‘the new way’.

Very interesting read, but the last part with the grown up(?) Kodomo-chan was somewhat unsettling. The general concept is unnerving, the end of human emotional bonds and cold, clinical, science being the future.

Murata has a broad spectrum of imagination which I appreciate.

"'The concept of family doesn't exist in that world, does it? Before long the effect of the forbidden fruit will wear off and humans will end up returning to paradise.' I murmured, although I didn't really believe it. 'Sex aside, can society really function well without family.'"

Imagine a world where your very creation is controlled - where falling in love or having sex isn’t how you’re supposed to have children. Where after the loss of countless men during world war 2, we turned to artificial reproduction and never went back, not just losing sex but romance and love eventually, too. Welcome to Amane’s world, one where she is the anomaly for being conceived by two people in love. In fact, love is something entirely novel, not something that should interfere with marriage or family. It's an alternative universe where we're still shaming the way people live and start families, controlling their bodies, but from another angle.

Murata has created another vivid, feverish universe — one unsettling in it’s beautiful exterior but with a dark underbelly, where women get automatically given implants when they start their period so they can never have a child the unapproved way and people associate love with fictional characters but never people. At points sex between husband and wife is even considered incestual, because you’re family - offering this jarring reality where people have been so slowly worn down and warped that even basic love is stripped away from us and sex has become something strange. Women can’t marry each other because men can’t create children alone, marriage becomes a job, sex becomes dirty and love becomes a commercialised hobby. Watching as a young Amane tries to understand sex was deeply uncomfortable, but it painted a world that’s possible when we try so hard to control and alienate people that everything becomes distorted.

When we meet this new experimental society, built in the ghost of Amane’s old hometown, has a dangerous kind of allure. Children raised by communities, men given the chance to grow their own children, but adults with no control over if they get chosen to reproduce, no concept of family or partnership, children being reduced to nameless livestock with no need for human connection.

There’s something about this authors writing that flows in such a satisfying way, dreamlike, smooth, almost ethereal in its prose. The jarring discomfort of such strange words being delivered in a bright, beautiful way. It played with the concepts of morality, coercion, normality in a clever way. However as much as I've loved Murata's work in the past for it's bold strangeness, it almost feels like it's odd for oddness sake.

At times this story just felt repetitive, consistently elaborating on the same ideologies and metaphors and I’ll be honest, the ending just left me feeling quite sick and I hope there was some deeper purpose behind it but in my opinion, there were plenty of other ways to create the metaphors and meanings she portrayed than weren’t the ones she chose. The whole thing left a very bitter taste in my mouth and ruined what was at the start a brilliantly subversive social commentary and speculative tale.

⭐⭐

5/5 🌟

Once again I absolutely loved another of Sayaka Murata's books. This was a fairly short read, focused on Amane who is growing up in a world where babies are conceived by artificial insemination, and marriage is sexless and mostly loveless. All while husbands and wives have lovers outside of the martial home. Conceiving via sexual intercourse is considered dirty, and the world has changed massively in terms of relationships and the definition of family. As usual Sayaka touches upon things happening in the real world (same sex marriages, modern youth culture, platonic relationships and chosen family) in her unique way and leaves you reading such an intriguing story that you'll end up devouring it over 1-2 sittings. I found myself questioning my own relationships with friends and family, and had a think about what the future might hold. Not only this but the book is full of loveable characters, funny moments, and thought provoking feelings.

Immediately into my top books of all time. Cannot wait to reread this one!