Vanishing World encompasses all the traits I've come to expect from a Murata novel in the most mind-bendingly delicious way imaginable. I found it absorbing and unnerving in equal measure, and overall thought it was great.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Sayaka Murata always surprises me. Her every book is very different from what I imagine it will be. I have mixed feelings about this but I liked the world she created where many things considered normal in our world are considered 'not right'. It is a book about love, sex, the lack of sex and norms

Well this makes a change, I feel like all I’ve done recently is read average translated fiction, however this was a master stroke! A fantastic fantasy/sci-fi take on some bigger issues that a lot of people wish could happen! I mean pregnant men!!! What a delight! It wasn’t until I finished that all of what happened really dawned on me. This will make a good recommendation for someone looking for something different

Having read Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, I was expecting weird, and weird is what I got. I was intrigued by the premise; is sex fading out of existence with the normalisation of artificial insemination, and how does that effect relationships?
I actually found this read more engaging than the other two, it was quite dystopian but in a literary way, and it made the drastic changes feel normalised. This skill is definitely one the author succeeds in.
The ending was slightly jarring, everything somehow ramped up by 250% in the last few pages, but it has definitely left an impression.

You can definitely tell that this is one of Murata's earlier works as it doesn't quite live up to Convenience Store Woman or Earthlings, but it still has that very distinct and weird Murata feel to it in how there is a sense of detachment and eeriness in the world you are reading about. She plays around with gender and gender roles so much with this one that it can sometimes border the line of ridiculous, but in doing this she exposes the rigid societal boundaries that have been seen in Japan and in breaking them down it becomes apparent how alien this 'new world' feels to us.

The book did feel as though it lost a bit of focus as it went on and it seemed to go off onto a lot of tangents - perhaps it was trying to say too much and would have felt a lot more nuanced if there was more of a succinct idea behind the book. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy it as the book was definitely as shocking and entertaining as her other novels, and her characters still as wonderfully weird as they have always been. The only thing which freaked me out a bit was the ending. Murata has always been one to push boundaries and challenge our perception of normal, but I can't decide if she took it too far with the ending of this book. I can't really think of the reason it was there apart from shock factor, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

I would definitely recommend this book and I'm excited to see what other people think. It was definitely messy, but it was a mess I completely raced through and enjoyed every time I picked it up.

I would like to thank Net Galley this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I've previously read Convenience Store Woman and Life Ceremony so I knew what I was getting myself into when I picked up this Murata book, but I feel Vanishing World pushes the boundary further.

It's hard to read this book and miss Murata's commentary of 21st century Japanese society. This analysis is done in such a clever and skilful manner. You don't feel like Murata is stood upon a soapbox criticising life in Japan, but instead she takes you on a journey where you - the reader - speculates and questions life and the the true purpose of love and its place in society. This book made me reflect on the differences in British and Japanese society but also humans as a whole and what it means to be in love, to have a family and contribute to the world.

In summary, this book is a wild trip. Pick it up and read it so that you can make your opinions of what sex and love truly mean.

Full disclaimer: I worry this review didn't make much sense and I do apologise for this. My thoughts are everywhere with this book.

The Vanishing World is as Sayaka Murata as it really gets -- the wacky, the weird and the ridiculously absurd delivered in the most deadpan manner. And this time, she breaks down the nuclear family structure, in a world where sex is deemed unnecessary for human life to prevail, and artificial insemination reigns.

We follow the main character's -- Amane -- journey through the various stages of her life, as she tries to define over and over what it means to love and how to display it in a world where it's seen as a mere inconvenience. Families exist purely to be phased out in the near future, and children belong to everyone and no one. It's the sort of story that makes you reconsider why we exactly we live the way we do, and what it means to sacrifice simple tenets of our being in place of new traditions. My gripe is this novel, while abundant with all the elements I love so much about Murata, was that the world-building felt too far overblown to be tackled in its entirety within the span of the novel. Amane is uninterested in being the deviant, the anti0hero, the vigilante or challenging the norms of the new world, and rather has every intention of being normal, or realigning her version of normal with everyone else's -- which is a refreshing notion, but also makes for a disjointed story as Murata tries to deliver specific social commentary while also displaying Amane's slow detachment from the old world. The timeline jumps and repetitive storytelling grow tiring towards the latter half, and then picks up again at quick pace before falling to an abrupt end. That being said, I was, as the kids call it, 'GAGGED' throughout the entirety of the novel.

I am a Sayaka Murata loyalist forever, easily one of my favourite writers of this era,

3.75/5

at one point murata muses, through her protagonist amane, that normality is the real danger, which feels fitting with what's happening all around the world with the rise of the far right. in a flipped dystopian world, artificial insemination is now the norm with how babies are brought into the world. because of this, the existence of people who have had sex or have been brought into the world through sex are the minority. yet, the nuclear family prevails with many getting married for the purpose of having a child through artificial insemination while still dating other people on the side. wife and husband are almost sibling like with sex between the two considered incest. told in a way that peals back the influence of the government on this sort of familial structure, i don't want to give away much more than that because it's best to go into this one with as little background as possible to soak in all of murata's social commentary. the only thing i would nitpick is that murata or the translators often repeat the same social commentary/at times even use the same wording which felt like she didn't trust the reader as much, but the build up was worth it in the end.

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata is a provocative exploration of a dystopian society where traditional concepts of sex, love, and family are radically redefined. In this alternative Japan, procreation occurs exclusively through artificial insemination, and sexual relations between married couples are deemed taboo. The protagonist, Amane, conceived through natural means, grapples with her innate desires in a world that shuns them. Murata's narrative delves into themes of societal conformity, the essence of human connection, and the consequences of suppressing natural instincts. The book stands as a bold commentary on modern societal shifts and the complexities of human nature.

#vanishingworld by @sayaka_murata_ translated by @ginnytakemori, thank you to @netgalley and @grantabooks for this #arc

#sayakamurata is a very talented writer and storyteller. None of her stories to date have been conventional and let's hope she never changes. A dystopian story, it doesn't just attempt to sell an idea of an alternative world, as much as it builds it and makes it frighteningly real. Without giving too much away, it focuses on relationships and child-bearing, with two different developments over time. The way Murata writes, you understand the logic and feel the decisions, it's unsettling!

The thing that got me was how much I could see the real world going the same way in terms of a form of brainwashing or collective societal pressure to conform to one specific way of doing things. Everything being drip dripped into each person until you are adopting the same messages. We have got to hope and pray for everyone to keep doing what they want to do in all forms of life. It's like the saying "just because no one is doing it, doesn't mean it's wrong, and just because everyone is doing it, doesn't mean it's right".

Overall I really enjoyed this book, the world that was presented was fascinating and I couldn't help but be engaged and provoked by it in so many ways. I loved the exploration of how best to have a child and raise them too. Really got me thinking.

Fantastic book as you can always expect from Murata, it had elements of #thememorypolice in terms of massive changes going under the radar for most due to how they are introduced. Give it a read, you might just love it too!

#honnomushi100 #reading #japanesefiction #translatedfiction #translatedjapaneseliterature #booksfromjapan #booklover #bookstagram #translatedgems #japaneseauthor #translatedjapanesefiction #japaneselit #newbooks2025

DNF. Sometimes, I wish I could capture the joy I felt when I read Convenience Store Woman. And every time I pick up a new book by this author, I'm praying for something even vaguely close. I feel like the literary girlies will love this one. It feels like a book for people who are much cooler than me and don't have Catholic guilt still swirling around back there despite lapsing years ago. I don't even know if there's a word to describe why I put this book down, but it was like a roiling tide and I felt kind of seasick. Not for me.

Sayaka Murata is an auto-read author for me, so I was beyond thrilled to get an ARC of her upcoming Vanishing World. It is a literary sci-fi novel with little plot and a lot of meandering. Amane lives in a world where sex is rapidly vanishing. Everyone is conceived through artificial insemination, people marry platonically and have lovers (most of whom don't actually engage in sexual acts) outside of marriage, and reserve most of their affection for idols and anime characters. Unlike a Western dystopian protagonist. Amane is not here to challenge the system - instead, she is a vehicle for the author to demonstrate the different angles of the system.

Murata's novel belongs to a long line of literary responses to some of the most acute demographic issues plaguing Japan - alienations and low birth rates. Think The Last Children of Tokyo, Breasts and Eggs (the Eggs part) or Diary of a Void as some of the recent examples avaiable in English. Vanishing World is rather repetitive and muddled. Every single page of it discusses sex in some way, shape or form, be it in relation to sexual satisfaction or procreation, so be prepared. However, as many things which claim to be about sex, this one seemed to me to be about something quite different - the sense of normality, societal rules and conformity. Some of the changing norms of Amane's world might seem outlandish, but each of us has lived a version of Amane's lifem witnessing a transformation of ideas of what is and is not normal in marriage, sex and relationships. In my case, coming from quite a conservative family in a different country, I went through a period of adjustment to what is the 'norm' for a Millennial woman in the UK. Some of the things that are supposed to be speculative (?) in the book actually feel quite relatable - it seems weird to have a crush on an anime character, something Amane says only 'perverts' used to do in the 'past' of her world (the present of ours), but I lost count of people who confess to some or other animated character being the catalyst of their romantic/sexual awakening as children (Lara Croft is always a popular one).

Murata's central thesis is that most people are conformists, and would conform to absolutely anything, showing that through Amane's journey into a new experimental community where all children are parented by everyone in the community and where nuclear family is forbidden. Amane enters the community with a desire to keep her child, but gradually transforms into total acceptance of the rules of her new world. The 'norm' does not exist, as it continuously changes, and most people get used to the 'new norm' incredibly quickly (a sad realisation in our increasingly fascist world).

Overall, I think this one was a bit of a disappointment for me, especially coming from Murata. The text is very repetitive, as Amane keeps saying roughly the same things in slightly different words throughout. However, plenty of things are left unexplored. The initial discussion of Amane's world of anime lovers, sexual urges and platonic marriages is horribly hetero and cis normative. Murata never quite manages to grasp a nuanced portrayal of sexual desire, and connecting (or, in this case, disconnecting, but assuming a previous exclusive connection) it to procreation feels hollow without discussing all the forms of sexual desire and fulfilment which do not lead to procreation. Moreover, although we glimpse a sexual assault, very little discussion is given to the place of violent and non-consensual sexuality in this world. Additionally, Experiment City with its communal child-rearing is shown to be something completely unprecedented, whereas it is the nuclear family in its current form that is quite out of line with most historic and global societies. Despite Amane's insistence that the world is always changing, the world of her world's 'past' is incredibly static and simplistic.

I think one of my main issues was that it was not clear whether Murata was creating a dystopia, or showing that the 'norm' does not exist and that different 'normalities' suit different people, making them happy. These two themes are mutually exclusive - either there is some benchmark of normality, and Experiment City is a dystopia, or everybody has their own normal and we should be more mindful of different ways to do things. The ending sort of played with this idea quite well, as Amane, whose perspective we are supposed to find sympathetic throughout, no matter how odd it gets, finally does something the vast majority of people would see as completely unacceptable. I read it as a double narrative, in which both Amane herself and the reader are slowly boiled, like those frogs, to the point they do not quite notice that they are being cooked. In this case, we the readers are being drip-fed a society which takes it a step further and even further from our ideas of 'normal', gradually buying into cultural relativism, only to be shocked back into our senses by the end. This might be quite a generous reading, but this is the only way I can reconcile the novel's central themes (which still firmly puts it into the 'dystopia' category and makes its central thought experiment around sex, relationships and procreation rather meaningless).

If we bring this novel into its contemporary context, it feels like a round doughnut, always circling around issues but never getting at their heart. There is surprisingly little place for work, wages, work-life balance and gendered expectations of capitalism in this novel. There are comments here and there about how the world is this way because of all the companies creating sexy anime characters to encourage people to spend more, but overall the novel is pretty toothless when (not) addressing the root causes of Japan's complicated relationship with sex and procreation (compared, say, to Diary of a Void, which is far more explicit). Apart from the genuinely creepy ending, which seemed out of place, nothing about this lukewarm novel is particularly radical or punk, things I expect from Murata.

‘Vanishing world’ is a novel that leaves a deep sickly feeling in your stomach. For many reasons I could not tell what the political aim or POV of this book was and was left uncomfortable at many of the events that played out. Although this is most definitely the point.

The novel follows a woman who is raised in a society where sexual intercourse isn’t required for reproduction. We play witness to the degradation of family and community. But, also see how these things take on new meanings and are not totally missing.

I did enjoy the book, its fast pacing and interesting plot kept me intrigued but it wasn’t groundbreaking and didn’t have a strong message.

3.5/5

This was a quick and easy read. The description sounded interesting and It did have a strong start. However, as it went on it felt weird for weirdness sake.

Murata has done it again, defying my expectations and leaving me audibly gasping by the end of her slim masterpieces. This book is dark, introspective, subversive and written in her usual sublime style. There is something about the deadpan nature of Murata’s style which reads like liquid gold. This is a dark book, indeed perhaps that is an understatement, and is also something hard to recommend. But it is also playful, and clever, and leaves so many questions for the reader to sit with for days. I always think she is the legend of the horrific ending, and as a reader of everything she is written, this is definitely her at her best. Vanishing world is a meditation on sexuality, declining birth rates, technology and the ‘normal’ and it isn’t something that will ‘vanish’ quickly from my brain.

I'm a huge Sayaka Murata fan, her ideas and perspectives are so unique and original. She isn't afraid to go against the grain to disgust and horrify the reader.

I do think this is the most unhinged of her full length novels. The concept behind this book, once a couple marries they become like siblings rather than lovers, is a fascinating idea.

Unfortunately I did find the writing style to be more repetitive than I like, the same things were repeated over and over. Until eventually (even though a unique idea) it became dull. I don't think this will be very easy to recommend to anyone who isn't already familiar with Muratas work.

Vanishing World is a dazzling, mind-bending epic transcending genre and subverting the very fundamentals of humanity. A world in which marriage is a platonic partnership, intermarital sex as good as incestuous, and falling in love is strictly for extra-marital relations. This is a real eerie read but in the best possible way, raising numerous questions as to the limits of humanity's desire for optimal productivity and convenience. It also examines the foundations of what makes family, and love between family members. When our protagonist and her husband migrate to a commune-like society where experimental methods attempt to enable men to birth children, both quickly become inseminated, dreaming of bringing their children into the world and running away to raise them in freedom. But as their time in this immensely bizarre society progresses, they begin to lose sight of their reasons and in turn, begin to lose themselves. This is a poignant and chaotic read, exceptionally entertaining and hard to put down. I will be highly recommending this.

Vanishing World follows Amane who is ten years old when she discovers her parents had sex to conceive her rather than using artificial insemination. Amane feels disgusted because her friends were conceived the normal way through artificial insemination and their parents live in sexless marriages. Throughout her life, Amane questions sex and cultivates relationships with anime characters. Amane and her husband hear about Eden where men can be inseminated with an artificial womb and decide to move to this experimental town.

This had some really interesting things to say about sex particularly how sex is seen as unclean in this world. There was also some interesting ideas around family and what gives us purpose in life. The translation of this was good and I enjoyed reading this. This feels more similar to Earthlings than Convenience Store Woman but it was very unique. This was weird, strange and wild. I enjoyed the reading experience and I’m giving this 4.5 stars rounded up to a 5 because this was a solid story that made me think and I would recommend it.

You can always relay on Sayaka Murata to write unusual books. This is no exception. The writing was excellent and I felt very intrigued as to what would happen. There seemed to be many ways it could go. If you like slightly unusual narratives then this is one for you. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I have read the other translated novels by Murata, so I was so excited to get my hands on her next release.

This story follows our main character Amane throughout her life, from childhood to adulthood, and her questions surrounding relationships, sex, family and conception. The society our protagonist lives in is constantly changing in regards to these topics, and we get to experience her changing opinions and thoughts throughout.

For me, this novel was a bit too messy. Murata is an author who doesn't shy away from complex and uncomfortable topics, but I was left confused about the purpose of some of the topics introduced. I was also very unsure what the protagonist really thought/felt during the novel, and a lot of questions raised where quite repetitive.

The ending to this left me staring a wall, it's very dark and very unsettling.

Unfortunately, this was only a *2.5 for me, but I will continue to read Murata's work as it is so unique.