Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

8 reviews

shuvtterbug's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I genuinely enjoyed this so much and I do think it may be because of how partial I am towards Sayaka Murata and her writing style. While certain stories were a bit eerie they evoked such a strong emotion in me. It’s hard for me to stop reading with Murata’s works. I especially felt that the story hatchling was one I related to the most. While I feel that there’s a real me I often am unsure of which this one is. I encourage anyone to take a stab at at least one of these short stories if not the entire collection.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Violence, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Alcohol

farenmaddox's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A brilliant short story collection, although I found a couple of the stories a little tepid. The titular story was spectacular.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

Minor: Cancer, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

lidia7's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

very gross and disturbing

i enjoyed these stories the most: Body Magic, Hatchling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Excrement, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Sexual content, Medical content, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, and Cultural appropriation

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death, Incest, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual harassment

kymzii's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Body Horror and Culture Shock
This is a collection of short stories that deal (somewhat metaphorically) with issues surrounding culture, food and lifestyle. However, it is the way Murata approaches these subjects that lift these stories out of banality i.e.

one story involves cannibalism and fertility rituals and another involves using dead human bodies as clothes and furniture.

Her tone is cool and removed and her characters seem a little closed off even when they are baring their souls. My one criticism is that some of her stories go nowhere and the collection would have been better without them e.g. the story where

a woman things she is a building (I'm still not sure what actually happened) or another when a woman is describing how she has a different personality with different friend groups (it just didn't go any where and her husband gets needlessly upset about the whole thing).

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Cannibalism

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Gore, Infertility, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

3.75

Buckle up, because Murata is going to take you for a ride in this collection of short stories. They’re just as provocative as her previous works in the way they openly challenge societal norms. I can definitely see how Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings came to be from some of these stories (especially Earthlings).

Like many short story collections, I found some more engaging than others. I also thought the longer stories were far more interesting, but that’s likely because Murata had more space to develop her ideas—

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Gore, and Incest

Minor: Stalking

august_18's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Incest, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

georgiam06's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

4.0

As always with Murata - amazing writing and characterisation, could be much less cannibalism and incest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest and Cannibalism

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual content