Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Life Ceremony

jarring, uncomfortable, and confusing bc it is all centered on so normal (mostly) human experiences

an interesting read overall

Favorite stories:
- a first rate material
- a magnificient spread
- two's family
- eating the city

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gia0203's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely love sayaka murata and her writing style. life ceremony thematically is very similar to earthlings. they both explore society’s expectations, sexuality, and the body (particularly relating to food and hunger). personally, I enjoyed every story, which is rare for me in a short story collection. I found the book endearing and grotesque and oddly moving… I think I just enjoy her writing so much because I view the world in the same way she does. murata delights in exploring the unconventional, however discomfiting it may be.

consciously or not, her narratives echo the neurodivergent and queer experience. it’s very comforting to live in the minds of characters who don’t fit in.

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mementomoriiv's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional

4.75

Murata uses extreme imagery to explore modern relationships of the body and family, ritual, food, and sex. It's very well written and well imagined.

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eohzy's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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catandherbooks's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Murata's only gone and did it again!!! She just gets it.

If you're weird and queer and have great taste in books read this!

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lucyduller's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

I love a short-story collection; it’s a great way to get to know an author’s style and get vignettes of many different stories. I also really like Sayaka Murata’s novels, in particular the wildly popular Convenience Store Woman, which I highly recommend you read!

This however, was really disappointing. It’s tricky because for many of these stories, I get what she is doing…I think.

I think she’s trying to subvert norms and tell a story from the perspective of a societal outsider. In some cases, I think that worked quite well. The short stories I actually enjoyed were: Hatchling, A Summer Night’s Kiss, Two’s Family, The Time of the Large Star, A Clean Marriage and Body Magic

The rest however were pretty disturbing. Cannibalism, being a human building, an affair with a curtain (yes a literal curtain). Some of them felt like half formed ideas, where the story gave gruesome detail about the weird disturbing parts without the reflection or the zoom out on the bigger picture that makes the story make sense. So for a lot of this book, I had a confused face, as pictured in the post, teehee.

I can confidently say these stories are unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I think it would be interesting for anyone interested in social anthropology to read, but otherwise, I’d recommend skipping this one and read Convenience Store Woman instead. Unless of course you would like to read some disturbing, disgusting, gruesome, odd stories — if that is the case then this collection of short stories is for you!

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grunbean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.25

A real mix of stories, all weird, all confrontational, all wonderful. If you are uncomfortable with ideas that are a bit gross it could be a challenge to read. I really enjoy ‘weird’ books, and I was hooked on these stories. My favourites were Life Ceremony and Eating The City.

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lidia7's review against another edition

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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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