Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

30 reviews

yanaorwhatever's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

izypup's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The ending is mostly what threw me off and felt lacking. I did also feel that throughout the time skips somethings felt underdeveloped. Although, these are things that I assume didn’t involve Natsuki and she didn’t necessarily care about. 
I don’t think any of the characters behaved in ways that felt like the author jumped the shark because I believed that these characters had the capabilities of acting irrationally. 
Natsuki’s childhood in particular felt well-written and really hooked me and I specifically enjoyed the way disassociation was framed and how child minds rationalize things in ways that aren’t actually rational. 

While some of the themes were disturbing, it’s never very explicit in its descriptions even though you know exactly what’s happening. It doesn’t read as shock horror and while parts were gross, it didn’t put me off from the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

sinja_a's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

Trauma galore. Painfully so. Unhinged for the sake of being unhinged. I understand why there are people enjoying this. I am not one of them. 
Please check trigger warnings. There is rarely something that fades to black. To go into this blind is not a good idea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, and Death of parent

reading_112's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

⚠️strong topics of pedophelia, cannibalism, incest, and intercourse between minors.⚠️

luci_08's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

quillyreads's review against another edition

challenging fast-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

5.0

This book is out of pocket. Challenging and provocative but not for the faint of heart. Don’t let the easy to understand, conversational tone fool you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Incest, Sexism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

snerp_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

The concept for this book was very interesting, and worth exploring, but I feel this book fell flat. 
I did enjoy the small tidbits of world-building around Natsuki's belief in Popinpobopia, and

how she used said beliefs to mask her coping mechanisms and responses to abuse as magical powers in her young mind.

 
I thought we would've gotten a longer narrative through her childhood,

but 40% into the book there was a pretty long time skip, which I felt threw off the pacing.

This would have been fine by itself, but the story seems to unravel too quickly and without satisfactory explanation

in the last quarter of the book.

Alongside those pacing issues, a lot of the heavier topics depicted seemed slightly ham-fisted in and included mainly for shock value, instead of for relevance or genuine exploration. There does seem to be an issue with the characters, especially Natsuki. The voice of her childhood self and her adult self are identical, in a way that both makes her sound too old as a child and too young and naive as an adult. This weird contradiction is prevalent from the start, and never goes away. The ending did not make sense or feel very thought out to me, and the few twists at the end didn't have much foreshadowing. 

However, I did find Natsuki and her husband's relationship interesting, and a refreshing change of pace from most written marriages.

The mechanic of framing Natsuki's vision of herself as an alien was also one of the main things I liked about this book.
I enjoyed the concept Murata created, and was drawn in to read more when she used it to explore Natsuki's feelings and reactions to the mistreatment of her by the adults around her, but I feel the book ultimately veered too hard into shock-value territory, and caused any potential messages or analysis to be flung out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug abuse, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Acephobia/Arophobia, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, and Stalking

rarityfemme's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, Stalking, and Pregnancy

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity