Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Das Seidenraupenzimmer

oh wow. where to even start? a unique, extremely dark, and satirical take on the constraints and pressures of society’s expectations: a portrayal of extreme anomie. murata did not hold back on the scrutiny. she captured the whimsical and overactive imagination of children so perfectly, especially when it came to processing trauma. this was an amazing portrayal of childhood trauma and how that affects people differently in adulthood. the last two chapters or so were a whirlwind of “wtf” but i was still captivated. extremely excited to read convenience store woman.

Content Warnings

autumnwhite's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

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oleaceae_18's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

This book is pretty unhinged, I was truly not expecting things to go where they went at the end. Really made me think about societal expectations and pressures and how it affects mental health. Particularly gender roles, misogyny, childhood trauma, and sexual abuse and its affect on a person.

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skylarkblue1's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Representations: https://trello.com/c/3YRo1n9k/85-earthlings-by-sayaka-murata

I honestly don't have the words to describe this book properly. This book is a fucked up, surreal kind of existential depression. I've not seen the fawn response to trauma be so well depicted in a book either - especially with the internal struggles that come with it.

If I say too much about this book, I think it'd ruin the experience you'll have reading it. Essentially it's the story of a severely abused child retreating into delusions and fantasies and never really being able to grow up - while in turn being subjected to intense pressure and scrutany from traditional society to "be normal".

This book very much takes real problems and cranks them up to max. Victim blaming, hiding of abuse, the very heteronormal society's views of your worth being tied to if you can have babies or not and more are explored within the book - and I think it actually does it pretty well. It takes the worst case scenarios for each situation and puts it all together, but still - sadly - having a decently realistic approach.

I would have liked if the 2 side characters had some more "fullness" about them, and it'd be nice to have an epilogue as well just to tie things up and maybe have it end on a *little* bit more of a hopeful tone.

I would highly recommend this but please do take the content warnings seriously. It is explicit, it does not mince words. This is a very sad story.

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rachill's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-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

3.75

Speechless. Maybe I’ll get back to writing a review once it’s taken me 5 years to process everything.

Christ. I need to wash my brain.

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haruday's review against another edition

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I.... can't even rate this. I don't even know how to give this a rating.

I saw the spoiler warnings of graphic content, so I prepared myself before diving into it, but this book was so hyped I thought I could look past it. And I did for the most part.

On the surface, this story is a horror tragedy of a young girl abused and controlled by the adults around her, unable to be taken seriously, losing her voice, autonomy, right to her own body and free will. She struggles to make sense of the world and her womanhood the best she knows how, with no healthy adult figures around to guide her or to rely on. So she disassociates. Believes she is anything but an Earthling. Things become an out-of-body experience, and she is only an observer, biding her time for reasons unknown. The only solace she finds in life is her childhood "sweetheart," Yuu.

The scene after Natsuki is taken advantage of by that fooking pedophilic sicko of a teacher is contrasted heavily by her intimacy with Yuu. Aside from the fact that he's her cousin (sweet home Alabama), at that moment, she's just a child desperate to be with someone she cares about. She wants her first to be with someone who is so starkly different to her grotesque abuser. Yuu is portrayed as shy, soft-spoken, kind, almost feminine. Everything that that "man" is not. And most of all, she trusts him to be intimate with her, even if neither of them understand the repercussions of their actions. Obviously, I do not condone any type of incest or sexual acts between minors, but it does happen. I enjoyed that the author didn't shy away from these taboo topics, and found myself empathizing with why Natsuki had behaved how she did. In a way, it was a very childlike, pure moment - a human instinct - to want to be comforted in that way. This scene stood out the most to me.

Again, unfortunately these types of horrid situations happen, with teachers taking advantage of children, family members that turn a blind eye, parents that are abusive and controlling, "friends" who have something to say about your sex life and family life, people that think they make up for their past actions by having children and contributing to the population... The book is shocking in its subject matter as it slowly unravels these gruesome experiences in an innocent, child-like perspective. Some of the thoughts are almost comedic and very fantastical, with mentions of aliens and magic. But the horror slowly dawns on you as you continue to flip the pages - a feeling that creeps up, slowly but surely, a sure warning for what's to come.

All fine. And then, it gets to the latter half of the book.

One after another, everything hits you on the head like a brick. Things happen. And I drew the last line at the

cannibalism

. Definitely a provocative read that made me feel super queasy at the end. I was literally squinting and skimming through the last few pages trying really hard not to visualize the scenes. Thought I could stomach it, but definitely going to be taking the content warnings more seriously in the future. I'm definitely not a horror girlie.

Overall, I feel very mixed about this book, so I'll refrain from giving it a rating. I can see how it's so divisive, but I did feel like it was very raw and real in the beginning half. I'm glad I was able to power through though and finish for my October reading challenge... you just probably wouldn't catch me reading it through a second time.

Content Warnings

r_o_s_e's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

3.0

Content Warnings

brookeklebe's review against another edition

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dark 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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