A review by makeitbitter
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

It is a weird book, to be honest. A short read, started off strong with things that I find relatable about belonging to a society and wanting to be seen as normal through the lens of Keiko, our convenience store woman. 

As the story progresses though, it gets weirder and then it ends. I couldn't get over how Keiko took home a very strange man and he really puts me off (she did compare taking him home with having a pet, but still). Maybe the book will grow on me once I reread this in a more suitable head space.

The great part about this book is that it has so many thought provoking paragraphs:

I'd never experienced sex, and I'd never even had any particular awareness of my own sexuality. I was indifferent to the whole thing and had never really given it any thought. And here was everyone taking it for granted that I must be miserable when I wasn't.

Or

She's far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, that she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine. For her, normality-however messy-is far more comprehensible.

So, a strange book, quick to read, great premise, full of unlovable characters (all of the characters beside Keiko, really).