Review: Vanishing World By Sayaka Murata (Spoiler Free!)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

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The Book: Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

Content warnings

• A lot of pregnancy talk (and some loss)
• Underage “copulation”

The Synopsis (from memory)

Old fashioned baby making is out, artificial insemination is in. Chiba, outside of Tokyo, has been turned into Experiment City where everyone is a mother and all children, kodomochans, belong to The Center. But Amane still lives in Tokyo and is trying to make sense of her odd upbringing by parents who “copulated” to conceive her, her strange sexual longings, and the new world around her.

The Review (TLDR)

I finished this an entire day ago and still don’t know what to make of it. I think it’s my least favorite of her books so far (not counting the short stories, I haven’t read that) and while one review said she saw other people saying it was more tame than her other work, I would say it’s almost close to Earthlings (which I loved) but in a different way?

I don’t know how much I can even say without spoiling things. If you want a weird book, this is certainly a weird book.

The Good

The general idea. The general idea/concept/premise of this is really interesting and I was very excited to read it. I think it was also presented well, especially from this author.

Parts one and three. I liked parts one and three the best as we get the introduction to the world in part one and more development in part three. Two wasn’t bad, but I liked it the least. Part three is wild and that is where you’ll find the peak weirdness.

The Bad

It gets repetitive. Part two gets pretty repetitive which was a little annoying. I wasn’t tempted to DNF it but I was ready for something else to happen. I know that sex and pregnancy and artificial insemination and relationships are the whole point of the book but that’s literally every conversation in the book and I would have appreciated a little more variety there.

Should you read Vanishing World, too?

If you like her other books, yes. If you like weird books, yes. If you’re sensitive regarding pregnancy topics in any capacity, absolutely not.

Buy Vanishing World here

Have you read Vanishing World? What did you think of it? Would you recommend it? I want to hear your thoughts!