Earthling (地球星人): The Struggling under the Social Norm
Book information:
Author: Murata Sayaka
Translated by: Ginny Tapley Takemori
Page: 247
Language: English, translated from Japanese
(I) bought from: Amazon
Genre: contemporary fiction, horror, Japanese literature, magical realism
Mood: dark, tense, reflective, challenging
Pace: medium pace
Character driven> plot driven
Trigger warning: rape, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment, body horror, child abuse, pedophilia, psychosis, sexual assault, cannibalism, adult/minor relationship, incest, murder, misogyny, gore, and suicide attempt.
Why I read it: the plot which can’t be told
Mood while I read: 🤨😰🤮😆😐😨😤🤣😱😧
It made me want to read: Convenience Store Woman
Who I will recommend to: those who want to challenge their thought and have strong stomach
Rating
Plot: 7/10 ⭐️
Character: 8/10 ⭐️
Ease of reading: Difficult psychologically (look at the trigger warning)
Overall (not just from the above three): 8/10 ⭐️
The first time that I heard about Earthling is when a book YouTuber whose channel called “Jack Edwards” said that it was a book whose plot shouldn’t be described even one bit or else it would spoil. What he is absolutely right! But I also want to add that it’s not a book for those who have a faint of heart or a weak stomach because there’re lots and lots of trigger warnings.
Synopsis
As a child, Natsuki believed she was an alien, a different species to her earthling family and classmates. She hoped a spaceship would come down and take her home. Now, she lives quietly in an asexual marriage, pretending to be normal.
But the buried horrors of Natsuki’s past are pursuing her. As she flees the suburbs for the Nagano mountains and a reunion with her beloved cousin Yuu, she wonders, what will it take to escape the earthlings?
Review
Expectation v.s. Reality
Before I picked up this book, I thought Earthling was about the survival of Natsuki and Yuu in the mountains of Akishina. I thought they would encounter weird creatures or alien who would torture them or attempt to devour them, but somehow they could survive and then met each other again when they became adult.
However, I was really, really wrong. What they encountered wasn’t a torture of the aliens or anything and it wasn’t that as disturbing as the movie “Saw”. Nevertheless, it was so horrifying that the Natsuki was traumatized for the rest of her life. I believe if those things happened to us, we would become like that, too. And what is worse is that those events are happening now in the society.
The Beginning
The start of the story is kind of slow, but it served to show us the environment where Natsuki was living and her relationship with her family and relatives. But even though everything looked calm and fine, I felt that something was wrong. The conversation between Natsuki and Yuu seemed like a fantasy of two children. Behind that, however, there was something sinister that they couldn’t speak out.
When Shit Got Real
Later on, everything was shown and Murata-sensei, the author of the book, went all out. She threw the soup of the truth and Natsuki’s fear and anger to my face, as well as to the people in the society. As I read the book, I couldn’t shake the anxiety that something bad was going to happen (FYI: I didn’t read the trigger warnings thoroughly enough). And man! What would happen, happened, and it almost made me vomit! Sometimes I was shock, and sometimes I was so disturbed that I had to drop the book and stayed away from it for a few minutes to calm myself down and gather the courage to keep on reading. But sometimes I laughed because it was so weird! That time I finally understood why it was described as “Shocking, hilarious and hugely, darkly entertaining… Unforgettable, original” by Financial Time.
Nonetheless, the things happening in the book wasn’t just for shocking and showing that it’s dark. They were the factors driving Natsuki to have a perspective toward the society different from others and to do everything for surviving in this cruel world, as well as to keep being herself. She did many horrible things that I didn’t want to believe that I was reading them. I didn’t support her actions (to be exact, I did cheer for her once because I thought there was no other choice for her) , but I couldn’t blame her after knowing that she suffered from physical, emotional, and sexual pressure by the people around her.
“What I’m really scared of is believing the word society makes me speak are my own.”
Addressing the Pressure of Social Norm
Speaking of Natsuki’s perspective, while I was reading the book, I felt that Natsuki’s viewpoint was the voice of the author herself. I think Murata-sensei is trying to open our eyes. Everybody is working hard, marries, has kids, and then the children keeps the cycle continue whether he/she wants to or not. The one who can’t do this will lose his/her value. While I still believe that people should have a job, I feel uneasy around the idea of having an obligation to marry and to have a child. Natsuki and Tomoya were in an asexual marriage, resulting in having no kid. So, they were watched and criticized by their family and friends that they were abnormal and that they should split up. And it pissed me off! Even though I was hesitate to believe that the society would care about this problem that much, when I tried imagining the future where I haven’t married yet and get asked by the people around me about this, it made me sick! (If the questions are serious, not for friendly joke.) And I think that Murata-sensei feels the same.
“Why do we have to go through this? We were happy enough living together as we were.”
What the f……?
The last few pages of the book was bizarre and disturbing. Both when and after reading it, I felt so terrified despite the fact that the content in the middle of the book was more horrifying. But the situation the characters were in, their speech, and their behavior were stuck in my head to the point that I was worried if I was going fall asleep or not (thankfully, I slept well). Did I forget to tell you that I dropped my jaw? Because my jaw dropped almost every minute I read it, especially at the end of the book. Furthermore, I keep thinking about Yuu’s last word (in the book). It can be that he spoke out of his delusion or he implied that there were still many people out there suffering from the social pressure as long as we still have the same mindset.
Final thought
This story is really unique! I’m glad that I picked it up, risking my own mental health by not looking at the content warning carefully. But I don’t recommend you to do as I did (seriously, read the trigger warning first!). Nevertheless, I recommend it to those who want to challenge their thought concerning the social norm.
