A Review of ‘Earthlings’ by Sayaka Murata
Or, a not-so-subtle critique of the irrational social rules that we’re forced to blindly accept
‘Earthlings’ is Sayaka Murata’s second novel to be published in the UK after ‘Convenience Store Woman’ was received with critical acclaim in 2018. It is narrated by Natsuki as both a child and an adult who struggles to understand basic social constructs and the unspoken ‘rules of life’. This is the kind of book that if someone asks you what it’s about you simply say, “you have to read it to understand” to save yourself the trouble of spending an hour describing it and not even coming close to doing it justice.
Family troubles? Check.
Aliens? Oh, yes.
Incest? Quite a bit.
Murder? Never saw that coming.
Love? Definitely.
We follow Natsuki as she is sexually abused by her teacher and later caught sleeping with her cousin, both traumatizing events that explain why she feels disconnected from her close peers and members of society in general. After years of being closely monitored by her family so that she wouldn’t go down a wrong path again, Natsuki enters an arranged marriage in an attempt to get her mother and sister off her back and seem somewhat normal to the outside world.
Although the plot is interesting, it’s nothing revolutionary. What distinguishes ‘Earthlings’ from any old YA novel is Sayaka Murata’s trademark expressionless and straightforward prose. We read about all these horrific acts from a cold and detached child narrator who is simply telling us a story in a very conversational tone. This creates an enormous distance between the narrator and the reader, who then becomes devoid of any emotional connection with the main character. While this distance is understandably a characteristic that many readers will point out as negative, I found it incredibly intriguing. It made me feel somehow privileged to be given access into Natsuki’s private life. This is a story that she would surely only be telling her best friends about, so the fact that I was reading it felt like a privilege.
But maybe I’m just looking at this too deeply. Maybe this is just a book about a girl wanting to spend the rest of her life with someone that understands her. But then again, how could a book featuring incest, murder, and abuse be just another bedtime read?
I recognise I might be in the minority when saying that. Like I always do before writing about any book, I spent maybe just short of an hour glancing over reviews of this novel on Goodreads. Most were what I expected; some people loved it, others hated it and couldn’t understand why a child was talking about such complex issues. However, one review in particular stood out to me because when addressing the main characters, it read, “honestly I think they all just needed some therapy”.
I understand where they’re coming from, but to AnonymousUser39275148 I say, you’re simply missing the point. If every messed-up character in literature went to therapy, we would have nothing interesting left to read. If Jay Gatsby went to therapy, he would have never thrown extravagant parties to pursue impossible love affairs, Holden Caulfield would have never made an encounter with a prostitute sound so poetic, and Peter Pan would have simply been told to just grow up.
The same day that I finished reading this novel, I also spent about an hour on TikTok (as one naturally does) and questioned whether the rebellious nature of Sayaka Murata’s characters is even relevant anymore. Traditional societal norms are being deconstructed by millennials and Gen Z every single day on social media. Does that mean we are now at a point where not conforming to social norms is simply expected of us? Isn’t that what every skater girl with a shaved head and every teenage boy with painted nails and a skirt is doing anyway?
Maybe this is something particular to my generation, or maybe this shift happened slowly and gradually in the last 5 years or so, but I don’t feel pressured to get married before 25 and have kids before 30 anymore. I don’t feel pressured to settle down in one place and buy a house anytime soon. And most importantly, I don’t feel pressured to have a regular 9 to 5 job that will make me unhappy just so that I can contribute to the economy.
Maybe creating characters that rebel against these traditional expectations has become counter intuitive; firstly because it implies that there is still something to rebel against, and secondly because it shows these characters as outliers when in fact they’re the majority. We’re the majority now. Even that being the case, at the end of the day Sayaka Murata is the type of writer that one day deserves a peaceful little memorial bench in a beautiful park where we can all go and read her books and question every single thing about the society that we live in, even if we disagree with it.
