3.5 - really conflicted. There was a lot that I liked and a lot that I didn’t.
Starting with the likes, I did really enjoy the prose and the narrative voice as well as its evolution as things began to get crazy. Which the craziness was so well executed and I think definitely helps this literary work lean into the weird/horror genres with how bizarre and creepy it was. There was also some humorous moments in here that I also enjoyed since they added some levity to what is otherwise an extremely dark read.
I think the thing that is mostly not sitting right with me is perhaps how this book represents asexuals. Not that Murata every explicitly uses that word, but it seems fairly obvious for most of the book seeing as neither Natsuki or her husband want/crave sex. However, it’s seemingly implied that the reason Natsuki doesn’t have those feelings is because of her assault as a child. Now, I understand that childhood trauma like this can absolutely result in that aversion, but I think the fact that her asexuality was also connected to her status as an alien from Popinpobopia (and the fact that her sexual appetite’s revival occurred when she returned to that state) suggest that maybe she’s not actually completely asexual? Obviously it’s a spectrum, but for a majority of this novel it really felt like the alien metaphor was being used as a parallel to her asexuality, the idea of not fitting into society’s standards by not wanting to have sex or reproduce making her an “other,” but then there are instances where she does feel that sexual desire so the metaphor feels broken. I’m really conflicted about it, because while I don’t feel like it’s bad representation, something also just doesn’t sit right with me about it, but I’m not sure I can properly dictate why.
The start of this book was also so heavy. I understand why it was but oh my god it was tough to get through. I’d definitely recommend if you want to read something extremely weird but also maybe a bit relatable if you’ve ever felt like an outsider.