Convenience Store Woman

If you're looking for a relaxing read, with not a lot of things happening plot-wise, then this book is for you. The book centers more on Furukura’s character, and how her life is tied to the convenience store she works at. It's pretty slow-paced, a lot of dialogue, and a bit of commentary on the kind of societal expectations Furukura has to navigate through within the story.

This is the third work I’ve read from Murata Sayaka. And since I started, I found a sort of pattern with the characters she writes. It almost always has this recurring theme: a character, often the protagonist, is someone who is very different from the average person. Someone quite alienated with society. Someone “not quite human”. Not normal, by society’s standards.

The same still applies for this book’s protagonist, Furukura Keiko. She lives her life by the convenience store, relies on the store’s “moral compass” to help her navigate through the kind of society she lives in.

I'd say it's a pity that she lives like that, but, as in real life, other people actually *do* kind of live like that. The difference is, for Keiko, she is meant for it and it's something she wants.