Life Ceremony
Ratings46
Average rating3.7
I love her dry approach to surreality but the short stories didn't give me the depth or emotional weight like her long form ones
She recycles the same trick over and over but it never really gets old to me. She demonstrates how all the expectations of society, seen under the right lens, are as offensive as our greatest taboos.
It worked for me in Earthlings, Convenience Store Human (I dislike the title translation to Woman), and in this book the short story format lets her explore a larger breadth of topics, which was a lot of fun.
Loved this latest collection of stories by Sayaka Murata in all their weirdness. Some of them I could easily see expanded into novels.
Gave up at 29%.
First-Rate Material
3.5⭐
A Magnificent Spread
3⭐
A Summer Night's Kiss
2⭐
Two's Family
2.5⭐
The Time of the Large Star
1.5⭐
Poochie
1⭐
Murata Sayaka has such a unique way of story-telling. It was almost impossible for me to predict what was going to happen. And even then, the stories were never normal. The stories were very quirky, unusual, and just overall weird. Which I absolutely love.
Some of the other stories were an acquired taste, though.
Rating: 3.5 stars
I love how whimsical Murata's short stories are and it reminds me of one of her earlier novels, Earthlings. Some of the short stories were forgettable but some stuck out to me. Overall the pacing was well done and the variety of topics presented in these stories were decent.