Earthlings Review
I have seen this book mentioned in the same breath as ‘A Certain Hunger’ especially in context of similar trigger warnings, that is cannibalism. Although the cover does depict a cute hamster toy, I knew from the reviews I consumed that it was anything but a cute book about intergalactic travel. I was prepared for a wild ride from start to finish, but I really did not expect what I got here. To this day, I am not sure if I can recommend this novel and consider Murata a literary genius or just a really weird person. The novel follows the story of Natsuki, a severely neglected and abused young girl who finds her mental escape in the belief that she is actually an alien and that her toy hamster is helping her with it. With her cousin Yuu, she is able to keep this delusion going for a while, as the whole family meets in the mountainous and isolated village of their grandparents. After a traumatic childhood, Natsuki is now an adult and married woman, without children, but still living...