Alien's eye view of Japanese society with a high WTF factor. All of the chuckling endorsements on the book jacket from the likes of Sally Rooney, Elif Batuman, & Ruth Ozeki do not prepare you for what lies in wait inside this book. Earthlings reminds me a lot of the movie Heavenly Creatures, in which two young teens invent a fantastical cult with two members. The house in Akishina & its place in the consciousness & memory of the protagonist reminds me of the village in The Beginning Place. The part where the characters are stranding themselves in the isolated community reminded me a bit of various J.G. Ballard novels & stories on that theme, such as the Drowned World, Memories of the Space Age, High Rise, etc. The doomed attempts to transcend society and even humanity also feel Ballardian, I guess equating Chiba society with Ballard's various dystopias. That element of a family-type unit attempting to collectively escape society, & even humanity also reminds me a bit of Pink Flamingos or Cecil B. Demented. The omnipresent trauma treated matter-of-factly (& mostly repressed by the characters) reminds me of Agota Kristof's Notebook Trilogy. The cucumber & eggplant with the chopstick legs representing the horse bringing the ancestors to our world, & the cow to take them back is really cool. Also intriguing is the “mobile grocery” that doesn't visit Akishina because it's too small. Can't help but think that these people need to be carried away by the Acid Mothers Temple. This book is surprisingly page-turning, & also rewards re-reading. Really makes me want to read Convenience Store Woman.