This was one of those books that started out interesting, then moved into thought-provoking, and then moved into creepy before landing in WTF-ville just before the end. It’s the kind of book that when it ends you think to yourself you should’ve seen that ending coming but somehow it still hit you like an uppercut to the jaw (if the uppercut were psychotic and creepy). 

Vanishing World depicts an alternative Earth where artificial insemination was perfected post WWII and it became widely-available soon after; so widely available, in fact, that married couples having intercourse and having a baby via copulation is considered a form of incest by the time our protagonist (Amane) is born. Amane is a child raised in two worlds: societally she is married to the idea that she will never have intercourse with her husband and will follow the law, but at home she has been raised since birth by a mother who believes everything should be done in the old way, leaving Amane with a constant ache to experience love. 

Amane is untethered from a solid self-identity as a result of the push-pull between society and home as a child, and Murata uses her need for attachment and acceptance to show us what it’s like to grow up in this world that’s changing so fast and leaving human connection behind. From her too-relatable crushes on anime characters when she’s a child to teenage fumblings with first boyfriends to fair weather friends who don’t understand her to a first marriage that ends poorly to lovers who leave her abruptly, Amane is a window into this world detached from compassion and sympathy. 

It’s in the last act of the book that things start to heat up and crack, inside of the fascinating, gleaming Experiment City. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you after that, just know it starts off creepy and just gets creepier and more psycho from there with a nutso ending. 4⭐️

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: OwnVoices/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Sci Fi/Translation