"You can definitely tell that this is one of Murata's earlier works as it doesn't quite live up to Convenience Store Woman or Earthlings, but it still has that very distinct and weird Murata feel to it in how there is a sense of detachment and eeriness in the world you are reading about. She plays around with gender and gender roles so much with this one that it can sometimes border the line of ridiculous, but in doing this she exposes the rigid societal boundaries that have been seen in Japan and in breaking them down it becomes apparent how alien this 'new world' feels to us.

The book did feel as though it lost a bit of focus as it went on and it seemed to go off onto a lot of tangents - perhaps it was trying to say too much and would have felt a lot more nuanced if there was more of a succinct idea behind the book. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy it as the book was definitely as shocking and entertaining as her other novels, and her characters still as wonderfully weird as they have always been. The only thing which freaked me out a bit was the ending. Murata has always been one to push boundaries and challenge our perception of normal, but I can't decide if she took it too far with the ending of this book. I can't really think of the reason it was there apart from shock factor, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

I would definitely recommend this book and I'm excited to see what other people think. It was definitely messy, but it was a mess I completely raced through and enjoyed every time I picked it up. "