[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"work-reviews-detail-life-ceremony-lgkh":3,"work-reviews-list-life-ceremony-lgkh":128},{"id":4,"slug":5,"title":6,"original_title":7,"description":8,"first_publish_year":9,"original_language":10,"primary_cover_url":11,"cover_3d_url":12,"cover_blurhash":13,"preferred_edition_id":7,"community_rating_avg":7,"community_rating_count":14,"page_count":15,"estimated_reading_minutes":16,"shelves_added_this_week":14,"enrichment_status":17,"community_depth_avg":7,"community_momentum_avg":7,"community_atmosphere_avg":7,"community_craft_avg":7,"community_impact_avg":7,"community_spice_avg":7,"is_non_fiction":18,"is_romance":18,"is_indexable":19,"rating_distribution":7,"authors":20,"genres":32,"characters":45,"places":46,"subjects":50,"series":70,"editions":71,"enrichment":114,"community_distribution":7,"default_edition":124,"faqs":125,"reviews_count":126,"contributions_count":14,"quotes_count":14,"photos_count":14,"created_at":127},"01kqbvtc3ntwvkkdqypg2e6h7h","life-ceremony-lgkh","Life Ceremony",null,"In this collection of twelve short stories, Murata Sayaka blends humor and horror to portray solitaries and outcasts, challenging social norms and habits. Whether the stories are set in modern Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader's interpretation, as characters often appear strange in their normalcy. The prose is clear, cold, and transgressive, offering a macabre yet compassionate look at human weaknesses.",2022,"ja","https:\u002F\u002Fapi.seekquel.app\u002Fstorage\u002Fcovers\u002Feditions\u002F01\u002F01kqbvtc5t9t4pf6jsb2q987d3.jpg","https:\u002F\u002Fapi.seekquel.app\u002Fstorage\u002Fcovers\u002Fworks-3d\u002F01\u002F01kqbvtc3ntwvkkdqypg2e6h7h.png?v=1cb3574394","LGAgu8o}GIg4~pbbemjZcZRjenof",0,256,291,"pending",false,true,[21,27],{"id":22,"slug":23,"name":24,"role":25,"bio":26},"01kkc76rw9f1x2wc0xv89rpbp9","untitled-joik","村田沙耶香","author","Sayaka Murata is a Japanese author whose novel, Convenience Store Woman, became an international bestseller. Her fiction often examines social norms and the lives of outsiders with a distinctive, often darkly humorous, voice. She offers readers a fresh look at modern Japanese society.",{"id":28,"slug":29,"name":30,"role":25,"bio":31},"01kp3s7d1w2f16m8vz9jygacv5","ginny-tapley-takemori-xeob","Ginny Tapley Takemori","Ginny Tapley Takemori has translated fiction by more than a dozen early modern and contemporary Japanese writers",[33,37,41],{"id":34,"name":35,"slug":36,"is_fiction":19},7,"Horror","horror",{"id":38,"name":39,"slug":40,"is_fiction":19},22,"Magical Realism","magical-realism",{"id":42,"name":43,"slug":44,"is_fiction":19},9,"Literary Fiction","literary-fiction",[],[47],{"id":48,"name":49,"description":7,"is_fictional":18,"real_world_location":7},"01kk44scnqe0w2sqwgjt2pjbfe","Japan",[51,55,58,61,64,67],{"id":52,"name":53,"type":54},"01kjrg33pyd06yb11p4ak8fn9p","Attitude (Psychology)","subject",{"id":56,"name":57,"type":54},"01kqbvtc6k5m67b771e4m74x73","Dogmatism",{"id":59,"name":60,"type":54},"01kjv2apxmqadfyymzpc42t2wb","Stereotypes (Social psychology)",{"id":62,"name":63,"type":54},"01kqbvtc6mjn492ggbda3brtr5","Rigidity (Psychology)",{"id":65,"name":66,"type":54},"01kpqgzmyvqtwwhd3grrwhgncx","Common sense",{"id":68,"name":69,"type":54},"01kjq846szt5j1a3v7vrhqfrrx","Pathological Psychology",[],[72,83,91,97,109],{"id":73,"title":74,"edition_name":7,"format":75,"format_label":76,"page_count":15,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"narrator":7,"publish_date":77,"cover_url":78,"cover_blurhash":7,"isbn_13":79,"asin":7,"publisher":80,"language":7,"quality_score":81,"submission_status":82},"01kqbvtc6c8zrt19x3xat2gq95","La Ceremonia","paperback","Paperback","25\u002F03\u002F2025","https:\u002F\u002Fcovers.openlibrary.org\u002Fb\u002Fid\u002F15099249-L.jpg","9788419521910","Duomo",8,"approved",{"id":84,"title":6,"edition_name":7,"format":75,"format_label":76,"page_count":85,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"narrator":7,"publish_date":86,"cover_url":11,"cover_blurhash":13,"isbn_13":87,"asin":7,"publisher":88,"language":89,"quality_score":90,"submission_status":82},"01kqbvtc5t9t4pf6jsb2q987d3",272,"2023-05-04","9781783787388","Granta Books","en",10,{"id":92,"title":6,"edition_name":7,"format":75,"format_label":76,"page_count":15,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"narrator":7,"publish_date":93,"cover_url":94,"cover_blurhash":7,"isbn_13":95,"asin":7,"publisher":96,"language":89,"quality_score":42,"submission_status":82},"01kqbvtc60g4594bb6n0srdxyh","2023-05-02","https:\u002F\u002Fcovers.openlibrary.org\u002Fb\u002Fid\u002F14488240-L.jpg","9780802161345","Grove\u002FAtlantic, Incorporated",{"id":98,"title":99,"edition_name":7,"format":100,"format_label":101,"page_count":102,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"narrator":7,"publish_date":103,"cover_url":104,"cover_blurhash":105,"isbn_13":106,"asin":7,"publisher":107,"language":108,"quality_score":90,"submission_status":82},"01ktdmmdx3wm204s9ebwda61ja","La cerimonia della vita","unknown","Unknown",245,"2023","https:\u002F\u002Fapi.seekquel.app\u002Fstorage\u002Fcovers\u002Feditions\u002F01\u002F01ktdmmdx3wm204s9ebwda61ja.jpg?v=541866077f","L9L4$p5EQ7oz3YR*^R%2p{-o$yxa","9788833575728","Edizioni E\u002FO","ita",{"id":110,"title":6,"edition_name":7,"format":75,"format_label":76,"page_count":85,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"narrator":7,"publish_date":111,"cover_url":112,"cover_blurhash":7,"isbn_13":113,"asin":7,"publisher":88,"language":89,"quality_score":42,"submission_status":82},"01kqbvtc65gfyzkmwmfwk5mdav","2022-07-14","https:\u002F\u002Fcovers.openlibrary.org\u002Fb\u002Fid\u002F14488163-L.jpg","9781783787371",{"summary":8,"pace":115,"complexity":116,"complexity_score":34,"audience":117,"mood":118,"themes":122,"setting_period":123,"content_warnings":7},"moderate","dense","adult",[119,120,121],"dark","thought-provoking","satirical",[],"Contemporary",{"id":84,"title":6,"edition_name":7,"format":75,"format_label":76,"page_count":85,"audio_duration_minutes":7,"publish_date":86,"cover_url":11,"cover_blurhash":13,"isbn_13":87,"asin":7,"publisher":88,"language":89},[],1,"2026-04-29T05:36:33.000000Z",{"data":129,"links":140,"meta":141},[130],{"id":131,"slug":132,"title":133,"user":7,"work_id":4,"is_draft":18,"verified_reader":18,"featured":18,"body":134,"overall_rating":135,"depth":7,"momentum":7,"atmosphere":7,"craft":7,"impact":7,"spice":7,"spoiler_level":136,"locale":7,"feed_item_key":137,"like_count":14,"comment_count":14,"top_likers":138,"viewer_can_reply":18,"created_at":139,"updated_at":139},"01kr820mpwgmh0xg04m9w3nhng","review-of-life-ceremony-by-deleted-258","Review of \"Life Ceremony\" by deleted_258","Never knew that reading a book with a grotesque theme could be this addictive. The unexpected was enticing, and as much as I know how bizarre Murata would go this was beyond any imaginative prose I would ever imagined. Consists of 13 stories that revolves on cultures, alienation, obsession and the observation of social and human norms, it amazes me on how Murata could create a world with characters and personalities that having the same resemblance of the present-day ethics and anxieties but with a twist and so out of the box. \n\nBold and disturbing yet too engrossingly written. Few of my fav stories: A First-Rate Material (on obsessing over items, clothes and accessories made from human-- love this and how it makes me thinking that it might be possible as we go with animal fur coat so why not with human hair sweater next?), A Magnificent Spread (a chilling story on eating habits-- I actually like Keiichi!), Life Ceremony (a surreal ritual of eating humans, on procreating and death with a book of recipes as a bonus-- I need to take a moment of silence just to digest this), Lover On The Breeze (a love story with a bedroom curtain-- so meticulously and poetically written), Poochie (we collect stray cats and dogs for a pet yet how about a stray human for a change?) and Hatchling (a woman with 5 'identities' trying to adjust her mind into finding her ownself). \n\nI like that it was speculatively narrated and having that indirect nuanced of social commentary (or perhaps a critique?) on the social expectation and lifestyle standard, on the 'authoritarian' tradition and how we always judging others to be so different than us yet in their eyes we are probably ain't normal either. The blend of dark humor and its perspectives quite mindblown, such a provoking premise to me and regardless how it making me go squeamish I somehow enjoyed it a lot. 4.5 stars to this!\n\n\"Normal is a type of madness, isn't it?\"\n\"I couldn’t understand why he thought human hair was so wrong when goat hair was fine. How come he’s so neurotic about human materials?”\n\"Our eating habits are dear to us, and I want you to respect them and not interfere...\"\n“You know, warabimochi resemble a boy’s tongue. That’s why I wanted to eat them. I feel like I’m kissing someone.\"\n\nThank you Pansing Distribution for the gifted proof copy!",5,"none","rv-01kr820mpwgmh0xg04m9w3nhng",[],"2026-05-10T04:23:34.000000Z",{"first":7,"last":7,"prev":7,"next":7},{"path":142,"per_page":143,"next_cursor":7,"prev_cursor":7,"has_more":18},"https:\u002F\u002Fapi.seekquel.app\u002Fapi\u002Fworks\u002F01kqbvtc3ntwvkkdqypg2e6h7h\u002Freviews",20]