5 Top horror books like Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

Cover of Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

Life Ceremony

By: Sayaka Murata

3.75

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stori…

"Nowadays, your partner is not necessarily a sex object - this is a wonderful advancement."

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"I'm seeking an amicable daily routine with someone I get along well with, like brother and sister, without being a slave to sex"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"Walking like this, feeling like a feral human, even machines and buildings were warm to the touch, and some emitted sounds and vibrations. Their presence was similar to the sounds emitted by life-forms in the forest"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"If they tried it, the memories of the wild rooted in their flesh would come back to them, and they would discover that eating the city like this would connect the earth between the gaps in the concrete and their own body."

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

If you liked the horror plot in Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata , here is a list of 5 books like this:

Cover of Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, Louise Heal Kawai

1. Ms Ice Sandwich

By: Mieko Kawakami , Louise Heal Kawai

3.78

Format: 92 pages, Paperback

A quixotic and funny tale about first love – from the Akutagawa Prize-winning author. Ms Ice San… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's Ms Ice Sandwich book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
Cover of Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus

2. Kitchen

By: Banana Yoshimoto , Megan Backus

3.66

Format: 296 pages,

Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen, t… read more

Similar categories in Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature

3. The Vegetarian

By: Han Kang , Deborah Smith

4.00

Format: 204 pages,

Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood… read more

Similar categories in Han Kang's The Vegetarian book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

Cover of I Who Have Never Known Men by Ros Schwartz, Jacqueline Harpman

4. I Who Have Never Known Men

By: Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Format: 208 pages, Paperback

"As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker." A young woman is kept in a cage underg… read more

Similar categories in Ros Schwartz's I Who Have Never Known Men book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
"Survival is never more than putting off the moment of death."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"I thought it was unfair, and then I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Look at them. They’re pretending, they behave as though they still have some control over their lives and make momentous decisions about which vegetable to cook first."

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

"Only now, I tell myself that what I'd felt for her, the trust that slowly built up, the constant preference for her company and the joy each time I was reunited with her after an expedition were prob…"

-Ros Schwartz, I Who Have Never Known Men

Cover of Idol, Burning by Rin Usami

5. Idol, Burning

By: Rin Usami

3.23

Format: 144 pages, Hardcover

The novel that lit the Japanese publishing world on fire: From a breathtaking up-and-coming writer,… read more

Similar categories in Rin Usami's Idol, Burning book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • adult
  • japan
"His existence and my witnessing of it were all I asked for."

-Rin Usami, Idol, Burning

"Maybe that was how a home broke down over the years, as the sound of doors slamming and chairs roughly scraping the floor built up like dust, and the slow drip of gnashing teeth and resentful grumbli…"

-Rin Usami, Idol, Burning

"Idol groups generally assigned each member an official color, which would be used for the light sticks that fans would hold up to show your support at a performance or for other individual merch. My …"

-Rin Usami, Idol, Burning

Cover of All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

6. All the Lovers in the Night

By: Mieko Kawakami

3.72

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city wher… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's All the Lovers in the Night book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • adult
  • japan
"It only took me a couple of hours to realise that she was a woman of talents beyond anything I could imagine - even though I was a stranger to such talents myself."

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"The light at night is special because the overwhelming light of day has left us, and the remaining half draws on everything it has to keep the world around us bright."

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"When I felt sleepy I slept, and when I opened my eyes I got up, letting hunger dictate when to head to the fridge or kitchen cabinet to eat some of the things that I'd stocked up on. When supplies ra…"

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

"When I felt sleepy I slept, and when I opened my eyes I got up, letting hunger dictate when to head to the fridge or kitchen cabinet to eat some of the things that I'd stocked up on. When supplies ra…"

-Mieko Kawakami, All the Lovers in the Night

Cover of Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

7. Our Wives Under the Sea

By: Julia Armfield

3.78

Format: 240 pages, Paperback

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ende… read more

Similar categories in Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • horror
  • contemporary
  • adult
"El océano profundo es una casa embrujada: un lugar donde se mueven en la oscuridad cosas que no deberían existir."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"She refused almost every aspect of my help, the way women will when they've been bred to accept little more than the baset civility."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"I don't know why I expected you to read my mind,' I say, when I call back to leave her a message, 'I was just doing what I always do, assuming the world revolves around me."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

"The space around us is a claw half grasped, holding tight without quite crushing, and I wish, in the idle way I always wish these days, that I felt more confident in my ability to breathe."

-Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

Cover of Bliss Montage by Ling  Ma

8. Bliss Montage

By: Ling Ma

3.91

Format: 228 pages, Hardcover

A new creation by the author of Severance, the stories in Bliss Montage crash through our carefully… read more

Similar categories in Ling Ma's Bliss Montage book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
"To live is to exist within time. To remember is to negate time."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It doesn't take much to come into your own; all it takes is someone's gaze."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"Maybe you don't know that you're wounded until you receive the salve. The salve that makes everything come back."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

"It was a time when the future could have been anything, been anywhere. It was so open that it could actually crush her."

-Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

Cover of Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

9. Lapvona

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

3.53

Format: 313 pages, Kindle Edition

In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds h… read more

Similar categories in Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • horror
  • contemporary
  • adult
"But such was death - it had nothing to say."

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"Blood was the wine of the spirit, was it not?"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"What scared her were other people and their immovable selfishness"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

"But Jude's piety was a kind of violent urge and not the love and peace it ought to be"

-Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

Cover of Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

10. Cursed Bunny

By: Bora Chung

3.78

Format: 251 pages, Paperback

Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring t… read more

Similar categories in Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • short stories
  • fiction
  • horror
  • asian literature
  • contemporary
  • adult
"Her husband had pursued an “alternative lifestyle"

-Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny

"One can break the curse, but it is impossible to cure their blindness from greed. They were always ready to wage another war"

-Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny

"But there I remained, standing in the bathroom, waiting for someone to miraculously find me, to release me from my ties to this life."

-Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny

"Once you experience a terrible trauma and understand the world from an extreme perspective, it is difficult to overcome this perspective. Because your very survival depends on it."

-Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny

Cover of The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin

11. The Pachinko Parlour

By: Elisa Shua Dusapin

3.61

Format: 171 pages, Paperback

The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and … read more

Similar categories in Elisa Shua Dusapin's The Pachinko Parlour book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
"They made it illegal to speak Korean. You could be sentenced to death for speaking it. And do you know what your grandmother’s mother did to avoid being subjected to speaking Japanese at school? She …"

-Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Pachinko Parlour

"When Korea was divided, we were still nationals of a unified Korea. It was called Choson. At separation, the Japanese government gave us permission to keep our Korean identity, but we had to choose b…"

-Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Pachinko Parlour

Cover of Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

12. Life Ceremony

By: Sayaka Murata

3.75

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stori… read more

Similar categories in Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • horror
  • adult
  • japan
"Nowadays, your partner is not necessarily a sex object - this is a wonderful advancement."

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"I'm seeking an amicable daily routine with someone I get along well with, like brother and sister, without being a slave to sex"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"Walking like this, feeling like a feral human, even machines and buildings were warm to the touch, and some emitted sounds and vibrations. Their presence was similar to the sounds emitted by life-for…"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

"If they tried it, the memories of the wild rooted in their flesh would come back to them, and they would discover that eating the city like this would connect the earth between the gaps in the concre…"

-Sayaka Murata, Life Ceremony

Cover of Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

13. Breasts and Eggs

By: Mieko Kawakami

3.86

Format: 430 pages, Hardcover

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting e… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • asian literature
  • contemporary
  • japan
"Then there are the real bastards, like my ex,"

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"Mi sentivo come un essere privato della carne e della pelle e ridotto a sole ossa. Un carapace enorme completamente cavo."

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"We could worry about tomorrow when it came. What mattered most right now is how we would spend the remainder of today, even if it was half over."

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

"I could see people all around me, but I almost felt like nobody could see me. I heard a train go by, rumbling down the tracks, drawing a thick line between the world and my experience. I was getting …"

-Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs

Cover of Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

14. Heaven

By: Mieko Kawakami

3.80

Format: 192 pages, Hardcover

Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-y… read more

Similar categories in Mieko Kawakami's Heaven book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • japanese literature
  • fiction
  • asian literature
  • contemporary
  • japan
"Karena kau selalu dilukai, kau sungguh-sungguh memahami seperti apakah orang terluka."

-Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

"The more I looked at it, the less it seemed like something for a house. More like a tiny gravestone."

-Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

"You think about how other people feel. You're so kind. It makes sense. Because we're always in pain, we know exactly what it means to hurt somebody else."

-Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

"People are always dying. It's a perfect truth. No matter how we live our lives, we all die, sooner or later. In which case, living is really just waiting to die."

-Mieko Kawakami, Heaven

Cover of Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada

15. Weasels in the Attic

By: Hiroko Oyamada

3.43

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

From the acclaimed author of The Hole and The Factory, a thrilling and mysterious work that explore… read more

Similar categories in Hiroko Oyamada's Weasels in the Attic book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
"We meet at school, or work, or maybe a store. Wherever it is, there's just a random group of individuals, right? Within that group, you find your mate. If you were in a different group, you' d end up…"

-Hiroko Oyamada, Weasels in the Attic

Cover of Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

16. Diary of a Void

By: Emi Yagi

3.51

Format: 213 pages, Hardcover

A prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about a woman in Japan who avoids harassment at … read more

Similar categories in Emi Yagi's Diary of a Void book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
"Having a baby isn't easy. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's been two thousand years, and it's the same old story, right?"

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"I'm always so alone. I guess I should be used to it by now. That's the way it is from the moment we come into this world, but I'm still not used to it - how alone we all are."

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"Maybe that's making a family is all about: creating an environment in which people make space for one another - maybe without even trying, just naturally, to make sure that nobody's forgotten."

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

"Until they arrived, while everyone else was transitioning to winter, putting on coats and sweaters, I was going to stick with my summer dress and my usual work blazer. Dressed in the dazzling flowers…"

-Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void

Cover of The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

17. The Premonition

By: Banana Yoshimoto

3.43

Format: 133 pages, Hardcover

The internationally beloved author of Kitchen and Dead-End Memories returns with a beautiful and he… read more

Similar categories in Banana Yoshimoto's The Premonition book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • adult
  • japan
"I'd never known a love before that could blot out the world around like this."

-Banana Yoshimoto, The Premonition

"Later, for the first time in a very long time, I heard my aunt play the piano. Its tone was soft, and just like I remembered it. At the kitchen window one overcast afternoon, I watched its beautiful …"

-Banana Yoshimoto, The Premonition

Cover of I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-hee

18. I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

By: Baek Se-hee

3.28

Format: 232 pages, Paperback

The South Korean runaway bestseller, debut author Baek Sehee's intimate therapy memoir, as recommen… read more

Similar categories in Baek Se-hee's I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • asian literature
  • asia
  • adult
  • contemporary
"Togetherness means altruism, and altruism is what saves us from selfishness."

-Baek Se-hee, I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

"For example, when you’re co-dependent on your partner you resent them, but when you leave your partner, you feel anxious and bereft."

-Baek Se-hee, I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

"Fear increases when it's something that you keep to yourself. Instead of suffering alone, it can often be good to share it with someone else."

-Baek Se-hee, I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

"What matters isn't what people say but what you like and find joy in. I hope you focus less on how you look to other people and more on fulfilling your true desires."

-Baek Se-hee, I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

Cover of Your Utopia by Bora Chung

19. Your Utopia

By: Bora Chung

3.65

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from the … read more

Similar categories in Bora Chung's Your Utopia book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • horror
  • adult
Cover of People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami

20. People From My Neighbourhood

By: Hiromi Kawakami

3.53

Format: 121 pages, Paperback

From the author of the internationally bestselling Strange Weather in Tokyo, a collection of interl… read more

Similar categories in Hiromi Kawakami's People From My Neighbourhood book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
"Even the smallest hole is enough to send a balloon spiraling to the ground. The falsification of memory is like that. All it takes is one individual who remembers the truth, said Romi, for the whole …"

-Hiromi Kawakami, People From My Neighbourhood

Cover of Dead-End Memories: Stories by Banana Yoshimoto

21. Dead-End Memories: Stories

By: Banana Yoshimoto

3.90

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

Japan's internationally celebrated master storyteller returns with five stories of women on their w… read more

Similar categories in Banana Yoshimoto's Dead-End Memories: Stories book and Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony

  • literary fiction
  • asia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • contemporary
  • asian literature
  • japanese literature
  • japan
"There was a candor about him I noticed in people whose parents had given them something unconditional and absolute growing up."

-Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

"Time simply floated open and started to expand. Time held the two of us in light, inside a space so vast it might have reached the heavens, and turned eternal."

-Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

"Anyone seeing us would have thought we were newlyweds, or a nice cohabiting couple. But we were only two people, a little regretful, and soon to part. We were having so much fun. It made me sad."

-Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

"The words I read in books seemed to strike me more deeply, and with my senses sharpened by grief, I noticed the glittering transition of the seasons as clearly as if I held the grief in the palm of m…"

-Banana Yoshimoto, Dead-End Memories: Stories

19 Best fiction books like Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

Transform Your Habits

Ms Ice Sandwich

Mieko Kawakami , Louise Heal Kawai

3.78

Transform Your Habits

Kitchen

Banana Yoshimoto , Megan Backus

3.66

Transform Your Habits

I Who Have Never Known Men

Ros Schwartz , Jacqueline Harpman

4.22

Transform Your Habits

Idol, Burning

Rin Usami

3.23

View all the books

19 must-read fiction books like The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin

Transform Your Habits

Ms Ice Sandwich

Mieko Kawakami , Louise Heal Kawai

3.78

Transform Your Habits

Kitchen

Banana Yoshimoto , Megan Backus

3.66

Transform Your Habits

Greek Lessons

Han Kang

3.47

Transform Your Habits

Idol, Burning

Rin Usami

3.23

View all the books

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