A thought provoking portrayal of the experience of being a woman in Japan with an asexual main character. The book is written in two parts which arguably could be different books. The first part's 'egg cracking' scene completely lost me and I almost stopped reading it.

This is one of those books where the characters have endless conversations in which they monologue about unrelated stories from their past. If that's for you, you'll love it.

My biggest issue with it is that it almost minimises the experiences of womanhood into 'wants a certain body' and 'wants a baby'. There's some nuance to the story and it's wonderful how the characters are given time to sit in their emotions on these subjects. However, it felt simplified to tropes at points in a way it didn't seem to intend to. The book concludes with

Natsu having a baby regardless of her decision that it would be cruel to bring a child into the world. The ending portrays this like some great resolution, that a baby fixed it all, but surely we all know that it won't.

This said, the books focus on female bodily autonomy and its allowance of the complexities of it is wonderful and honest. I just can't say I enjoyed it or that I disliked it. It just is and I wish it had been more. It's quite slow and hard to chew at points. A middling ⭐⭐⭐ for me.