Shortly after the wedding, Noriko receives a shocking piece of information from her new relatives: her husband’s ex-wife has died under mysterious circumstances. The family brushes it off as an accident, but Noriko begins to notice the cracks in the facade.

If you’re looking for a review of Asa Nonami’s Now You’re One of Us

“You’re the new one,” she said. “You’re supposed to sit.”

However, the "perfection" soon feels unnatural. Noriko notices small, unsettling inconsistencies:

One of the most brilliant techniques Nonami employs is the destabilization of Noriko’s memory. She cannot trust her own eyes. Did that sister-in-law really say that? Did that door really have a lock yesterday? The novel becomes a desperate search for an anchor of objective reality.

And yet, this convenience is a form of control. When you read Now You’re One of Us as an EPUB, you are reading within an ecosystem. Your e-reader or tablet knows how much time you spend on each page. It suggests what to read next based on algorithms. It offers a seamless, frictionless experience that discourages the anarchic physicality of a real book—the dog-eared page, the margin scribble, the act of snapping the spine.

If you live outside the US or UK, use a VPN to access these storefronts, as regional licensing sometimes restricts Japanese translations.