Jeremiah Yuda Umam

Tender Is the Flesh

Book by Agustina Bazterrica

DETAILS

Publisher : Scribner (August 4, 2020) Language : English Paperback : 224 pages ISBN-10 : 1982150920 ISBN-13 : 978-1982150921 Item Weight : 8.8 ounces Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.38 inches Best Sellers Rank: #1,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction #9 in Dystopian Fiction #138 in Literary Fiction (Books) , Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved. Read more

REVIEW

“Tender Is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica is definitely one of those kinds of horror novels that will stay with you for a very long time. It’s a very unique, crazy, and freaky dystopian-inspired novel that guarantees you will never look at meat the same ever again. Oh yes, this novel deals with what would happen if all the animals on Earth had a virus and we all had to resort to eating human meat to survive. Needless to say, I’d highly recommend you do not eat or drink anything while reading during certain chapters because it’ll definitely gross you out beyond belief. I enjoyed Bazterrica’s unique style of writing as I know this was translated from Spanish to English and thought it was pretty good all around. It has its creepy moments with very disturbing and graphic scenes that pretty much add a very eerie element to what the world would be like if this ever happened. Don’t worry, I won’t ruin anything for you but before I discuss more of my thoughts about this novel, I have another huge heads-up for everyone since I am a proud pet owner. If you get triggered by violence against animals, please note there is a graphic scene here involving pets that is very messed up. If you prefer not to read anything that does have violence against animals, definitely stay away from this one. It didn’t bother me because I know it’s not real but I know how this can bother my fellow readers so I just wanted to make that clear. At any rate, the only thing I’d say that I didn’t like about “Tender Is the Flesh” is that some parts dragged on. Some chapters also felt fragmented and out of place so it took some getting used to this style of writing. It’s not terrible, but it does start out a bit confusing, picks up well, then goes back to dragging on a bit. Once I hit the 60% mark, it starts to get really good so it was definitely worth the wait. When it comes to the ending, I was hoping for something a bit different but it definitely came out of nowhere. It was definitely shocking and something I didn’t see coming at all so kudos to Bazterrica for hitting me with something unexpected. I thought it ended well and wow, what a way to just drop the mic! Overall, I give “Tender Is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica a 4/5 as it’s really the shock value of human meat that makes this a solid read. It’s so graphic and disturbing that it’s pretty much the essence of why this novel is as popular as it is. The storyline and characters were alright but these didn’t really do it for as much as the incredibly creepy writing about processing, slaughtering, and yes, eating human meat. That’s the selling point to this as it exceeded my wildest expectations in that regard and I enjoyed that horror aspect of it immensely.

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