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Graphic: Gore, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Grief, Abortion, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Classism
Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic
The things I liked: This book didn’t shy away from the brutality of its subject matter. The morally unreliable narrator. The concept of this dystopia. The “twist” ending. How wonderfully disturbing it all was. The way Bazterrica highlights the use of language to normalise and desensitise the public to horrific acts.
The things I liked less:
The exposition dumps — Bazterrica is a sucker for telling not showing.
The world did feel somewhat underdeveloped. It felt like it lacked a real thematic through line — the cannibalism needs to be a commentary on something, whether it be the meat industry, environment, class, or something else. And it didn’t feel like the author knew exactly what she wanted to say.
At times it felt like the author had a collection of cool vignettes in mind, all placed in this same dystopia, but didn’t have the story or thematic backbone to bring them together.
Overall, I liked this book and would probably recommend it — it was an interesting read. Just maybe skip it if you have thin skin.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Slavery, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
I can’t say I liked it because, well, that would be really messed up.
But I’ll say the person who wrote this has an incredibly creative and disturbing mind. I pray that nothing the author wrote in this book ever comes to pass.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Miscarriage
Also I really didn’t think the world building clicked, they say you need meat in the book to love but they feed grain to the stock humans and they live sooo..
So I guess everyone is just a cannibalistic freak by nature or the society in this books lacks critical thinking skills as a whole, but who am I to complaint about the world building of a book about government sanctioned cannibalism.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Miscarriage, Blood, Cannibalism, Pregnancy
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War
I do want to address the plot briefly by saying that this isn’t some romance or a series of character interactions, both of which were implied by the people that recommended it to be. It’s really a book about a man’s self-destructive spiral and a series of vignette-like explorations of the book’s premise. Society’s willingness to attach to a veneer if it satisfies their desires is a big theme.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Dementia, Medical trauma, Death of parent