Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

698 reviews

parkerluck's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I was rec'd this based off of how much I like Oryx and Crake and it was indeed in line! Good writing, I didn't feel like the violence or content was "gratuitous" or shock over substance or whatever else. The subject matter is horrific so heed warnings, but it's explored well and I felt it was pretty in line with, again, O&C or other bleak dystopia stuff. Enjoyed the character work for the MC, the rest of the cast wasn't as fleshed out but didn't really need to be for such a quick read. 

The people saying the ending was a "twist" don't know how to read imo. The book does a good job of building Marcos, showing you who he is, who he thinks he is, how he fits into the world.

As far as unreliable narrators go, he's not even very unreliable and the story doesn't try to conceal what he's doing or capable of doing at any point. Combined with the Icarus thread he tells himself at the end (it doesn't matter if you fall, what matters is that for a moment you were a bird), it's a very basic set up and execution of him as a character. Frustrating to see other people have so much trouble with the dissonance between the actual narrative and the narrative Marcos himself constructs tbh but what can you do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Child death, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Rape, and Gore

ja605235's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

This book gave so little but also fed you just enough. I hate this book but will be thinking about it for the next few days! The ending made me throw the book at a wall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Medical content, Slavery, and Child death

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book had such potential and was such a cool premise but it fell short in a couple areas for me. 

It focused so hard on the gore of it all that the really interesting psychological aspects were buried. I was expected to take a lot on faith as a reader, which fine, but then the main character doesn’t even trust that the virus is real. 

I needed the book to be from any other characters perspective. She took the most boring character in a cast of very interesting characters. 

The story felt weirdly stilted. We got huge internal dialogue pieces and then the ending is so rushed. It felt very off. 

The premise was good and I wanted to love this book but it just was not what I wanted it to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Infertility, Torture, Trafficking, Death, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Excrement, Death of parent, Rape, Child death, and Forced institutionalization

0leander's review against another edition

dark reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It's a decent commentary on the meat industry and partially on capitalism as a whole, but if you're already familiar with the workings of slaughterhouse there's very little new horror to this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Rape, and Death of parent

mightydub's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, and Sexual assault

niamhrowanch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

she has the human look of a domesticated animal?!?!!!?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Infertility, Trafficking, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Blood, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Rape, and Torture

pantslint's review against another edition

4.0

I'll write a clearer review after a re-read. This book is horrific tho, no doubt. A quick read, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Dementia, Animal death, Slavery, Torture, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Miscarriage

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Vomit, and Alcohol

anjae's review

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was so nasty and I wish I could wipe it from my brain, but I’m also glad I read it. It’s a pretty on-the-nose analogy for mass industrial animal agriculture, but it still worked really well. This was well written and captivating, but I don’t know if I would ever recommend it to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Dementia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Child death, Confinement, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Torture, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

bethann_coleates's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Sexual assault, Vomit, Blood, Rape, Cannibalism, Slavery, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, Excrement, Pregnancy, Torture, and Trafficking

karlaalereyna's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Torture, and Slavery