Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

15 reviews

saadeeyah's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

So I was told this book was a true dystopian novel. Honestly it had a lot of potential. The characters had potential, the main idea of the society had potential, but in the end it felt like the author had a bunch of separate ideas for a book and squished them together. Like the human hunting reserve where they hunted a celebrity who was in debt? That just sounded like the main plot of a desperate book. I was also disappointed in the characters, when I started the book I assumed I would get to know Marcos and why he does things and how he does things, but I still have no clue how he thinks and why he acts. All I got was that he’s vegetarian, he likes beer, he misses his wife, he misses his dead baby and he’s a creep. All throughout the book, he would explain how everyone else was sick but then literally does the exact same thing as everyone else. I guess that could be interpreted as the meaning of the book, but it’s a bit of a cop-out. It also felt very gory for little to no reason. It honestly made me think that the author just wanted to write something with every trigger warning possible and the best way to do it was to choose humans. I would not be surprised if the author chose humans because the book wouldn’t have been well received if they had gone into as much detail on livestock farming and slaughtering. It made me think of those kinds of vegans. The ending was basically ten pages and didn’t make sense when it came to the characters’ arcs. Kinda disappointed as I was told the ending was what truly made the book (aka the book is boring but the end is shocking). Overall meh writing and underdeveloped plot and characters.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Dementia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Gore, Vomit, Car accident, Child death, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Infertility, Addiction, Sexual assault, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Torture, Medical content, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Disturbing doesn’t even begin to touch the surface. I definitely didn’t anticipate the ending. I thought the protagonist had changed but ultimately this book proves that people will do heinous things to get what they want. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Violence, Pregnancy, Medical content, Classism, Death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual assault, Murder, Infidelity, Infertility, Child death, Gore, Slavery, Sexism, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

rkorevenge's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This made me queasy and the ending is horrific. Not for the faint of heart. Seriously, check trigger warnings. This was the most vicious storytelling I’ve ever encountered and it just doesn’t stop. It’s just absolutely brutal from the first page to the last. The ending literally made me throw the book across the room in anger. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a book. It’s a good book but I will never read it again. I don’t have to read it again honestly because the last line will haunt me for the rest of my life. This is a truly horrific imaging of atrocities that our infrastructures, languages, cultures, and governments are capable of implementing and justifying- and how quickly we would allow it to happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Infertility, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Classism, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War

lindseybrrrk's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

3.0

Don’t read with a full stomach.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism

Moderate: Rape, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gore, Blood, Violence, and Colonisation

mayonnaisedoughnut's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture