Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Tender Is the Flesh

Marcos has a hyper-fixation on words. In world that literally rips the vocal cords of their facility breed "special meat" in order to circumvent the sounds of another human beings suffering, he continues to crave connection. His inner world is bleak yet descriptive when it comes to his judgments of others, and justifications of himself.

I was not mentally prepared for the gory details of the "processing plant" and I spend the first couple of pages with a permanent scowl on my face. Unsure of the virus is real or not, or a sinister conspiracy to allow humanity to capitalize on its lurking darkness, I am still struggling to wrap my mind around the decisions of the main character. Marcos appears to grapple with his almost nihilistic decision to embrace cannibalism as part of his livelihood until a breakdown in his judgement leads to his ultimate prize.

He oscalites between looking down on his peers in the "meat" industry and kind-of envying their easy adjustment to stripping other humans down to their most basic parts literally, for entertainment, religion, and entertainment. Like many others in this story, Marcos acknowledges the cognitive dissonance of it all and he suffers in silence. His desire to have a family ultimately acts as the catalyst for his corruption and final act of immolation. There are not enough words to adequately described the grotesqueness of it all. Meat. Head. Product. Disgusting. This medium paced dystopian novel had a few "food of thought" moments but in the end, I would not revisit it in the future.

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poucks's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was very interesting and I liked the concept of it, however, I was not sold on the author's writing style.

The story in itself was unique, interesting and well thought out. The main character, Marcos, was very clearly a very damaged man and that was well portrayed in the book, in the way he behaved around people and the thoughts he had.

The world building was good and it was clear a lot of thought went into it. The mechanics of the meat processing, weather or not the virus is real, to the habits people have created now that animals are deemed dangerous.

All in all, definitely the second part of the book, I couldn't put it down, but the end was very obvious and like I said, the writing style wasn't for me. I am happy I read the book though! But I would not recommend it to everyone.

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zsommers's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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_meganrose's review

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dark fast-paced

2.0

MADE MY SKIN CRAWL AND THIS WAS MY FACE THE ENTIRE TIME READING IT 🥴😳 IT WAS BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN, BUT IN A WAY THAT MADE ME NAUSEOUS.
REALLY QUICK READ THOUGH AND WAS NOT EXPECTING THE ENDING AT ALL! IF YOU’RE IN TO DISTURBING DISTOPIAN BOOKS, THIS MIGHT BE UP YOUR ALLEY. NOT SURE IF I CAN EAT MEAT AGAIN ANYTIME SOON THOUGH 🫣

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