Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

561 reviews

measbu's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Murder, Child death, Blood, Infertility, Grief, Excrement, Dementia, Death of parent, Body horror, Slavery, Gore, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Animal death, Violence, Death, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

erin2802's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

I love dystopias and this one was chilling. Imagining a world where cannibalism is the norm is scary to think of. Though gruesome, the book was much deeper than just body horror and degeneracy, it was a depiction of grief and loneliness, morality in a state where it seemingly no longer exists. The main character is troubled but likeable, but then the ending really showed just how much society and grief can dig into you. It was horrifying but almost cathartic for the main character and his wife. It was not as disgusting as I was expecting and definitely a really good read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Death, Dementia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma

allegrayr00's review

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Grief, Car accident, Child death, and Dementia

Minor: Rape, Cursing, Alcohol, Sexism, Excrement, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Vomit

jessiejonesbentley's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Infertility, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Torture, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

ravenousrose's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Cultural appropriation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Confinement, Dementia, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

mikeyz's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Abortion, Alcohol, Suicide, Trafficking, Gore, Excrement, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Rape, Racism, Cannibalism, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Infertility, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, and Violence

naereads's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

Wtf! Disturbing and intriguing. Oofta. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Torture, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Slavery, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

enyltiak's review

challenging dark slow-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? No

1.0

This book made me so furious that I hate finished it rather than simply DNF. The violence against women, use of the born-sexy-yesterday trope, the writing so clinical and detached which I get but I felt really didn't service a story that seems to want to have a strong emotional core—never mind the fact that the main character is almost never mentioned by name in the narration, in a story of mostly male characters, which makes figuring out who said or did what incredibly confusing and irritating. There's an interesting social commentary under all this, but by the end of Part One I didn't care, and in Part Two I was just disgusted by the main character, and not even in an interesting way you would expect from a horror novel. And this is personal to my boundaries but the animal cruelty made me sick. Overall just not a good time with this one, actually put me into a slump, and just depressed the hell out of me—I don't feel like I even got anything from that feeling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gore, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Child death, Trafficking, and Medical content

j_emerson18's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Traumatizing. Twisted. Dark. Gruesome. Recommend by one of my best friends. She's gonna need to pay for my therapy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Grief, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Child death, Sexual violence, Animal death, Suicide, Sexual content, Rape, Vomit, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Murder, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Car accident

underscoremeg's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Despite the content warnings, this book was easy to consume! The writing is skillful and detailed without being disgusting. 

In the future, the animals of the world come down with a virus that is lethal to humans, making them unable to be eaten. Because of this, humans have resorted to commercializing cannibalism. 

The main character is the manager of a meat processing plant and the book follows him through his experiences working with other businesses in the meat market, including breeders, hunters, butchers, and leather goods. We see the world through his perspective, learning his feelings about the state of the world as well as his own personal life and challenges. 

This book was described to me as deeply disturbing and disgusting. I wasn’t bothered by much of the gore. There is DEFINITELY gore, but it’s all described in such a detached manner that it’s really not a body horror disgust. The horror of this book was much more mental for me - the thought of humans being raised to be slaughtered for meat is crazy. 

The book takes things a step further, though, when the main character is gifted a female and he slowly begins to treat her like a real person, rather than an animal to be slaughtered. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Animal death, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Grief