Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

200 reviews

tessaturnspages's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Animal death, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

q_bert13's review

challenging dark 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? No

3.0

A dark, frightening look at a dystopian capitalist world ‘forced’ into cannibalism via an animal-attacking virus. Don’t go into this book looking for likeable characters either. Overall the storyline is interesting, with twists you don’t expect. The book so separated in two parts (with a time jump between them), with part one going much slower than the second half. I feel like the inclusion of a middle chapter, either featuring the main characters or just focusing on the society as a whole would help ‘flesh out’ the story (pun not intended). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Blood, Classism, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Infertility, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Pedophilia

sarahshock's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Amazing book! Highly recommend. The ending is insane!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Genocide, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, and Violence

kelisabeth's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Grief, Abortion, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gore, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Dementia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Torture, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, and Rape

avrilamber's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

I think this was a well executed story. The concept is on the more disturbing side and having a morally ambiguous narrator does lend itself to the controversial concept that exists within this world quite well. The narrative I think is intentionally delivered with as much matter-of-factness as possible to increase the unsettling nature of this plot. This method of storytelling didn’t quite have the desired affect for me as I think I’m more desensitised to darker material, but I think the plot is an interesting concept and the last 5 or so pages were quite a surprise for me.

There is quite a sudden shift in the narrator’s motivations about halfway through the novel, along with a significant time jump, which I think took me out of the story and took a little while to get back into the swing of things. Overall, it’s a fully realised concept with a dark nature that doesn’t take too long to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Confinement

Moderate: Rape and Child death

heavenperry's review

sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Rape, Death, Murder, Cannibalism, Confinement, Infertility, Slavery, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Blood

shughes's review

dark sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Animal death, Sexual assault, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, and Torture

thelibraryofanolive's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Torture, Excrement, Murder, Body horror, Chronic illness, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Dementia, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Confinement, Classism, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Trafficking, Violence, Alcohol, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Abortion, Kidnapping, Medical content, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, and Drug use

akaspiderlily's review

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

To be frank, it’s a terrible read. It is highly disturbing, while offering no real substance outside of its graphic detailed description of a cannibalistic future society. There is a fetishization at play almost, and the main character is a violent, raping, sociopath, whose only “human” characteristic lies in the fact that he does not enjoy eating human meat like “normal” with everyone else. Additionally, I found the truly horrific parts of it entirely too pathetically dismissive of the history this society would have had, as if caging humans, breeding them, hunting them, experimenting on them, and eating them, was not something practiced by white conquistadors and slavers on African and indigenous people. There is a literal mention of one of the villains in the story having a picture of a white colonizer with human heads in Africa as a point of reverence, yet only this present-day dystopia is horrific? Terrible. 0 stars. This is why I stay away from white authors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Abortion, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, and Trafficking

theochick's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Fucked up in the best sense of the phrase with characters who make your skin crawl the entire way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, Death, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Slavery, Dementia, Murder, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Gore, Child death, Trafficking, and Blood

Moderate: Infertility, Rape, Excrement, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

There are holocaust parallels to be aware of as well