Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

204 reviews

leah_hope's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

me and the homies hate marcos.  but seriously that ending.  it felt like i had been stabbed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Genocide, Grief, Cannibalism, Trafficking, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

lvfl's review

2.0

Blech. This book is not for me. It’s well written and the story is interesting but it’s just too vile for me. I’m not sure I can think of a content watching this book shouldn’t have. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Death of parent, Dementia, Murder, Classism, Slavery, Body shaming, Gore, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

ribbenkast's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I'm not giving this book a low rating because it's gross and gory. I love gross and gory and I've read things more gross and gory than this. I have to commend the book for its effective use of the gore. It wasn't too overly gory just to be shocking, it used the gore effectivly to make its point. 

However, the world building is really flimsy. The main story is fine but the whole world falls apart with one single kick to its legs. The premise was great, but the author fails to present the premise as a plausible. There is just no way that if all meat becomes inedible tommorow we'll just switch to human meat. Not because I believe we as humans are incapable of doing the evils described in the book, but for the simple fact that capitalism will find a more profitable and cost effective solution. The story was build on a shaky foundation which made it hard to take the whole book seriously.

Whether the virus that killed all the animals or not was real remains a mistery. The explanation given for this to be a 'hoax' is that the goverment wants to solve overpopulation. Again, capitalism will find a more cost effective way.

 

Furthermore, the author tries so hard to be 'literary'. The book tried to make a point about society at large, but it fell flat. Both me and the author desperedly wanted to have this book have a message beyond: fuck the meat industry. It didn't really. 
Maybe it works better in the original Spanish but the author never uses the main characters name to describe him. just 'he'. I get that she probably was trying to make a point about dehumanisation by this, but instead it just made the book read like a bulletpoint list of the main characters day. Also the scenes with multiple men in them (which is almost all) became very confusing to read as it's unclear who's speaking. Also, the desired effect doesn't work if you have other characters clearly adres him by his full name. 

The ending though, was perfect. I am glad I finished this book just for the ending.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Hate crime, Dementia, Body horror, Slavery, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Violence, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Grief, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Blood, Confinement, Torture, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Rape, Medical content, Gore, Death of parent, and Death

gaijin1331's review

2.0

I regret reading this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Infertility, Infidelity, Cannibalism, Gore, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Murder

smolhandsdan's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Child death

jamo_etc's review

dark sad fast-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

4.0

Not at all pleasant. Interesting read. Very uncomfortable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Animal death, Child death, Rape, Drug use, Excrement, Medical trauma, Gore, Medical content, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Grief, Infertility, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking

generalfoolish's review

challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Loved this novel. I found it impossible to put down, and twice as hard to forget. Read several years ago, and still reflect on this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Grief, Death, Medical trauma, Cannibalism, Torture, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Physical abuse

dani_boi98's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Rape, Torture, Animal cruelty, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Animal death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Dementia

kkulhannie's review

dark slow-paced

• 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

3.75

imagine reading a book like this and thinking the overt misogyny wasn’t going to be a plot point…

yikes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Confinement, Cannibalism, Medical content, Drug abuse, Slavery, Pregnancy, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Classism, Child abuse, Torture, Blood, Sexism, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Trafficking, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Drug use, Body horror, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

thepassivebookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual content