Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

900 reviews

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

kniishii's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Confinement, Cannibalism, Child death, Miscarriage, Torture, Infidelity, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, and Sexual content

emviolet's review

dark sad 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? Yes

2.5

i heard a lot of great things about this book, and i do think the idea of the overarching metaphor (humans treating certain groups as less than, dehumanizing certain groups to make them seem “animal”, etc) could be really powerful. but…the amount of gruesome, awful images throughout the book are just painful, and there isn’t a lot of actual plot or development or action to make any of it feel justified. it just feels dark and violent for the sake of being dark and violent. i wanted to like it, i really did, and it had a few moments. but i don’t think i could ever recommend this to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Murder, Trafficking, Death, Animal death, Cannibalism, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Medical content, Alcohol, and Blood

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

angelicaro's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Torture

2busyreading's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Rape, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual content

vanesst's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Torture, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcohol, Excrement, Death of parent, Dementia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

aproulx's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Infertility, Child death, and Death of parent