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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Imagínate un mundo donde lo impensable se vuelve normal, donde la gente acepta lo más atroz sin siquiera cuestionarlo. Cadáver exquisito de Agustina Bazterrica te mete de lleno en una sociedad fría, brutal, donde todo está tan sistematizado que el horror ya ni se siente como tal. Es un lugar donde la humanidad pierde su esencia, donde la costumbre anestesia el pensamiento y donde las personas son capaces de llegar a extremos inimaginables sin pestañear. Es crudo, directo y te deja con un nudo en la garganta, porque en el fondo, no está tan lejos de la realidad.
I decided to listen to this book on Everand despite having the physical copy.
I'm sort of glad I did too because I probably would have whole ass DNF'd this book had I tried to actually read it.
My ADHD had me zoning out through some parts of the book while listening, but for the most part it held my attention.
This is NOT my normal cup of tea when it comes to reading, but it was one of three chosen for our book club's BOTM's to read for October.
Would I have chosen and read this book otherwise? No.
Will I ever read it again or listen again? Absolutely tf not. Once was more than enough.
By the end of the book I was jaw on the desk and it took me 87 mins to pick it up.
The ending pissed me off.
FUCK MARCO + his distant ass wife.
For those wanting to dive into this book, it's HEAVY on the cannibalism even down to eating children sammiches. And if you listen to the book, then you get the sound effects during that scene.
Animals are tortured + murdered for fun. (Puppies fyi!)
It's really fucking descriptive on how they would process a human body for consumption.
However, I quickly learned that would never be me. I'm highly stressed, covered in tattoos and my meat bruises easily. So, I'd be disgusting actually. They'd probably throw my fat ass to the scavengers because I'd be unsellable as "special meat"!
Overall, it was a 2.5 out of 5 for me.
I'm sort of glad I did too because I probably would have whole ass DNF'd this book had I tried to actually read it.
My ADHD had me zoning out through some parts of the book while listening, but for the most part it held my attention.
This is NOT my normal cup of tea when it comes to reading, but it was one of three chosen for our book club's BOTM's to read for October.
Would I have chosen and read this book otherwise? No.
Will I ever read it again or listen again? Absolutely tf not. Once was more than enough.
By the end of the book I was jaw on the desk and it took me 87 mins to pick it up.
The ending pissed me off.
FUCK MARCO + his distant ass wife.
For those wanting to dive into this book, it's HEAVY on the cannibalism even down to eating children sammiches. And if you listen to the book, then you get the sound effects during that scene.
Animals are tortured + murdered for fun. (Puppies fyi!)
It's really fucking descriptive on how they would process a human body for consumption.
However, I quickly learned that would never be me. I'm highly stressed, covered in tattoos and my meat bruises easily. So, I'd be disgusting actually. They'd probably throw my fat ass to the scavengers because I'd be unsellable as "special meat"!
Overall, it was a 2.5 out of 5 for me.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
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:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A dark read, but this book now makes me want to watch Soylent Green. I enjoyed the read and it really made me think about the political sphere today. A compelling read, but very gory. Some of the world building seems ambiguous to me, but I think it’s intentional for readers to ponder what aspects of the book reflect reality, or could actually happen.
Religion is briefly mentioned in this book, but I think a more interesting question would be how would traditional religions (not immolationists) deal with the integration of cannibalism? Would it cease? How would it warp? In the book, the humans that are to be eaten are dehumanized to remove guilt from cannibalism, but what would those first few years have been like before dehumanization became the norm?
Throughout the story, there’s a suspicion that the virus isn’t real and that the cannibalism is a conspiracy. I agree with this sentiment since it’d hard for viruses to spread to all animals. But then I want to say that the entire world is not stupid enough to fall for this lie; however, given some of the misinformation propagation that goes around today, I feel like I can’t say that for certain. All it takes is for those in power to wipe out all dissenters before history is rewritten. Although, I do think the period for this blanket acceptance would take longer than the timeline offers. I mean vegans and vegetarians have existed throughout history, I’d like to believe that enough people would dissent that swift acceptance of cannibalism would occur.
Also, I think the hatred towards animals is really violent and extreme for the amount of time that has passed from the initial “outbreak” to when the story starts. I would have expected some mysticism surrounding them, but there is none. Just hatred and abuse. It’s not the animals that are killers, but the “virus.” Maybe this is the optimist in me, but I’d like to believe this wouldn’t happen. The realist in me believes this could happen bc fear is a powerful weapon.
Also the author mentions a chapter Spanel, but we never hear about her again, which I thought was a bit odd bc Marcos and her fuck? And he presumably has to see her again for his job, but the author doesn’t show us the aftermath. I feel like I would be awkward if I was in either of their shoes but Marcos seems so depressed he probably wouldn’t care. And Spanel, idk, honestly he treated her so brutally, but she smiled with teeth in the end— so I’m not quite sure how to take that occurrence.
For a while, I was expecting character growth from Marcus. From the get go it was evident he was depressed and only really living to pay for his father to stay at a nursing home. We’re under the impression that with the loss of his son, he loses his will to live and bend to societal expectations of dehumanizing human slaughter and consumption. After his son’s death he doesn’t eat human meat. And in the first half of the book, all the up until the end of the first half, I was optimistically expecting character growth. That his sympathy for Jasmine Would be enough to spur him into action to rebel against the system. However, then he rapes her. That’s the first sign that he only views her as property, but I ignored it thinking maybe he had fallen in love or liked her. Not that that excuses him raping her, but I thought they might be a couple from there out, especially since he took her into the house and taught her how to do things and gave her stuff to do. He treated he more like a human than anyone else did in her life. Although, hindsight says that this was likely due to him not wanting her to have a miscarriage. Even throughout part 2, after his dad dies, I was hoping he’d just run away with her. Try fleeing the country or living off the grid. Him eating the fingers with Urlet was foreshadowing that he was not as detached from societal programming. When he decides to kill her, it cements that he never viewed her as more as property. She was just another way he could have a child. Instead of rebelling against the system, he becomes a part of it. And just like that his wife is also on board. Now that she has a baby, she doesn’t care about the bad deeds her husband has done. All she cared about Jasmine was that she could’ve bore more children. Marcos had several opportunities to do good for at least one human livestock and he actively chose not to. A true commentary on humanity at times.
Lastly, I find it fascinating that having sex with the “head” was illegal. Like it’s okay to eat humans but illegal to rape them? On the one hand I appreciate it— a small mercy to those poor humans. But on the other hand I’m wondering why? Human trafficking is something that exists today on a large scale, so why couldn’t humans being sent to slaughter be raped? To those who cannibalize, is it like beastiality? Is it because the humans can’t consent? Definitely not the latter, bc they’re sold and treated like livestock. Idk I think this is an interesting line to draw in the sand, and I don’t know why it was drawn to begin with.
Religion is briefly mentioned in this book, but I think a more interesting question would be how would traditional religions (not immolationists) deal with the integration of cannibalism? Would it cease? How would it warp? In the book, the humans that are to be eaten are dehumanized to remove guilt from cannibalism, but what would those first few years have been like before dehumanization became the norm?
Also, I think the hatred towards animals is really violent and extreme for the amount of time that has passed from the initial “outbreak” to when the story starts. I would have expected some mysticism surrounding them, but there is none. Just hatred and abuse. It’s not the animals that are killers, but the “virus.” Maybe this is the optimist in me, but I’d like to believe this wouldn’t happen. The realist in me believes this could happen bc fear is a powerful weapon.
Also the author mentions a chapter Spanel, but we never hear about her again, which I thought was a bit odd bc Marcos and her fuck? And he presumably has to see her again for his job, but the author doesn’t show us the aftermath. I feel like I would be awkward if I was in either of their shoes but Marcos seems so depressed he probably wouldn’t care. And Spanel, idk, honestly he treated her so brutally, but she smiled with teeth in the end— so I’m not quite sure how to take that occurrence.
For a while, I was expecting character growth from Marcus. From the get go it was evident he was depressed and only really living to pay for his father to stay at a nursing home. We’re under the impression that with the loss of his son, he loses his will to live and bend to societal expectations of dehumanizing human slaughter and consumption. After his son’s death he doesn’t eat human meat. And in the first half of the book, all the up until the end of the first half, I was optimistically expecting character growth. That his sympathy for Jasmine Would be enough to spur him into action to rebel against the system. However, then he rapes her. That’s the first sign that he only views her as property, but I ignored it thinking maybe he had fallen in love or liked her. Not that that excuses him raping her, but I thought they might be a couple from there out, especially since he took her into the house and taught her how to do things and gave her stuff to do. He treated he more like a human than anyone else did in her life. Although, hindsight says that this was likely due to him not wanting her to have a miscarriage. Even throughout part 2, after his dad dies, I was hoping he’d just run away with her. Try fleeing the country or living off the grid. Him eating the fingers with Urlet was foreshadowing that he was not as detached from societal programming. When he decides to kill her, it cements that he never viewed her as more as property. She was just another way he could have a child. Instead of rebelling against the system, he becomes a part of it. And just like that his wife is also on board. Now that she has a baby, she doesn’t care about the bad deeds her husband has done. All she cared about Jasmine was that she could’ve bore more children. Marcos had several opportunities to do good for at least one human livestock and he actively chose not to. A true commentary on humanity at times.
Lastly, I find it fascinating that having sex with the “head” was illegal. Like it’s okay to eat humans but illegal to rape them? On the one hand I appreciate it— a small mercy to those poor humans. But on the other hand I’m wondering why? Human trafficking is something that exists today on a large scale, so why couldn’t humans being sent to slaughter be raped? To those who cannibalize, is it like beastiality? Is it because the humans can’t consent? Definitely not the latter, bc they’re sold and treated like livestock. Idk I think this is an interesting line to draw in the sand, and I don’t know why it was drawn to begin with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Cannibalism, Murder
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Child death
Super well written. Artistically magnificent. But leaves scars.
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
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
This was the most fucked up book I’ve read in awhile 😬 but I can’t say it wasn’t compelling! Absolutely made me want to become a vegetarian.
I will say, dude did me dirty with thetortured and killed puppies scene. No one needed that to be included 😒
I will say, dude did me dirty with the