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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

2433 reviews

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Such a sick and thought provoking read that will have your head spun by the final line. It’s dirty and sad and you want everything to work out but life doesn’t really ever work out like that. Humans are capable of terrible things and this book gives a peek into what that world could look like. Recommend to those who can stomach the descriptions that come with commercial cannibalism.

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Eu não consigo explicar a experiência de ler esse livro. Eu o li duas vezes, em inglês e em português (e se tiver a oportunidade, o lerei no idioma original) e mesmo assim, ainda não sei descrever. 
O livro te prende do começo ao fim, por mais que a história seja pesada e, por vezes, eu tenha tido de parar de ler por alguns minutos para conseguir absorver o que estava acontecendo. O livro, ainda que curto, tem uma das melhores "construções de mundo", por assim se dizer, que eu já li, a autora pensou em detalhes que eu nem terei pensado sobre se ela não tivesse abordado, apresentando tudo de forma natural, sem que despejar muita informação de uma vez aos leitores. 
O livro é cruel, porque Bazterrica consegue elaborar de forma muita realista como os seres humanos reagiriam em tal situação, nos fazendo crer, com muita facilidade, que a realidade pensada por ela é extremamente plausível, principalmente com as questões que ela deixa intencionalmente em aberto.  

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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: Yes

Disturbing & morbid

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Incredibly disturbing yet reflective of the nature of humans and animals and it’s surprisingly blurred line.

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

extremely thought provoking read 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Irl buddy read with Ande.

If everybody was eating human flesh, would you?

 Translated from the Spanish, Tender is the flesh is a commentary, horror talking about the natural fall to consuming human flesh once animals have become infested with something that will kill humans upon consumption. 

It is horrifying and thought-provoking bringing questions to mind, such as are we all simply sheep, following the easy route rather than challenging what's quickly becoming the norm? What happens to morality upon the introduction of a new threat to the species? Is the current state we keep our livestock in, and the practices we carry out on them, fit for purpose or needlessly cruel?

This story follows Marcos. Marcos felt simultaneously complex and hollow. You could clearly see that he had this deep rooted distaste to what was happening within society and the whole idea of consuming human meat, but at the same time he was clearly struggling with his own losses and had this 'shell-of-a-former-self' type quality to him that made his reactions either completely emotionally unavailable or extreme in how he responded.

On the topic of human meat... wasn't it's fascinating how they were distingushed from humans (and further still the distinction between the 'us' and the 'degenerates')?
I was endlessly enthralled by the clever use of terminology to dehumazie what was being eaten, such as how the processing plants referred to the 'product' only as the 'product' or special meat, or sticking to the basics of 'the female' for e.g., yet in the same hypercritical breath using pronouns like 'her' and 'she', making it all feel strangely human. It really messed me up, as you could see that society was perhaps still coming to grips with this degradation of life (interested me how some words didn't envoke 'omg I'm eating a person' and others did), but I was especially troubled by scenes of the 'product' cowering in fear like an animal expecting abuse. 

I can't say I could have guessed what this story would bring and I definitely can't say that I predicted the ending because I sat there in disbelief as I turned the last page, expecting to have some sort of explanation. My mouth had dropped open and I shouted 'what the fuck?!'. It shocked me to my core. I didn't know what to think, how to feel. I think I even forgot how to breathe for a second.
I was truly at a loss for words when I closed this book.

What Augustina Bazterrica attempted to do with this awfully debase book was pulled off absolutely exquisitely. The themes (and commentary through the eyes of Marcos) were disturbing yet thought-provoking and left me wondering...would I actually eat human meat if that was what society and the government was publicising to the masses, that this was the new norm? 


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