Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Tender Is the Flesh

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

56 reviews

leazzz's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I would like to never think about this book again.
I think every other review I've seen of this SERIOUSLY downplays the TWs.
Regardless of the writing/characters/plot, this is seriously disturbing and for a lot of people it will NOT be worth reading.

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thespinystacks's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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onthelam's review against another edition

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dark sad tense

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Normally I enjoy grotesque disgusting descriptive books but this was just pointless and insensible? Most of the scenes didn't add to the story and were just dragging. It felt like a short story stretched to fit a whole book. Also, there was some stuff included to make the twist believable but there was so much more against it.

If he didn't care for jasmine at all then why did he name her, treat her as a human and all that? He could have just raped her and kept her in the barn dirty till she gave birth if that was all he wanted. And the things that point to him not being the somewhat moral person as portrayed in most of the book can also be explained by the sense of helplessness prevalent through it like the puppy scene and the fact that he killed his dogs. So really there was no good foreshadowing and it was just there to add shock value.

. I liked the idea a lot and some of the things early on especially the commentary on humanity in general but the execution could have been much better.

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headachesince03's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

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yontararak's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

thebookworm777's review against another edition

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dark

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

1.75

Given this book is a translation I will not spend much time on the writing quality itself. I do wish to note though that Bazterrica's style did not appeal to me as I found the language simplistic to the point it was at times distracting. I do not know if this is because of the translation or because this is what was intended. I appreciate simple language and can recognize when its use enhances a story. In this case, I felt that as a literary device it added nothing to the book and indeed detracted at times as I was distracted in some parts by the how repetitious things were becoming.

As for the plot of this book...what plot? To me this book felt like it was cataloguing daily life in a dystopian hellscape which itself lacked verisimilitude. The premise of the book is that humans can no longer consume animal meat due a virus that has apparently been around for several decades but to which there is no cure or any mutations of the virus. This alone seemed unrealistic to me. Then comes the rest of this highly unplausible off which the book is based: that in the absence of animal flesh, people just turn willingly to cannibalizing each other.

Never once did I feel there was an adequate explanation for why cannibalism was normalized other than that people enjoy eating meat. I have a difficult time believing that people as a whole enjoy meat so much that they'd be willing to socially sanction cannibalism in the absence of animal products. I also have a difficult time believing these actions would take place in a age where we have an increasing number of meat substitutes and lab grown meat is a concept that has been teased for years. The lack of compelling reason for cannibalistic activities to take place truly made this book difficult to engage with a serious work rather than as a poorly created piece of satire.

A lot of the writing is explicit and horrific, and for what? Because we *must* eat each other? Again, why? In the absence of a true answer to this question I feel like the graphic, gory scenes in this book exist not to make a comment on society but rather as a form of horror porn. Other elements of this book which gave me this impression included the way sexuality, rape, death, torture, and cannibalism are all mixed up with each other.

Other elements I did not enjoy included overtones of racism, misogyny, and classism. These elements I feel all had the potential to be used in a critical manner but instead just existed for no apparent purpose other than shock.

In addition to all of the above, the book to me ends with a number of loose ends. The author will introduce what seems to be a plot point only to never fulfill its arc. The last chapter of the book was honestly its strongest but even then I found the writing to be lacking.

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