Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Tender is the Flesh

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

538 reviews

parkerluck's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I was rec'd this based off of how much I like Oryx and Crake and it was indeed in line! Good writing, I didn't feel like the violence or content was "gratuitous" or shock over substance or whatever else. The subject matter is horrific so heed warnings, but it's explored well and I felt it was pretty in line with, again, O&C or other bleak dystopia stuff. Enjoyed the character work for the MC, the rest of the cast wasn't as fleshed out but didn't really need to be for such a quick read.

The people saying the ending was a "twist" don't know how to read imo. The book does a good job of building Marcos, showing you who he is, who he thinks he is, how he fits into the world.

As far as unreliable narrators go, he's not even very unreliable and the story doesn't try to conceal what he's doing or capable of doing at any point. Combined with the Icarus thread he tells himself at the end (it doesn't matter if you fall, what matters is that for a moment you were a bird), it's a very basic set up and execution of him as a character. Frustrating to see other people have so much trouble with the dissonance between the actual narrative and the narrative Marcos himself constructs tbh but what can you do.

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kirtreads's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

This book had such potential and was such a cool premise but it fell short in a couple areas for me.

It focused so hard on the gore of it all that the really interesting psychological aspects were buried. I was expected to take a lot on faith as a reader, which fine, but then the main character doesn’t even trust that the virus is real.

I needed the book to be from any other characters perspective. She took the most boring character in a cast of very interesting characters.

The story felt weirdly stilted. We got huge internal dialogue pieces and then the ending is so rushed. It felt very off.

The premise was good and I wanted to love this book but it just was not what I wanted it to be.

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lizziealex's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

4.5

horrific in the best way.

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unassumingdork's review against another edition

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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? Yes

1.25

Genuinely the worst book I have ever read. I’d rather spend a day sniffing my cat’s stinky breath than pick this book up again.

I heard so much hype about this book, and had such high hopes for it. But, in the end I was left extremely disappointed.
This book is chock full of a lot of very surface level observations and criticisms of our largely omnivorous society, specifically in regards to how people today treat livestock. Like knock you over the head level observations that everyone has made since the 1st grade. And nothing of interest happens until the last few chapters where it feels like Ms. Bazterrica just went with the most shocking twists she could come up with, with no consideration as to what makes a good story, or even what choices her own characters would believably make.

The reason it I rated it 1.25 instead of something lower is because overall I do feel like Agustina Bazterrica has some decent writing skills, and I know when reading a text that has been translated into another language (I read an English copy,) you’re never going to come out of it with the most accurate idea of an authors true abilities.

It has been at least 3 years since I finished it and I still cringe when I pass it in stores.

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jpauguste's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Bazterrica says it best: in a capitalist society, we consume each other.

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dnietoperafan's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

4.0

Me le quito el sombrero a Agustina Bazterrica. Esta novela va a estar implantada en mi memoria para siempre.

Mi hermana me recomendo este libro. He sido vegetariana desde hace 2 años ya, y mi hermana sabía que disfrutaría este libro de una manera macabra.

Las descripciones de Bazterrica son de las cosas más grotescas que he leido en mi vida (en la mejor forma posible). Ese mundo distópico que creó no se siente tan lejano. Amo como algunas preguntas no se resuelven através de la historia, lo cual hizo que el libro se sientiera más real (?).

Los personajes están muy bien caracterizados. Amé como Bazterrica no nos tenía que decir como eran las personalidades de ciertos personajes, ella solo nos lo mostraba através de sus acciones.

De verdad me gustó esta novela, y la recomendaría a los lectores de estómago fuerte.

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