Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

78 reviews

ariel_wolf's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

The first half of the book is kinda slowly and can mess with your head a little since the main character is struggling with the way of the new world but it gets dark, gross and kinda/really messed up in the second half. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Infertility, Medical trauma, Murder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

parkergeist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Gore, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Dementia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

blindhill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Confinement, Cannibalism, Blood, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual content, Murder, and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent, Dementia, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Miscarriage

kawooreads's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

My review will be brief on this one and while I will avoid detailed descriptions of subject matter it should be known that this book deserves heavy Content Warning: obscene violence, torture, imprisonment, body horror, animal abuse, basically every imaginable Crime Against Humanity! 

This book was making the rounds on Book Tok so I was intrigued by it. Not huge in the horror genre, I do like to dabble in some of the disturbing offerings sometimes because they can offer very morbid allegory for real life. While the idea behind this book does speak to the morals of our mass consumption and comodification of animals for food and other human needs, as well as our ability to do right by our fellow man when truly tested by horrifying circumstances, I felt like the message never got in deep enough. As a result, this book is basically what I would consider "Slaughterhouse Porn" where there was just example after example of how the human body can be dissected to meet our needs. Due to global viral catastrophe, animals essentially become poisonous, and thus humans become the new livestock.  Unless you are a mega super fan of obscene and gory horror books, maybe don't pick this one up. I made it to the end of this one desperate for a redeeming story, but I didn't get it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Gore, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

hermamora's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

I am on the search for a book that is actually scary— bonechilling, horrifying stuff. This book popped up in many “disturbing horror” lists, so I was very excited to give it a try.

I was disappointed.

The writing itself is somewhat clunky, and the author doesn’t refer to the main character, Marcus, unless another character is referring to him. Especially in the beginning of the book, this was rather confusing, and made it hard to discern who was doing and saying what. I understand that the book is translated from Spanish, so I’m guessing it flowed much more smoothly in its original language.

A big issue with the book is the characters. There isn’t much time given to fleshing out any characters besides Marcos, who himself has issues with his character. At times he seems like he sympathizes with the “head”, but at other points its clear he sees them as no more than animals. In fact, there are points where it seems like he has more sympathy for his dogs who died years ago than the very alive humans he’s in charge of slaughtering. The book does not spend enough time on Marcos’s moral dilemma. We see him already broken, his distaste bottled up and discarded. This isn’t necessarily an issue, seeing how the slaughterhouse industry conditions its workers would be interesting. But Marcos doesn’t seem like he’s been “conditioned” or simply “gotten used to it”. He is clearly bothered at least somewhat by what he does, but he makes absolutely no protest besides a mildly annoyed inner monologue.

Marcos reads more like a sociopath, and less like a grieving, broken man. Especially later in the book, when he receives a female “specimen”. He spends days paying her the absolute bare minimum of attention, treating her worse than a dog. That all changes when he decides to sleep with her. Yes, he decides to sleep with the woman who has the mental capacity of a toddler and is unable to verbally consent due to her vocal cords being *literally removed*. The book pays absolutely NO attention to the fact that this is at its core, rape. She is unable to consent, both mentally and physically. He could murder her at any point, perfectly legally. The only moral question brought up about this consummation is that he’s a hypocrite because he used to arrest people for doing the same thing early in his career. I think there’s a lot more wrong with sleeping with something you consider cattle than just hypocrisy.

Now’s a good time to bring up the world building, because there were quite a few issues with it too. We’re expected to believe both that a) most people believe the virus is a hoax, and b) the majority of people still go along with it. If most people think it’s a hoax, why would the entire world just agree to following the new world order. It’s brought up people who were alive during the transition didn’t take well to it, yeah no shit. So what changed? What made the entire world suddenly tolerant of systemic cannibalism, murder, and the elimination of all wildlife? Sure, there was propaganda, and the threat of being the next thing on the menue should you dissent, but I don’t believe it’s realistic it even got to that point. Especially not on a global scale. This isn’t one country, or a few, it’s implied to be the whole world. I will say though, the conditions of the factory are fairly well written. Similar enough to modern industrial farming, while still being suitable for human farming.

My biggest issue with the book though, was the ending. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good ending, in fact it made perfect sense to the plot. However, not enough time was spent on it. In the course of a few pages the entire book is wrapped up. I wish at least a semi long chapter had been dedicated to the birth, and what happened after. It is deeply tragic that the woman he impregnated, basically domesticated, was made to endure a brutal childbirth then be murdered without a second thought. It works with the book’s theme, sure, but it was so utterly fast paced it had no pay off. It was somewhat foreshadowed throughout the book, with how he refers to the baby inside Jasmine (the “head” he was gifted) as his son, and pays very little attention to Jasmine in his statements. But still, it just didn’t work for me because of how fast paced it was. Also, I’m not really sure what the last line is supposed to mean?

“She had the human look of a domesticated animal.” And that means she needs to be slaughtered now because…? I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be getting at. Of course she appears domesticated, he spent months training her to function how he wanted her to. I just have no idea what this is supposed to mean.

Over all, it had many issues. If you’re looking for something gross to read, this is your book! It was also very short, I read it in one sitting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Cannibalism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Classism, Fatphobia, and Grief

pan_to_ffel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

This is a slice of life story in a dystopian world, where cannibalism is the norm. Trigger warning? You name it, it has it... Probably.
I'm not sorry I read the book, the style was flowing nicely, it's very slow paced. It was horrifyingly fascinating to see how a world of cannibalism would work, how a society would work and what mechanisms might develop in this scenario. 
The character isn't the most likeable but he's also not not likeable, if you know what I mean. He's describing his life in such a detached way - being part of the machinery, not really willing or able to change anything but not happy either way. It's an intriguing mix and probably true for many situations and people. Which is probably the reason I'm not a fan of the book - too much truth, not enough fairy tale rebellion :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Death, Excrement, Gore, Child death, Murder, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Grief, Cannibalism, Body horror, Violence, Animal death, and Dementia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Self harm

Minor: Vomit, Addiction, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Medical content, Pedophilia, and Trafficking

sassafrasrewts's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Excrement, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

fayfaybleugh's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

review unfinished: This is the most horrifying book I’ve ever read- I cannot rate it because its content and delivery cannot possibly be “good”, but it remains thought provoking and is truly a horror if an unconventional one. Despite being a page turner that I finished quite quickly I had to take many pauses and many times thought I would put it down and not pick it up again. The content warnings on this one are a mile long and they just get worse and worse as the book goes on.

The novel follows Marcos who works as the right hand man of a “special meat” processing llant in a dystopian future (or alternate reality) where a virus that kills humans has contaminated all animals causing all slaughterhouses to be shut down, all pets and animals that interact with humans euthanized. In what is called the Transition, the loss of the meat industry is replaced with humans. The references to factory farming are heavy-handed and obvious from the way that “special meat” and “specimens” are talked and labeled for consumption:

feet sold as “hind trotters”, not regular kidneys but “special kidneys”

, etc. There are references that it is illegal to outright discuss the consumption of humans or cannibalism, and that specific language must be used (“head” instead of people, “carcass” instead of corpse), but over the course of the book it becomes apparent that people are well aware what they are taking part in, particularly when Marcos visits the game reserve.

Throughout, other characters are insistent that “head” are not people or human- it is meat and nothing else- and is furthermore seen as a status symbol as evidenced from the description of scavengers who exist as a starving underclass at the edges of the story who tear apart corpses unfit for production outside the slaughterhouse fences. Despite the clear line that humanity has drawn to distinguish “people” from “meat”, instances of people being very aware of consuming humans are made from the celebrity hunted down at the game reserve whose parts are eaten in celebration because it had a name, the practice of keeping live head in your own house to butcher piece by piece so it is fresh, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Excrement, Infertility, and Medical content

spcandybars's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

It’s impossible to rate something I'm so simultaneously enraptured and repulsed by

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ejr1904's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This was absolutely devastating, moving, and brilliant. The twist at the end was unforeseen and my body physically responded to. Dark, twisted, and a strong piece of social commentary 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence