Reviews

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

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phantom93's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

4.25

hauntedhexgirll's review against another edition

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2.0

I liked the concept of the book, but there just wasn’t enough world building for me. I feel like there was wasted time learning about characters that didn’t matter when we could’ve gotten more about the transition, more about how the general population took the transition, more about the government conspiracies and such. I wanted more from it.

I also feel like we were supposed to be rooting for the main character but I couldn’t because Jasmine essentially had the mind of a child and couldn’t consent to anything, so he was continuously a villain. Which I’m fine with the main character being a villain, I just wish we would have gotten more depth to the character in that type of way.

This just felt like it was an unpolished unfinished story to me.

I did like the “twist” ending though.

mlizco's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

tomperignon's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5

isable's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense 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

5.0

17lusha1's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

This book will haunt me in the best way. It paints a disturbing dystopian world, but most disturbing are the people who happily live and abide by it. There is an underlying theme of the use of language and the depersonalising of victims, and you are as unsettled as the main character when listening to people who will happily farm and eat humans because they choose not to call them human. As any good media depicting cannibalism, it makes you question what specifically irks you about it and this book specifically makes you reflect on how you talk about meat.