ivana 's review for:

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

challenging dark

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I really don't know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I liked how some themes were explored - about the language we use to keep the atrocities we commit manageable, about the way we treat marginalised people in society, about the things we can get used to if we have to survive, even about how grief in our personal lives can contribute to all of that. The messaging was a little on the nose at times, but I can appreciate that too. On the other hand though, some scenes definitely felt unnecessarily violent and like they were just used for shock value, it felt like some other parts of the subplots and worldbuilding were left unexplored and the second part seemed a little rushed in its conclusion. The plot about the main character's life felt like it was brewing in the background of the first part, which was mostly exposition, and the way it wrapped up didn't feel satisfying enough to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt