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upper_fjord44 's review for:
Tender Is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
Where to begin. This book was a horrible read, with no actual plot and poorly written dialogue. The concept is interesting, but failed to be believably realized. It really felt like this author tried to write a modern “The Jungle” except with blatant, unnuanced vegan propaganda shoveled down your throat every chance the author got. Every single aspect of the entire world is written to be cartoonishly evil, and if you think about any part for longer than 30 seconds it’s clear that what was written would not actually happen. The protagonist is completely one dimensional and has no purpose other than to react and give half-assed commentary on the comically sensationalized violence in place of an actual plot. The protagonist floats from chapter to chapter, adding nothing to the overarching story other than lamenting at the state of the world constantly. Then, the author has the protagonist have what I can only consider to be a psychological break that makes him completely unlikable and borderline animalistic, which while it could have been symbolic of the larger changes this society affects on its members, ultimately falls flat as he just goes around raping people. There is not a single believable, well fleshed out character in this entire novel, only facades of people used solely to bring up very niche and specific issues that the author wants to share their opinion on. The ending also feels extremely rushed and the emotional impact I think the author tries to accomplish here is another disappointment piled on to a totally underwhelming novel. There is so much wasted potential here, as the concept of “what would society be like if we treated some humans the way we treat farm animals” and some excellent parallels could be made to modern society (think: in a hyper-capitalist society do people not already gain from “consuming” other people?) but absolutely none of the brutality in this book is unpacked or commented on in a meaningful way. Its brutality for the sake of brutality with no unique or interesting moral question posed for the read to ponder on. Do not read unless it’s free for you to do so.