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sweetest_caroline 's review for:
Tender Is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
TL;DR - There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
I read this book in the weeks following the US presidential election, and I probably shouldn’t have because the mentions of governmental corruption, misinformation/propaganda, and dehumanization of the victims of the “special meat” trade hit a little too close to home. Seeing how people in my country were so willing to dehumanize immigrants from Central and South America after the Trump administration pushed racist conspiracy theories about “illegal aliens”, Asian Americans after the Trump administration pushed the “China Virus” myth, and LGBTQ+ people in the latest wave of moral panic made me realize how quickly we can strip each other of our humanity and dignity and how we’re incentivized to do so by a capitalist system. I have seen people that I know and love look at children in cages at the border and still vote for Trump a second time.
Agustina Bazterrica, your mind must be a bleak and terrifying place, but they could never make me hate you. It’s been a long time since I read a book that genuinely made me uncomfortable and tense. If anything, I want to thank you because if what you’re describing still horrifies me and makes me uncomfortable, then I know that I’m not too desensitized to the cruelty and brutality of the current political system to stop caring. You’re a genius and I’ll probably try to read the book in its original Spanish at some point.
I read this book in the weeks following the US presidential election, and I probably shouldn’t have because the mentions of governmental corruption, misinformation/propaganda, and dehumanization of the victims of the “special meat” trade hit a little too close to home. Seeing how people in my country were so willing to dehumanize immigrants from Central and South America after the Trump administration pushed racist conspiracy theories about “illegal aliens”, Asian Americans after the Trump administration pushed the “China Virus” myth, and LGBTQ+ people in the latest wave of moral panic made me realize how quickly we can strip each other of our humanity and dignity and how we’re incentivized to do so by a capitalist system. I have seen people that I know and love look at children in cages at the border and still vote for Trump a second time.
Agustina Bazterrica, your mind must be a bleak and terrifying place, but they could never make me hate you. It’s been a long time since I read a book that genuinely made me uncomfortable and tense. If anything, I want to thank you because if what you’re describing still horrifies me and makes me uncomfortable, then I know that I’m not too desensitized to the cruelty and brutality of the current political system to stop caring. You’re a genius and I’ll probably try to read the book in its original Spanish at some point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Blood, Trafficking, Cannibalism
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic