A review by crystal_staley
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

challenging dark sad

5.0

Sometimes you finish a book and you just have to sit a minute and soak it all in, wondering what in the hell you just read. I had to do that for this book. A world where humans can no longer consume animals for food, so now humans are turning to human flesh to fill that void. Don’t worry, it’s all government approved and regulated. Marcos works at a slaughterhouse where these ‘humans’ bred for consumption are now processed. He’s given a female as a gift to do with as he pleases (sell, eat) but it’s not a gift he actually wants.  We follow his story as we learn about this world, how everything works and as he processes through what he wants to do with his gift.  It’s brutal in its descriptions. The author holds absolutely nothing back in what is done to process human flesh. At it’s surface, I can see the commentary the author may be trying to make about meat consumption in general, particularly as it pertains to factory farming and the terrible conditions of many of these places. But I also saw this as a story about easily humans can be manipulated into doing something. If we are told that eating other humans is ok, would we go along with it like in this story?  I’d like to say that of course we wouldn’t, we value human life too much to do that…but, I’m honestly not so sure.  There are many layers to this story if you want to dive deep.  Just hang in there for a gnarly, bloody ride.  And the ending….gave me chills!