A review by enyltiak
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book made me so furious that I hate finished it rather than simply DNF. The violence against women, use of the born-sexy-yesterday trope, the writing so clinical and detached which I get but I felt really didn't service a story that seems to want to have a strong emotional core—never mind the fact that the main character is almost never mentioned by name in the narration, in a story of mostly male characters, which makes figuring out who said or did what incredibly confusing and irritating. There's an interesting social commentary under all this, but by the end of Part One I didn't care, and in Part Two I was just disgusted by the main character, and not even in an interesting way you would expect from a horror novel. And this is personal to my boundaries but the animal cruelty made me sick. Overall just not a good time with this one, actually put me into a slump, and just depressed the hell out of me—I don't feel like I even got anything from that feeling.
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