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ferine 's review for:
Tender Is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
dark
medium-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:
Complicated
The world of this book and how it came to be this way is not explored enough, making it wholy unbelievable for me. The main character is hollow (with story reasons but still) which meant that I wasn't invested at all in his personal story outside of the premise of the world.
I actually suspected a way worse ending than what ended up happening and though it kinda makes sense looking back, some of it feels too rushed.
Surprisingly, the concept of the kind of cannibalism in this book wasn't the most disturbing thing to me. Instead it was the mysogny, the r*pes and the casual cruelty of humanity. It was humanity at its worst without a good explanation of how it got there.
I think the premise and the book in general could've been much more interesting if it had been set during the transition instead of after it. And the most interesting point to me, concerning the government, was only ever mentioned and hinted at and never fully explored, it was like dangling an interesting plot in front of my eyes and ripping it away to replace it with the same bland main character explaining yet another situation without really making me feel his emotions.
I actually suspected a way worse ending than what ended up happening and though it kinda makes sense looking back, some of it feels too rushed.
Surprisingly, the concept of the kind of cannibalism in this book wasn't the most disturbing thing to me. Instead it was the mysogny, the r*pes and the casual cruelty of humanity. It was humanity at its worst without a good explanation of how it got there.
I think the premise and the book in general could've been much more interesting if it had been set during the transition instead of after it. And the most interesting point to me, concerning the government, was only ever mentioned and hinted at and never fully explored, it was like dangling an interesting plot in front of my eyes and ripping it away to replace it with the same bland main character explaining yet another situation without really making me feel his emotions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Cannibalism