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A review by hermamora
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I am on the search for a book that is actually scary— bonechilling, horrifying stuff. This book popped up in many “disturbing horror” lists, so I was very excited to give it a try.
I was disappointed.
The writing itself is somewhat clunky, and the author doesn’t refer to the main character, Marcus, unless another character is referring to him. Especially in the beginning of the book, this was rather confusing, and made it hard to discern who was doing and saying what. I understand that the book is translated from Spanish, so I’m guessing it flowed much more smoothly in its original language.
A big issue with the book is the characters. There isn’t much time given to fleshing out any characters besides Marcos, who himself has issues with his character. At times he seems like he sympathizes with the “head”, but at other points its clear he sees them as no more than animals. In fact, there are points where it seems like he has more sympathy for his dogs who died years ago than the very alive humans he’s in charge of slaughtering. The book does not spend enough time on Marcos’s moral dilemma. We see him already broken, his distaste bottled up and discarded. This isn’t necessarily an issue, seeing how the slaughterhouse industry conditions its workers would be interesting. But Marcos doesn’t seem like he’s been “conditioned” or simply “gotten used to it”. He is clearly bothered at least somewhat by what he does, but he makes absolutely no protest besides a mildly annoyed inner monologue.
Marcos reads more like a sociopath, and less like a grieving, broken man. Especially later in the book, when he receives a female “specimen”. He spends days paying her the absolute bare minimum of attention, treating her worse than a dog. That all changes when he decides to sleep with her. Yes, he decides to sleep with the woman who has the mental capacity of a toddler and is unable to verbally consent due to her vocal cords being *literally removed*. The book pays absolutely NO attention to the fact that this is at its core, rape. She is unable to consent, both mentally and physically. He could murder her at any point, perfectly legally. The only moral question brought up about this consummation is that he’s a hypocrite because he used to arrest people for doing the same thing early in his career. I think there’s a lot more wrong with sleeping with something you consider cattle than just hypocrisy.
Now’s a good time to bring up the world building, because there were quite a few issues with it too. We’re expected to believe both that a) most people believe the virus is a hoax, and b) the majority of people still go along with it. If most people think it’s a hoax, why would the entire world just agree to following the new world order. It’s brought up people who were alive during the transition didn’t take well to it, yeah no shit. So what changed? What made the entire world suddenly tolerant of systemic cannibalism, murder, and the elimination of all wildlife? Sure, there was propaganda, and the threat of being the next thing on the menue should you dissent, but I don’t believe it’s realistic it even got to that point. Especially not on a global scale. This isn’t one country, or a few, it’s implied to be the whole world. I will say though, the conditions of the factory are fairly well written. Similar enough to modern industrial farming, while still being suitable for human farming.
My biggest issue with the book though, was the ending. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good ending, in fact it made perfect sense to the plot. However, not enough time was spent on it. In the course of a few pages the entire book is wrapped up. I wish at least a semi long chapter had been dedicated to the birth, and what happened after. It is deeply tragic that the woman he impregnated, basically domesticated, was made to endure a brutal childbirth then be murdered without a second thought. It works with the book’s theme, sure, but it was so utterly fast paced it had no pay off. It was somewhat foreshadowed throughout the book, with how he refers to the baby inside Jasmine (the “head” he was gifted) as his son, and pays very little attention to Jasmine in his statements. But still, it just didn’t work for me because of how fast paced it was. Also, I’m not really sure what the last line is supposed to mean?
“She had the human look of a domesticated animal.” And that means she needs to be slaughtered now because…? I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be getting at. Of course she appears domesticated, he spent months training her to function how he wanted her to. I just have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
Over all, it had many issues. If you’re looking for something gross to read, this is your book! It was also very short, I read it in one sitting.
I was disappointed.
The writing itself is somewhat clunky, and the author doesn’t refer to the main character, Marcus, unless another character is referring to him. Especially in the beginning of the book, this was rather confusing, and made it hard to discern who was doing and saying what. I understand that the book is translated from Spanish, so I’m guessing it flowed much more smoothly in its original language.
A big issue with the book is the characters. There isn’t much time given to fleshing out any characters besides Marcos, who himself has issues with his character. At times he seems like he sympathizes with the “head”, but at other points its clear he sees them as no more than animals. In fact, there are points where it seems like he has more sympathy for his dogs who died years ago than the very alive humans he’s in charge of slaughtering. The book does not spend enough time on Marcos’s moral dilemma. We see him already broken, his distaste bottled up and discarded. This isn’t necessarily an issue, seeing how the slaughterhouse industry conditions its workers would be interesting. But Marcos doesn’t seem like he’s been “conditioned” or simply “gotten used to it”. He is clearly bothered at least somewhat by what he does, but he makes absolutely no protest besides a mildly annoyed inner monologue.
Marcos reads more like a sociopath, and less like a grieving, broken man. Especially later in the book, when he receives a female “specimen”. He spends days paying her the absolute bare minimum of attention, treating her worse than a dog. That all changes when he decides to sleep with her. Yes, he decides to sleep with the woman who has the mental capacity of a toddler and is unable to verbally consent due to her vocal cords being *literally removed*. The book pays absolutely NO attention to the fact that this is at its core, rape. She is unable to consent, both mentally and physically. He could murder her at any point, perfectly legally. The only moral question brought up about this consummation is that he’s a hypocrite because he used to arrest people for doing the same thing early in his career. I think there’s a lot more wrong with sleeping with something you consider cattle than just hypocrisy.
Now’s a good time to bring up the world building, because there were quite a few issues with it too. We’re expected to believe both that a) most people believe the virus is a hoax, and b) the majority of people still go along with it. If most people think it’s a hoax, why would the entire world just agree to following the new world order. It’s brought up people who were alive during the transition didn’t take well to it, yeah no shit. So what changed? What made the entire world suddenly tolerant of systemic cannibalism, murder, and the elimination of all wildlife? Sure, there was propaganda, and the threat of being the next thing on the menue should you dissent, but I don’t believe it’s realistic it even got to that point. Especially not on a global scale. This isn’t one country, or a few, it’s implied to be the whole world. I will say though, the conditions of the factory are fairly well written. Similar enough to modern industrial farming, while still being suitable for human farming.
My biggest issue with the book though, was the ending. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good ending, in fact it made perfect sense to the plot. However, not enough time was spent on it. In the course of a few pages the entire book is wrapped up. I wish at least a semi long chapter had been dedicated to the birth, and what happened after. It is deeply tragic that the woman he impregnated, basically domesticated, was made to endure a brutal childbirth then be murdered without a second thought. It works with the book’s theme, sure, but it was so utterly fast paced it had no pay off. It was somewhat foreshadowed throughout the book, with how he refers to the baby inside Jasmine (the “head” he was gifted) as his son, and pays very little attention to Jasmine in his statements. But still, it just didn’t work for me because of how fast paced it was. Also, I’m not really sure what the last line is supposed to mean?
“She had the human look of a domesticated animal.” And that means she needs to be slaughtered now because…? I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be getting at. Of course she appears domesticated, he spent months training her to function how he wanted her to. I just have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
Over all, it had many issues. If you’re looking for something gross to read, this is your book! It was also very short, I read it in one sitting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Cannibalism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Trafficking
Moderate: Classism, Fatphobia, and Grief