Review by maficmystery - Tender Is the Flesh

maficmystery 's review for:

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

3.0

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Read as a borrowed physical book.
I genuinely do not know how to rate this so I'm giving in three stars. I'm not sure if I could say that I enjoyed reading this? I felt a lot of feelings, but I do not think that "enjoyment" was ever one of them. I was horrified. I was disgusted. I was upset. Bazterrica puts together a horrifically believable world, drops us into the mind of a very depressed man, and then puts us on low heat for 209 pages.
The characters are all believable, all too human. Marcos is sympathetic for the most part, his family situation is falling apart on all sides, his job is genuinely horrifying, and it seems like he is the only one who sees it.

The one thing that makes me say "for the most part" is the fact that in the middle of the book he rapes a woman, and then he also rapes the Head he is gifted.

The ending has left me nauseous, more so than any of the scenes in the processing facility. Honestly, by the sheer virtue of making me feel so many things and having an ending like that? Three stars. Three and a half, maybe. Horrifying.

Content Warnings