A review by saadeeyah
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

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

2.0

So I was told this book was a true dystopian novel. Honestly it had a lot of potential. The characters had potential, the main idea of the society had potential, but in the end it felt like the author had a bunch of separate ideas for a book and squished them together. Like the human hunting reserve where they hunted a celebrity who was in debt? That just sounded like the main plot of a desperate book. I was also disappointed in the characters, when I started the book I assumed I would get to know Marcos and why he does things and how he does things, but I still have no clue how he thinks and why he acts. All I got was that he’s vegetarian, he likes beer, he misses his wife, he misses his dead baby and he’s a creep. All throughout the book, he would explain how everyone else was sick but then literally does the exact same thing as everyone else. I guess that could be interpreted as the meaning of the book, but it’s a bit of a cop-out. It also felt very gory for little to no reason. It honestly made me think that the author just wanted to write something with every trigger warning possible and the best way to do it was to choose humans. I would not be surprised if the author chose humans because the book wouldn’t have been well received if they had gone into as much detail on livestock farming and slaughtering. It made me think of those kinds of vegans. The ending was basically ten pages and didn’t make sense when it came to the characters’ arcs. Kinda disappointed as I was told the ending was what truly made the book (aka the book is boring but the end is shocking). Overall meh writing and underdeveloped plot and characters.  
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