A review by p1uto
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

dark reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

God where do I even start with this book. To begin with, I felt like the language was too simple at times however I simply attributed that to the fact that I read a translated version, and, as such, did not read the actual essence of the book. The worldbuilding is quite cool in my opinion and feels extremely realistic (the reason the book got 3 stars).
How those teenagers treated those puppies at the zoo, the paranoia of his sister, and the skepticism around the validity of the virus are all very realistic scenarios that I feel would definitely happen if something like The Transition would ever occur in the real world.
The book focuses on the main character (MC) and his thoughts and opinions to society after its transition to consuming human meat. The MC however is just. the worst person ever ??? Throughout the book, his behaviors become more and more questionable. He is also extremely entitled and treats people so horribly. I have no problem with morally gray MCs but man was just reading about this guy a burden.
Also it made no sense to me how he would spend all this care and love on jasmine just to kill her ? it never would have occurred to me as something he would do and felt like a shock factor. Also the fact that his whole relationship with that butcher woman was all about him dominating and "breaking" her. Disgusting.
I think by far the best thing about the book was how it put in perspective how there will always be an extremely poor societal class that will have to fight to survive and how even in dystopian times capitalism will still have a strong effect over society. I think seeing the book from the perspective of that class (the Scavengers) would have made a more interesting and empathic read instead of reading from the point of view of an ignorant middle class person. The book also highlights the extents of human empathy and how, given the chance, we would probably all eat each other (we already do metaphorically either way). It also critiques the culture we have around using humans as entertainment and devouring them after (metaphorically, it could be about bashing the same people who bring us entertainment such as celebs). I think it was a cool read but I would not recommend this to anyone, not because of any instances of gore or anything bec I didn't mind those, but, instead, because the MC is genuinely so annoying and aggravating to read about. I could probably write essays about how much I hate him...
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