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A review by wretchedtheo
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
Trite and shallow, Tender Is The Flesh adds nothing to the conversation, reinforcing stereotypes of gender, race, sexuality, ability and ethnicity at every turn. Uninteresting, uncomplex characters, lack of diversity. Thematically incongruous, sentimental writing style. Constant heavy-handed exposition in every chapter, delivered in all the most tired and clichèd ways possible. Nothing is believable.
The characters' construction is ableist, with characters we're meant to hate being deformed and/or disabled. It's racist too, reinforcing ethnic stereotypes. The human woman protected by the main character is white-skinned and green-eyed (obviously to make her more palatable and worthy of sympathy within the context of an unexamined and uncritical reading) despite the fact that the action is set in South America. There is a Romanian villain who's obsessed with hunting humans for sport and eating them while they're still alive, ranting about how he's draining their energy and life force - as a Romanian, I cringed so hard at this thinly veiled and utterly unimaginative Dracula reference. It's all so mindbogglingly stupid. And the "plot twist" at the end is completely unearned, coming literally out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing or setup to validate the brutal payoff. Bazterrica so obviously just hoped readers would confuse their shock for amazement, for something profound. "Wow, I never saw that coming!" Yeah, because it makes no sense. Unpredictability isn't what's worth celebrating. Ingenuity and creativity are - and that's exactly what this synthetic, commerical, paper-thin excuse for a dystopia lacks.
The characters' construction is ableist, with characters we're meant to hate being deformed and/or disabled. It's racist too, reinforcing ethnic stereotypes. The human woman protected by the main character is white-skinned and green-eyed (obviously to make her more palatable and worthy of sympathy within the context of an unexamined and uncritical reading) despite the fact that the action is set in South America. There is a Romanian villain who's obsessed with hunting humans for sport and eating them while they're still alive, ranting about how he's draining their energy and life force - as a Romanian, I cringed so hard at this thinly veiled and utterly unimaginative Dracula reference. It's all so mindbogglingly stupid. And the "plot twist" at the end is completely unearned, coming literally out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing or setup to validate the brutal payoff. Bazterrica so obviously just hoped readers would confuse their shock for amazement, for something profound. "Wow, I never saw that coming!" Yeah, because it makes no sense. Unpredictability isn't what's worth celebrating. Ingenuity and creativity are - and that's exactly what this synthetic, commerical, paper-thin excuse for a dystopia lacks.