A review by elerireads
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well that was disturbing, and it just got more and more disturbing as it went on. On the whole I think it was very good. Made lots of clever points about the bizarre way people are able to distance themselves from the suffering of animals they eat, and sort of extrapolates that to say 'what if we were still able to do that even with human beings?'. Anyone with any familiarity with the meat industry will recognise the use of strange clinical language - I can never see the word 'processing' now without linking it to animal slaughter - to avoid describing what they're actually doing. I wasn't entirely convinced by the premise and set-up. As in I'm guessing the author came up with this disturbing premise but then really struggled to come up with an explanation for how it came about - the government made up a virus and everyone just believed it??

I don't want to spoil it but the ending was a kicker and I really felt like we had been lulled into a false sense of security.
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