11 August 2021

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica REVIEW

 Summary:

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries no to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition". Now, eating human meat - "special meat" - is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost - and what might still be saved.


My Thoughts:


When I first started reading this book, I didn't think that I would be able to finish it. But I did, so here we are.

From the start, you can tell that Marcos is not super happy with the way society is treating the "special meat", or as they call them, "heads". And his uneasiness grows throughout the book. That is what makes him such an interesting character.

Because of this, as well as probably missing someone to connect to, Marcos takes the gifted head and brings her into his home, treating her like a human being and even giving her a name: Jasmine.

His sister is the complete opposite of Marcos; she believes everything that the government says without question. She's annoying, but it makes sense to have a character like her in the story.

The ending was weird. He spent all this time humanizing Jasmine only to kill her in the end, which didn't make much sense.

Overall, this was an interesting concept to read about.


My Rating: 3.5 stars

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