Tender Is the Flesh Paperback – August 4, 2020

This was a very dark and challenging read. There’s not really any content warning that will prevent me from reading a book if I find the premise interesting. In fact, I read this on recommendation from a friend who told me it was incredibly dark and f’ed up, so I knew what I was getting into. I was not prepared. This is one of only two books in my life that I’ve felt uneasy about and had to just sit and process for a while after I finished it. (The other is Lolita.)The book was incredibly well written and realistic, so much so that it seemed believable, like humanity might actually be forced into cannibalism one day. That realism, I think, was the root of my unease. The first half of the book is more viscerally graphic. We get a look into how cannibalism became necessary, how the “cattle” are bred and treated, and we even get a fairly detailed tour of a meat processing facility.The second half is where it gets more disturbing. It’s clear the humans raised for food aren’t viewed as people – they’re viewed as animals, the same way we view cows or pigs. The author did a great job of subtly creating that viewpoint shift, and focusing on the differences between ‘them’ and ‘us.’ We get deeper into the morality of this system, and trying to figure out where to draw the line, specifically when it comes to sex. The law says no, because they’re not people, right? They’re branded and treated like cattle. And yet, they are still human, and they have human needs and desires, and they look like people, so one surely couldn’t be faulted for treating them like people sometimes.I highly recommend this book if you think you can handle it.

“If a person with a first and last name can be eaten legally, and they’re not considered a product, what’s stopping anyone from eating anyone else?”Sheesh. This book was depressingly disturbing.A dystopian type novel set in the future where animal meat is no longer safe to eat (or so the public is made to believe by the government) so the “legitimization of cannibalism” is put in place- making “special meat” as they call it, the new normal. Not only this, but animals all brutally killed to mostly extinction, and all remaining animals are feared.Something I really liked about this book is it’s brutal and very important message about the very real disgusting horrors that go on in our food industry (especially meat and dairy) today. It calls out so many of mankind’s hypocrisies like how we feel mostly no remorse condoning the killing, torturing, and breeding an unnamed beef cows but feel disgust at even the suggestion of hurting a beloved pet. Bringing relevancy to the quote I pulled from the book at the beginning of this review, regular people or people with “fist and last names” as the book frequently references them, are not on the menu. Only the “heads” or “specimens” bred and raised in captivity - raised strictly for food.This book shines an important light on our lack of empathy and respect for other living beings as a society and the insatiable selfishness of mankind. The unspeakable things we do to other living beings in order to satisfy our hunger, our vanity, our entertainment, and our research. It’s uncomfortable because a the majority of this story is a twisted version of something very real.Moving away from the important message of this book, I found it overall a very good read. It successfully made me feel very bleak and hopeless, as it is a very depressing and disturbing book. The main character is someone I empathized with in the beginning but quickly grew to dislike and then pretty much despise by the end of the book.“She had the human look of a domesticated animal.”Even though this all sounds very negative, it was the books purpose so I consider this a successful read.The reason I took a star off the rating was because the writing itself was not that great in my opinion. I had to re read sections a few times in some places because it was written very choppy and lacked a cohesive flow.Overall as I said, although this book is disturbing and depressing as hell, I would recommend checking it out if you can stomach it.Definitely check TWs but pretty much assume there’s everything but the kitchen sink in this book as far as triggers go.

Read if your into dystopian, horror, Sci-fi, raw drama.- there were some confusing parts, but I read the English version I could have very well read the Spanish.- caused me heart break, shock, anger, nail bitting heart racing moments.- very creative realistic scenarios.This was a very good short book to get back into reading, I haven't read in over 7 years a full fiction book. Very interesting read and will read again eventually and others written by this author.

A quick read and captivating overall, but I’m so torn when it comes to whether my review of the book is positive or negative.I bought this as a massive haul of books I am using for research purposes as I write my own novel. I am a lover of anything dystopian themed, and this fit the bill well.For the positives, this is a quick read that also progresses quickly, so no true slow moments. The author’s way of describing characters is spectacular, and most if not all of my sticky notes are indicating a place where I thought the description of the characters’ appearance or thought process was described so well I wanted to use it for inspiration for my own writing. The concept of this universe is also just so interesting that I wish the author would continue to build upon it.Now, for the negative. First off, there is virtually no cohesive plot for the entirety of the novel. Even the storyline with Jasmine being pregnant turned out to be near meaningless, with the pregnancy (and novel) ending so abruptly that I literally thought maybe my copy was a misprint. There HAS to be more to this book,I said to myself. There is NO WAY they ended it with no resolution for literally any of the plot points.Further, I don’t know if it’s because of the translation or what, but the syntax of the writing threw me for a loop. Every other sentence starts with ‘He’. I did not know the main characters name until halfway through the book. Even when the character referred to himself, it was always ‘he’.And finally, the sex scene about 1/3 way into the book was pointless and unnecessary. Maybe I missed the point (maybe it had something to do with the main character ‘taking charge, idk) but seeing as the female character in the scene is literally never mentioned again…I’m guessing it was just thrown in there to get people riled up.