Book Review
Title: Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Genre: Horror
Rating: 5 Stars
Tender is the Flesh was an amazing novel that really shone in term of its horror and gore elements which are down played but really shine through as well as it psychological elements which left me stunned. We are following Marcos who is in the business of slaughtering humans after a virus left all animals completely inedible to humans. Marcos is a very complex characters as he is grieving for his son Leo that died presumably from something like SIDS and is missing his wife who is dealing with the loss of their son in her own way. He is also dealing with a senile father and a sister who couldn’t care less about him or their father despite how much she acts otherwise.
Marcos’ life is following his normal routine although he has never actually become comfortable with the idea of slaughtering humans and after the death of his son he actually refuses to eat meat although few people know this. We follow Marcos through his daily routine of slaughtering humans as well as buying them from breeding establishments and it is clear to see that these people are being treated the exact same way animals that used to be bred for consumption were which takes away a lot of their humans and everything is seemingly fine in Marcos’ life until he is gifted a Frist Generation Pure female. FGP humans are those born and breed in captivity and fetch a much higher price due to their supposed flavour and at first Marcos doesn’t know what to do with her. He is legally allowed to keep her which he does rather than sending her to be slaughtered but the question of what he should do with her weighs on him.
Eventually Marcos ends up breaking the law by sleeping with the woman who he has named Jasmine and as a result she becomes pregnant with his child. Marcos continues to go about his daily routine while keeping Jasmine hidden from the world and the inspectors using the connections he has established over the years and it seems like he is planning to build a life with her shunning his wife almost entirely despite the fact she wishes to return home now. However, when Jasmine goes into labour Marcos panics and calls his wife for help, his wife helps bring the baby into the world who is a boy just like the one they lost and it seems Marcos and his wife now have the one thing they always wanted. Jasmine wants to see the child and at this point Marcos kills her despite his wife’s protests that she could have given them more children because Marcos knows he can’t take the risk anymore because Jasmine was becoming too human to him.
Overall, Tender is the Flesh was a dark novel with some interesting commentary on animal consumption and the way animals that are bred for food are treated. While I agree that consumption animals are treated poorly and this needs to be addressed I think Bazterrica goes about delivering this message in an over the top way which while delightful to read did leave a bad taste in the mouth after reading. If you are squeamish at all then I wouldn’t recommend reading this book as it is quite graphic in place but other than that I would highly recommend it as I see what all the hype was about with this book.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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