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inkandplasma 's review for:
Tender is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/05/21/tender-is-the-flesh-by-agustina-bazterrica-(review)/
This book is truly haunting. The way it’s written is a perfect match for the tone, and I’m really impressed with the translation. I didn’t find it quite as gory as everyone else seemed to, but there’s a good chance that that’s because I read a lot of gory and gross books so my tolerance for it is pretty high. The way it was handled is, however, absolutely chilling. There’s something about the detachment that Marcos shows about the entire system that makes it feel even colder and crueller than I’d anticipated. The book focuses on characters who remember Before, but almost none of them question the new way of life. Some of the characters are gleeful about it, they enjoy the process of raising and slaughtering heads.
This is a book designed to make you think. It’d be easy to take it all at face value and think nothing of it, the real enjoyment of this book comes in the moments between reading when it knots in your thoughts and makes you imagine a world where the world is upside down. The longer you think about it, the more the book speaks to you too. More than a story about cannibalism, Tender is the Flesh is a story about loss and love and family, and how your whole world can shift with a tiny event while everyone else continues on as normal.
The ending, without spoiling anything, is powerful and doesn’t let you forget a word that the book has told you. Uncomfortable truths are a fact of life in Tender is the Flesh, and it won’t let the reader be anything but complicit in the points it is making. We’ve sat with our protagonist the entire novella, rooting for him and villainising him in different moments, and Agustina Bazterrica uses him as a tool to strip back human nature to its barest sense. This is easy to read and hard to read all at once, and definitely not for the faint of heart. If you can brave it, it’s a very worthy read.
This book is truly haunting. The way it’s written is a perfect match for the tone, and I’m really impressed with the translation. I didn’t find it quite as gory as everyone else seemed to, but there’s a good chance that that’s because I read a lot of gory and gross books so my tolerance for it is pretty high. The way it was handled is, however, absolutely chilling. There’s something about the detachment that Marcos shows about the entire system that makes it feel even colder and crueller than I’d anticipated. The book focuses on characters who remember Before, but almost none of them question the new way of life. Some of the characters are gleeful about it, they enjoy the process of raising and slaughtering heads.
This is a book designed to make you think. It’d be easy to take it all at face value and think nothing of it, the real enjoyment of this book comes in the moments between reading when it knots in your thoughts and makes you imagine a world where the world is upside down. The longer you think about it, the more the book speaks to you too. More than a story about cannibalism, Tender is the Flesh is a story about loss and love and family, and how your whole world can shift with a tiny event while everyone else continues on as normal.
The ending, without spoiling anything, is powerful and doesn’t let you forget a word that the book has told you. Uncomfortable truths are a fact of life in Tender is the Flesh, and it won’t let the reader be anything but complicit in the points it is making. We’ve sat with our protagonist the entire novella, rooting for him and villainising him in different moments, and Agustina Bazterrica uses him as a tool to strip back human nature to its barest sense. This is easy to read and hard to read all at once, and definitely not for the faint of heart. If you can brave it, it’s a very worthy read.