After talking with my sibling (who really liked this story), I appreciated some aspects more, particularly in the case of the main character(Marcos)’s hypocrisy and self-justifying beliefs, but I still wanted more depth out of the writing. There isn’t much discussion on the societal structures and issues that go into what makes a human worthy of their humanity, and what makes them meat. The weirdly nonchalant, mundane recount of a brutal world actually works for the premise imo because it ties into the theme of how people become desensitized to atrocity(made especially noticeable by  how irredeemable the MC is). But at times, the translation makes it feel stiff and disconnected.

Still, I’m keeping my rating slightly above a 3 stars because I liked the writing, the zoo segments (the exposition in the puppy scene was very shoehorned in, though. That’s excluded from this), the bits of worldbuilding in how “the transition” affected other parts of the world(but that wasn’t explored in depth or often), and how Marcos was handled as an unreliable narrator.