Tender Is the Flesh

by Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses

Paperback, 224 pages

Published Aug. 4, 2020 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-9821-5092-1

(54 reviews)

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 not 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.

5 editions

Ssquiggle reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Brutal for the sake of being brutal

3 stars

This book made me feel disgusted in a way that a book has never made me feel. It was really fascinating, and upsetting, and I'm glad it's over. I'm not a huge fan of the horror genre, so perhaps it wasn't for me. But, as brutal as this book was, and how clearly allegorical it was, it surprisingly did not have a lot to say beyond "imagine what it would be like if we had industrialized meat but made from humans". Maybe it did say something more than that (it did seem to touch on the topic of how we so easily can dehumanize others), but I didn't grasp it. ANYWAY, it was okay, thanks TikTok for the recommendation.

gnu reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender? I hardly know her

4 stars

I counted three times during this quick read my jaw dropped because something was just so revolting to think about past the words on the page. Comfortably uncomfortable throughout with impressive meaning to derive and think about long after the last page. Content warning for those who aren't usually into horror lit like myself

tulkas reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Short and Tender

3 stars

This book is short. I think that is a good thing. What the book has to is interesting and valuable to think about but it says one thing well and even though the book was short it started to feel long. I was very happy that I finished the book and didn't set it down. I think this would be a good book club book ( with the right people ) or just a book to talk about -- the discussion of the book was better than the book , to me.

Simon Vandereecken ~ Nithou reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Gripping and frightening

5 stars

Following the spread of a virus that makes animal meat deahtly to humans, society turns to produce "special meat", humans engineered to be eaten. Tender is the Flesh takes you to the frightening daily life of the "meat hunter" of a processing plant, charged with contracts, meat quality etc. The story starts slow but becomes more and more frightening as the pages go and you're unable to let it go until the very end. It left me a deep mark and brought me quite a lot of things to think about.

la¡na reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I THOUGHT HE LOVED HER screams

JL Peridot reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Disgusting and beautiful

5 stars

A revolting dystopia, disturbing and dark, beautifully written.

Gabe reviewed Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender is the Flesh' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

I tried to give it a fair shot, but it’s just too gross for me

ish-i-ness reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Every permutation of what would happen if cannibalism became the only option for survival is explored. Can anyone be refined or cultured (the pinnacle of being human) in a world where other humans are bred for meat? What does it mean to be civilized or wild? What connotations does the word “domestic” take on? I’m not entirely sure what the intended message of the book is but there are many possible to choose from, and they are all thought provoking.

Books That Burn reviewed Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender is the Flesh' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

Couldn’t handle it.

sapphiction reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Oh wow, this dark 😰

4 stars

All the content warnings for this one. This was tough to get though at some parts, but it masterfully conveyed how ruthless our society can get and much atrocity can be excused when in "crisis".

Hyzie reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Wtf did I just read?

This definitely kept me turning pages, and I don't want to say it is bad, because it's not. But geez, it is uncomfortable and awkward and you're not gonna like anyone or anything.

It said some interesting things about how we view people (and who we view as people), but they didn't really feel as intense as I was expecting. Maybe this was due to how normalized the situation was from the start, or perhaps due to the fact that we had several groups of people doing this for different reasons and I didn't feel like each was explored enough?

The ending threw me a bit. It wasn't out of nowhere, but it was not the way I quite expected things to go and I feel like I lost what I'd thought of as character development by the way things were settled. Maybe I shouldn't have assumed I was actually getting character development? I'm not sure how I was supposed to feel about that.

The pacing of the second half of the novel (novella? It's not super long) was a bit awkward. There are some time jumps, and things seem to slow down and then suddenly speed up for a few scenes. It's not terrible, but it felt odd coming from the first part, which was about discovering the world.

As a warning, unsurprisingly, this does contain violence against humans. It also includes animal violence, for those that had squared themselves up for the first and were roundhouse kicked by the second from behind.

I'm not going to forget this novel. The sheer audacity of the concept makes sure of that. I'm just not sure if that's a good thing yet.

giantrobot reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Horrifying. This book is punishment for my gleeful enjoyment of Korean Pork Belly Rhapsody on Netflix.

Kathleen reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

À supremely disturbing and horrifying book, but it will be seared into my brain probably forever.

meeg reviewed Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Review of 'Tender Is the Flesh' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was unrelenting. I found myself reading it during my meal breaks at work which is, decidedly, a mistake.

I'm well aware of, and at this point of nearly a decade as a vegan, sadly unphased by the horrors of factory farming and meat consumption. The fact that this book was focused on human agriculture had me wondering- will people who read this and are unaware of what really happens at a factory farm think twice about consuming animals? Is human pain insufferable to picture and difficult to read, but animal pain permissible? The fictional workers at these processing plants, and tanneries still exist in the real world, and will they still be deserving of empathy as well once the reader finishes this book? The trophy hunters, butchers, and laboratory techs still hunt, maim, and vivisect animals, are they not deserving of the same disgust?

These are all things …