What a strange world we see when cannibalism is normalized. By far, the greatest strength of this book is the worldbuilding, the ways that switching from animal meat to human meat seems to dehumanize us all.

I found the characters almost globally unlikeable, and the main plot threads lack a lot of the intrigue and horror of the world Bazterrica has constructed. None of it feels bad or anything, just not compelling when contrasted with human farms. It feels like there are several scenes out of a lengthy short story, something detailing the daily life of someone managing business relations for a human processing plant, and then there are other things that pad this out to novel length.

Those other things are well done, with great relevance and impact to the protagonist, who is a remarkably compelling character. They just feel only somewhat related to the main attraction of the setting, which is so overwhelming that the struggles of a man with numerous family problems can't help but pale in comparison.