Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Product details
Web ID: 14352770Amazing storytelling
I read this book for the first time and it’s such great read. It’s not for the people with weak stomachs. The author goes into so much detail describing the environment and the new way the world and its inhabitants are. Won’t give spoilers but wow is it so well written. The ending was such a gut punch.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
This book is a part of me now
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it a couple of times now and each one gives me something new, something else. I honestly believe this is going to be a modern classic, a book that will go down as one of the great works of the dystopian genre, up there with 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. The crafting of the story is masterful. I was absolutely sucked in. I believed it all. And I forgot, in the process of reading about humans divided from their human nature, that we all are still human, no matter what we've done or what our motives are. It was my human compassion that was my own downfall. And the fact that Bazterrica made that happen within me is something I will never be able to forgive (affectionately). The stark horror juxtapositioned with the caring, human nature of the main character is brilliant. Everything about this novel is intentional and the story happens just as much on the page, as it does in your own beating, bloody heart.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
"Eat People" or "Eat, People" - the former
I'm a carnivore. Not like on the carnivore diet. Although I eat woefully few vegetables. Let's just say that I eat enough fruit and vegetables, in combination with my vitamins and supplements, that my chances of getting scurvy are not nonexistent. I can't not eat meat; the perfectly cooked, medium rare sirloin (or baseball-cut filet mignon) that is paired with a delicious bearnaise... All I'm saying is that I love me a good steak. I don't need to know where it comes from, how it's made, or anything like that. This book isn't about grass-fed bovine, though. The meat in this book is made from something more, how shall I put this... bipedal. "Soylent Green is people!" says Charlton Heston as Detective Robert Thorne in the 1973 film, Soylent Green. Except in this case it should be "special meat is people!" and the people would look at you like, yeah, we know. That's not even a spoiler since it's on the back cover blurb. I really wanted to like this book. I've seen it everywhere and it seems to get a lot of good reviews. It does seem quite divisive though - a lot of people really love it but a lot of people also really hate it. I'm somewhere in the middle. I like (maybe like isn't the best word) the dystopian future where there are no more animals and the human race resorts to raising "special meat" for consumption, in the form of people without first and last names. It was also an interesting commentary on the way we raise cattle, pigs, chickens, and other animals for food today. The comparison was a little lost in the story, but it was definitely there. It was just interesting to put humans in their place. Leaves kind of a bad taste in your mount. [pun most assuredly intended] What I really didn't care for in this book was the complete and unnecessarily grotesque scenes throughout. I get it that this is pretty much a horror story. It's like Saw, but in prose. And Bazterrica's prose is really great. But the story tended to meander and always seemed to end up in some disgusting place. Like a couple people getting a tour of a slaughterhouse, seeing every part of the slaughter. It just left me grossed out and disturbed. Now, I like it when books evoke strong emotions in me. But maybe not those ones. It just seems like we could have had a deeply impactful story without the gore. It was really hard for me to rate this book, but I ended up giving it 3 out of 5 stars. While there were parts of the story (gore aside) that I didn't care for, such as pretty much everything with the main character's family, the prose was strong and all in all I really did care for the main character. What takes it down for me, and I did consider giving this 1.5 to 2 stars, was the gore and the ending. The freaking ending... Agustina Bazterrica has a couple other books that I've seen in bookstores that seem to do okay. Maybe I'll give her another shot someday since I did like her writing style. But for now I need a break I think.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4.5 stars
TENDER IS THE FLESH by Agustina Bazterrica Taking place in a dystopian society where cannibalism has been declared legal, this follows Marcos who is just another cog in the wheel working at a “meat” processing plant. Y’all, this was so messed up yet so fascinating. The world building was great and I love when books get straight to the point. This story raises questions about our morals, ethics and societal values. It highlights how people can disagree with something morally *until* it benefits them. It illustrates how people can easily justify doing horrendous things to others they deem as “less than” and how *anyone* is capable of hatred, oppression and violence. A all too familiar horror story unfortunately. Overall, a super disturbing and bleak yet highly impactful story. I do recommend this, but maaaaybe read it on an empty stomach. 😬 Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
You won't want to put it down once you start readi
Bought the novel just 3 days ago and already finished because of how great a read it was. Ms. Bazterrica did an incredible job with this novel and had me on an emotional roller-coaster. Very sad but bittersweet ending. If your considering reading this novel, go with your gut and do so. You won't regret it one bit.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Dark
Took me a few months to finally get past the first few pages but after that I read it in two days! Very disturbing and the ending really got me.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Beautifully Haunting
This book has it all, and fits that within a relatively short read. If you like horror and are okay with dark stories, this is a fantastic and thought-provoking tale
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Jaw Dropped 10min After Reading
For some context here, I picked up this book and read it cover to cover in two hours- so no, it is not entirely a difficult read nor a particularly long one. However, if you're looking for something to leave you with deep, raw (no pun intended) emotions, this is the book for you. SPOILERS PAST HERE!! The main character seems a little John Doe-y, but his personality becomes very evident in the last two or three chapters. The side characters are all very Chekhov's gun-esque, so it's hard to resonate with them, but it works for the plot-driven book as a whole. I loved this story, even the gory, SA, and uncomfortable parts of it, though truthfully they were sometimes hard to read. My favorite part of this novel was the ending, though- a testament to the indistinguishably filthy, primal parts of the human psyche and how, I felt, that people's honorable ideals cannot absolve them from the heinousness of their realities. TL;DR: Worth the hours of your life you'd otherwise spend on TV.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com