This entire book is graphic. Do not skip the Trigger Warnings.
Cannibalism, Animal Cruelty, Gore, Child Death, Rape, Murder, Death of a Parent, Infertility, Human Trafficking, Misogyny, Dehumanization.
Proceed with Caution, this is not a book for the faint of heart.
This year the Book Club decided that rather than reading a specific book every month, we would recommend books to each other in genres we don’t typically read. Despite my love of reading, I’ve never read a horror novel or anything particularly gruesome. That said, I have been interested in expanding my horizons. This is where ‘Tender Is The Flesh’ by Agustina Bazterrica comes into the equation. To preface all of this—I went into this book blind. I didn’t do any research beforehand.
In a world where humanity has resorted to cannibalism to satiate an ever-increasing desire for meat, we meet Marcos Tejo, a boss at a “special meat” processing plant. It’s a plant that processes humans for meat. After a bit he is given a “prime specimen female” who he names Jasmine. The rest will be left up for the reader to discover when they read the book.
This book retails for $17.99 at Barnes & Noble (or free if you go through the Timberland Regional Library).
I overall have mixed feelings, but let’s start with the good. The worldbuilding is extensive and detailed. Bazterrica clearly thought this through and did a lot of research into meat processing for this book. It’s all incredibly gross, but gross in a good way. It’s poignant. I am a sucker for good worldbuilding; It’s one of my favorite hobbies. So I appreciate the level of detail and work she’s done in creating this dystopian world. The sheer reminder that these people are talking about other humans as livestock is chilling. A particular quote I feel illustrates this best happens rather early in the book on page 72.
“In another, smaller room, they see red entrails hanging from hooks. The workers inspect them, wash them, certify them, store them.”
It plays in the back of your head that these aren’t just animals, they were humans. Who, if born to a different family, would have lived full lives. Gone to school and played with dolls. Instead, they were slaughtered for the meat on their bones. Their skin flayed and sent to become leather. Their organs are certified and sold for profit.
Our main character also plays into this. Marcos is someone who kills humans for his job. He doesn’t like it, but he still does it. He gets paid to do it. He, and basically everyone else in this world, excuses cruelty to satisfy their appetites and pocketbooks.
It’s haunting, really.
It raises questions about the treatment of animals in our reality. How, if we wouldn’t accept this treatment for humans, why should animals be treated any differently?
However—despite my appreciation for the gore and world, I still have some problems. Firstly, and I’ve never said this before with a book, it felt like worldbuilding overtook the entire novel. Feeling more like it was switching between worldbuilding, then vignettes of plot, worldbuilding, then vignettes of plot. I still enjoyed it, but I would have appreciated more actual story rather than info dumps disguised as scenes (even if those scenes were pretty funny, see pages 144-150).
That said, my biggest gripe was the ending—in that it felt completely unearned. The Marcos we follow for 99% of the book would not have made that final decision at the end. And the more I think about it, the more frustrated I get. A twist for the sake of a cynical, cruel twist. If Bazterrica wanted such a gut-wrenching twist then she should have written the build up for it, not a blink and you’ll miss it moment near the end. It would have added more pages, but it would have made the ending both sensical and well earned.
But I must add that this might be a translation choice/issue. ‘Tender Is The Flesh’ was originally published in Spanish and translated into English by Sarah Moses. Languages are inherently tied to culture and cultural contexts. Some words in Spanish do not have the same connotations that they do in English. For example—Spanish has two words for ‘to know’, conocer and saber. Conocer denotes a more personal connection, while saber denotes a more factual knowledge. You’d use conocer when discussing your family or hometown but use saber when discussing academic or business information. Both would be translated as ‘know’ but they don’t exactly mean ‘know’.
This might explain some of the stilted prose and dialogue. Context and information lost in translation. It’s stilted for American readers but may be perfectly fine in the original Argentinian context. This might just be a case where the original is better than the translation.
Overall, while I really enjoyed the book at the start, the ending kind of ruined it for me. I gave this book 2.75 stars—close to average but falling short due to the ending.
If you are interested in ‘Tender Is The Flesh’ then by all means explore and find copies. I may not have enjoyed this book, but you may.