I'm still digesting (heh) this book so I'm not sure what star rating is a true reflection of how I feel about it yet.

I didn't find it as shocking or scandalous as seems to have been the experience of many other readers. 

Rather, everything that happened in this book is a terrible reflection of things that our society currently or has recently partaken in. Sure, the labels are changed, but I could see the parallels so clearly. 

For that reason, the events of the story were an affirmation to me, not controversial or surprising. 

On a technical note, I do think the world building could have used a bit more work. A lot of plausible solutions were handwaved away with "the government said that wouldn't work", even though many people suspect the government is lying. In a post-pandemic world, I don't think it's feasible that the world's population would ever just accept something as drastic as eating "special meat" without some significant splinter groups coming out against it.