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A review by versmonesprit
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
Tender is the Flesh desperately wants to be a clever book about hypocrisy and the meat industry society, but what it is is a snooze-fest of a dull book that relies on what the author imagines are shock factors, but which have been so over-done (“what if we ate humans instead of other animals”) that you would only be particularly taken aback by the book if you think the animals we consume do indeed merit being treated in the ways the book describes rather clinically. The only half-good thing about this book is that it’s so devoid of any substance, you manage to read it in a single day even with massive breaks for sleep and boredom.
The book reads like a first draft for several reasons: 1) all subtlety is lost, and everything sounds comical when said in slogans (“it’s a lie told by “global powers”” — girl, do you even understand your source beyond the slogan???), 2) the author does not seem to understand ecology, in that if most animals were killed off for whatever reason, there would be much more severe repercussions than the meat industry deciding we should eat other humans now that we no longer have any other animals to eat, 3) we are constantly told the same things over and over again instead of shown, from Marcos’s feelings to the constant back stories that have to be developed because without them Bazterrica cannot tell the present story, which makes this book read very amateurish in terms of its structure, 4) the author had no idea how serious she wanted to be, so at one point she decided to rip off Hostel to somehow manage to create something even stupider and more comical than the entire Hostel franchise, 5) in this book there is a group of impoverished people who are inexplicably obsessed with and desperate for meat, even though there are many people today who struggle with poverty and still survive every day without meat.
I’m BEGGING aspiring speculative fiction writers to attend basic science classes at elementary schools if necessary, and aspiring horror writers to please develop something interesting instead of relying on “shock factors” because all novelty has been eroded to the point nothing is particularly shocking anymore. Please make your stories make sense within themselves, and maybe make them not so dull?
The book reads like a first draft for several reasons: 1) all subtlety is lost, and everything sounds comical when said in slogans (“it’s a lie told by “global powers”” — girl, do you even understand your source beyond the slogan???), 2) the author does not seem to understand ecology, in that if most animals were killed off for whatever reason, there would be much more severe repercussions than the meat industry deciding we should eat other humans now that we no longer have any other animals to eat, 3) we are constantly told the same things over and over again instead of shown, from Marcos’s feelings to the constant back stories that have to be developed because without them Bazterrica cannot tell the present story, which makes this book read very amateurish in terms of its structure, 4) the author had no idea how serious she wanted to be, so at one point she decided to rip off Hostel to somehow manage to create something even stupider and more comical than the entire Hostel franchise, 5) in this book there is a group of impoverished people who are inexplicably obsessed with and desperate for meat, even though there are many people today who struggle with poverty and still survive every day without meat.
I’m BEGGING aspiring speculative fiction writers to attend basic science classes at elementary schools if necessary, and aspiring horror writers to please develop something interesting instead of relying on “shock factors” because all novelty has been eroded to the point nothing is particularly shocking anymore. Please make your stories make sense within themselves, and maybe make them not so dull?