Book Review - Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis: His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.

My Thoughts: First off this would have been a 5 star book for me had it not included the tiny part with the animal cruelty. When I saw what was coming I skipped almost a chapter just to avoid it. There was really no reason for it to be brought up. It was not relevant or needed to tell the story. All I needed to know was animals had to be put down due to being virus carriers. I didn't need to know how any of it happened.

Now with that being said it's not so much that I "enjoyed" this tale as much as was intrigued and in wonder of it because before 2019 I would have purely rated this as scify.... something you would see happen at the movies but before 2019 I never saw our world having to walk around with masks on, not being able to touch or hold our loved ones, nor having to actually be quarantined! So yeah, I can really see something like this coming to be! Things aren't quite as scify as they used to be!

This is a story that grossed me out but kept me hanging on and reading at the same time. I had part of the ending figured out but couldn't believe the rest. I really should have seen it coming but didn't.

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