Title: Tender Is the Flesh
Author: Augustina Bazterrica
Genre: Sci-fi; Dystopian; Horror
Year Published: August 4, 2020
Date Started: August 1, 2022
Date finished: August 7, 2022
This book was given to me by my daughter to read because she enjoyed it. The story is about cannibalism in a future world where humans can’t eat other meats because of disease so they resort to eating human meat. Some humans are made specifically for eating. They are treated, let’s just say, how cow-farms are presumed to be treated by humans in the modern world.
The story is about a man who works in one of these human-farming companies. He and his wife are trying to have a baby but are having difficulty. The man doesn’t eat the human meat. There are strict laws on how to treat these humans and the man breaks the law. He was gifted a female human for his consumption. Because this man doesn’t eat human meat, he decides to sleep with her and in doing so impregnates her. The story snowballs into a big mess.
This was an okay story. I liked the idea of a future where meat can’t be eaten, but I didn’t like the execution. I’ve read books on cannibalism before so was curious about this one’s take. The story went on about the man and copulation with the human made for consumption. I have no issues with that, but it was that it didn’t make sense. It sort of just came out of left field. It felt like this was two stories badly sewn together. There was no clue as to why this man did what he did to this female. He could have sold this woman to the black market for a much higher price for an adoption or traded her for a baby. There were so many ways to go about this story to make it more exciting and thought provoking, but it didn’t do that for me. It was all going for the shock, but if you’re an avid reader and read multiple genres, the shock really doesn’t work. I needed more.
I almost didn’t review this book because I didn’t feel that it was worth my time, but I figured someone might enjoy my review and maybe pick up the book and read, because after all, I am all for everyone reading and learning about what’s out there.
Who should read this book: Dystopian lovers of all kinds. Also, if you enjoy speculative sci-fi or oppose eating meat, you’ll probably enjoy this book.
From My Corner of the Universe 