Jess

This was an excellent post-apocalyptic novel that handled themes of the separation between church and state, the role of Catholicism worldwide, and both the beauty and danger of knowledge with creativity. While I liked this book immensely, I found some of its nonlinearity and poorly introduced characters to be a bit confusion, which led me to re-read sections to figure it out.

TENDER IS THE FLESH will blow your mind. WHERE DO I EVEN START. This book is dystopian horror to the nth degree and not for the faint of heart. Envision a world in which we no longer consume animal meat due to a virus, and instead we breed humans as “special meat.” Bazterrica is heavy-handed and gets very detailed about this gruesome new world, clearly making a statement about overpopulation, the meat industry, and what happens when we fool ourselves by using pretty language instead of calling a thing what it is. Despite the intensity and graphic nature of the plot, I had a hard time putting it down.

Content warnings: cannibalism, rape, experiments on non-consenting humans, suicide, infertility, death of a child, trafficking, animal harm and killings, graphic descriptions of EVERYTHING. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the digital ARC and opportunity to review early.