Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

1513 reviews

parkerluck's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I was rec'd this based off of how much I like Oryx and Crake and it was indeed in line! Good writing, I didn't feel like the violence or content was "gratuitous" or shock over substance or whatever else. The subject matter is horrific so heed warnings, but it's explored well and I felt it was pretty in line with, again, O&C or other bleak dystopia stuff. Enjoyed the character work for the MC, the rest of the cast wasn't as fleshed out but didn't really need to be for such a quick read. 

The people saying the ending was a "twist" don't know how to read imo. The book does a good job of building Marcos, showing you who he is, who he thinks he is, how he fits into the world.

As far as unreliable narrators go, he's not even very unreliable and the story doesn't try to conceal what he's doing or capable of doing at any point. Combined with the Icarus thread he tells himself at the end (it doesn't matter if you fall, what matters is that for a moment you were a bird), it's a very basic set up and execution of him as a character. Frustrating to see other people have so much trouble with the dissonance between the actual narrative and the narrative Marcos himself constructs tbh but what can you do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infertility, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Child death, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Rape, and Gore

whitneygood11's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

s4r41d's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Cannibalism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexual assault

koisgreentea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

absolutely horrible but yet … captivating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

jojothefool's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book……… is so messed up. I really enjoyed myself. But basically after every chapter I would put the book down and reflect, “….. what the HELL am I reading?” And then I’d pick it back up and keep going. Very dark, very disturbing, but really makes you think about kind of everything? Government corruption, the meat industry, the class system, the inherit value of man……. I can’t give it 5 stars because it messed with me too hard, but it was very well written and a very interesting read that I would recommend if you can handle the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, Torture, Murder, Death of parent, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Classism, and Excrement

Minor: Rape

kirtreads's review

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book had such potential and was such a cool premise but it fell short in a couple areas for me. 

It focused so hard on the gore of it all that the really interesting psychological aspects were buried. I was expected to take a lot on faith as a reader, which fine, but then the main character doesn’t even trust that the virus is real. 

I needed the book to be from any other characters perspective. She took the most boring character in a cast of very interesting characters. 

The story felt weirdly stilted. We got huge internal dialogue pieces and then the ending is so rushed. It felt very off. 

The premise was good and I wanted to love this book but it just was not what I wanted it to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Infertility, Torture, Trafficking, Death, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, Excrement, Death of parent, Rape, Child death, and Forced institutionalization

0leander's review

dark reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It's a decent commentary on the meat industry and partially on capitalism as a whole, but if you're already familiar with the workings of slaughterhouse there's very little new horror to this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Rape, and Death of parent

kathouck's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child death

Minor: Pedophilia

dgiff01's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Rape

rantsandreads's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed the author's writing style. Unlike many reviewers, I found this portrayal of human behavior in a dystopian world what I think would be surprisingly accurate. The vibe of the main character was bleak and dripping with despair, as he managed to detach completely from his grim reality to serve the loved ones he felt the need to care for and the ones he lost. This story isn't just a tale of survival; it's a desperate scramble for lost joy and a chilling reminder of how greed can devour our humanity (no pun intended). The government conspiracy elements were spot on. They capture that common human tendency to assume that if it's too bizarre to believe, it must be a conspiracy. Quite the wild ride, indeed!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death