Reviews with content warning for Classism - Tender Is the Flesh

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

245 reviews

lucent_moon's review

4.5

A beautiful, and haunting dystopian novel. This book is well written from what I can tell, although I wish I was able to read the original, and not just the translation.

I went into the book almost completely blind, and was completely on edge the whole read. Dark, cynical, and occasionally funny. Only thing keeping me from a full 5 stars are two specific scenes. I absolutely loved it, but I'm not sure I'll be rereading it anytime soon.

Content Warnings

katvanfos's review

Go to review page

Content Warnings

annathechaoticreader's review

Go to review page

challenging dark medium-paced

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

1.0

Initial Thoughts:
Booktok very much over hyped this. It was a very okay novel, I can't think of anything it did wrong or to justify a lower review, but I also can't think of anything it did particularly well. It was mildly disturbing and made me stop and think a couple of times but not all that life/perspective changing. If you tend to like dystopian fiction and are newer to the genre, I think it's worth a try, but beware booktok strikes again, go in with lower expectations than I did.

Thoughts Upon Reflection:
The book is very heavy handed about its eating meat=bad beliefs which I found exhausting. At many times throughout the story I found myself shouting "OH MY GOD I GET IT!!! MEAT IS MURDER. JUST TELL ME THE STORY" into the void. It makes very weird parallels that I don't agree with and there was next to no room for nuanced discussion. I will say its possible that because it is a translated novel that the above issues only apply to the English translation and that its a fault of the translator rather than Augustina.

Another issue I have is that to me none of the characters actually felt like fleshed out people, rather just objects things happen to/around. The main characters motivations make no sense (especially in the second half), where he doesn't even feel like a person, you don't really get to know him and then what little you do gets completely contradicted in the second half of the book. I can't even call it character development because it feels like he sees one shitty thing than a switch flips and he's completely different. Through the whole time reading, I did not feel any type of way towards any character, I didn't care about any of them which made it hard to care about the novel. When I first finished it I felt no type of way but the longer I've had to sit with it, the more I'm growing to dislike it. The worst part is that it could have been so good, with some more nuance and character development it would have been a very interesting story!

There is also a graphic sexual assault scene which I wish I had known about going in. As a surviver of S/A I try to stay away from novels with it unless I've had time to prepare and be in a good headspace to consume it. So a completely RANDOM S/A scene that doesn't matter to the plot really caught me off guard and almost immediately ruined the book. I'm fine with assault scenes if and only IF it is important to the plot/character development. My problem is when its thrown in to demonstrate a character being shitty or for shock value, which I feel is the reason it was included in Tender Is The Flesh; if you removed the whole chapter it would make absolutely no difference and THATS where I have the problem.

People call it a horror novel when its really not, its a dystopian and while not a huge issue, it just sets up expectations that it doesn't live up to! It felt a lot more akin to books like the Handmaids Tale than those in the horror genre. So if you want a horror novel, probably don't pick this up but if you want a kinda disturbing, dark dystopian then maybe this will be your book!

Content Warnings

tarklovishki's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

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

1.75

Content Warnings

50shadesofrae's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The kind of book so dense with social commentary that it should be taught in schools, if only it wasn’t so uniquely horrific. I loved, and I can only recommend it to a handful of people.

Content Warnings

s4r41d's review

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

jojothefool's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings