Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

478 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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Classism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Slavery

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

hawkbloc's review against another edition

This book is just gross for the sake of gross.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Murder, Torture, Sexual violence, Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Excrement, Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Blood, Suicide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, and Misogyny

anissawren's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Slavery, Physical abuse, Torture, Confinement, Animal death, Death, Child death, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Grief, Body horror, Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Dementia, Miscarriage, Infertility, and Abortion

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, and Racism

vinise's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Genocide, Sexual assault, Body horror, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Torture

ashlynregan's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

LOVED the ending to this book, even though it was a complete reversal of the character arc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infertility, Gore, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Trafficking, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Rape, Animal death, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cannibalism, Body horror, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

writingcaia's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Unforgettable.
I have no words. 
This book is so thought provocative. I’m disgusted and appalled. Can I understand the motivations, the conditioning, the falling of all that makes us human? I can’t but I can totally see it happening.
The parallel between the institutionalised cannibalism and our current meat industry is undeniable, but it goes further. 
It’s also a story of grief, of conforming, of madness and wrong decisions. And, the writing, the beautiful lyrical way of showing the worst, is amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Grief, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Dementia

Minor: Trafficking, Infertility, Excrement, and Rape

kadbee's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Blood, Gore, Dementia, Death, Cannibalism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Child death

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and Rape

parkerluck's review

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

kirtreads's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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