Review: Tender is the Flesh

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read this based on some good reviews on Amazon and, once again, was hoodwinked.  The story here has good bones, and Bazterrica had an opportunity to make some bold statements.  Instead, however, the reader is treated to vividly descriptive death porn that is simply too over the top to be in any way enjoyable.  Before you label me a prude, consider that I really thought Sick Bastards was well done.  See?  I do have a high tolerance for aberrant behaviors shared to further the plot of an actual story.

The novel is almost expository in nature, detailing contemporary slaughterhouses and how they function in the not so distant future.   Facilities once used to process cattle, pigs and chickens for consumption have had to be renovated for a whole new kind of killing, as, in a long game to control overpopulation, the government has convinced the world that animals carry a deadly virus.  Once all dogs have been euthanized or beat to death, zoo animals have been starved, and birds have been demonized, the government endorses cannibalism to encourage “protein intake”.  The idea of humans for food is slowly introduced into society, and the slaughterhouses morph into killing fields for human beings whose offal, skins and organs are processed and ultimately enjoyed by the wealthy and elite.  Men, women and children (called head), of all walks of life and a variety of “flavors”, are grown to desired specs, then led to a staging area where they are stunned and their throats are slit.  From there, they are bled dry, flayed, shaved, and relieved of their organs and limbs. The entire sequence is shared in gory detail.  The plot that hovers beneath these disconcerting images focuses on a slaughterhouse employee who seeks to salve his grief after losing a child.  I found it to be shallow, ill-conceived and poorly executed—and I didn’t give a whit about one single character in this house of horrors. 

I will not be returning to any of this author’s work.  The nausea from this one is likely to linger long enough to last a lifetime.

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