Tender Is the Flesh
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans--though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition." Now, eating human meat--"special meat"--is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost--and what might still be saved.
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Community Reviews
I don't even know what to say. By how humans react to events in our history I felt this book to be unnerving in its accuracy. It was something I wanted to stop reading and continue at the same time. I am glad it's a bit on the shorter side but it still took me awhile to finish. 5 stars because the story is captivating and the writing was my kind of style.
Engaging but somewhat shallow. Characters were quite two dimensional, and over-reliant on shock factor which blunted over the course of the book. Some interesting world building but could have been much more developed.
Definitely made me grossed out. Don't feel like there was really a story to follow, just bits and pieces of gross-ness. Shows the worst side of humanity, but overall, not that great.
There was nothing shocking until the last chapter. Even then, it did not make up for the mundane of people just trying to survive, being humans who only care for themselves. Was disappointed after reading so many good reviews about how crazy and gross this book was. Almost couldn't finish the book as it was quite a snoozefest.
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