In a certain light, this novel isn't a dystopia at all. The mass production of consumable meat is a filthy, cruel, and greedy pillage of the planet Earth today, at this very moment, as is the dehumanization of vast classes of human beings. Put two and two together. As I read the novel, I found it less and less appalling - it cast itself over me like the ever-present and threatening weather in the springtime plains. Horror can be so mundane.

I couldn't get into this one. I don't know if it is because I don't read a lot of science fiction or the fact that it was translated and some things didn't carry over well. Someone that enjoys science fiction may enjoy this, which is why I gave it a 3 star rating.

Okay so different and realistic. It explores a world that could become reality. Very thought provoking. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did because we should all step outside our happy bubble and learn about something outside our realm. Definitely check this out. Happy reading!

Dark and twisted, this short novel explores a future world where consuming or coming into contact with animals is lethal to humans and cannibalism has been legalized and normalized.

Marcos is second in command at a reputable slaughter house. The factory not only offers citizens “special meat” for consumption, but also specializes in providing “heads” for domestic use, breeding, experimentation, and sport. With cannibalism legal, rigorous standards have been set in place for quality product and to ensure the highest price.

When one of Marcos’ clients provides him with a pure female for private use, Marcos doesn’t know what to do with it. He’s long given up meat as he sees the atrocities day in and day out that come along with slaughtering humans for consumption. The female head is beautiful and Marcos, feeling lonely and abandoned by his wife after their son died as an infant, risks his life to develop a relationship with the woman.

This is truly an incredible story. I typically struggle with translated works but the translation from Spanish to English was exceptional. This story was extremely unique and delved into the human psyche, relationships, and the impact of trauma.

I love going into books blind but I strongly recommend reading the synopsis for this one. If you’re horrified by the subject matter, this book will not be for you. It’s extremely graphic and horrific for the majority of the book.

If we weren’t currently experiencing a pandemic of worldwide proportions that has impacted nearly every aspect of every human life, I would think this story was fantastical and wildly far fetched. However, we are in an unpredictable and unprecedented pandemic and this novel really opens your eyes to the “what ifs” lurking in the shadows ....

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel.

Really thought-provoking, probing the most disgusting aspects of society and human capacity for violence. But the plot was generally weak.

TENDER IS THE FLESH will blow your mind. WHERE DO I EVEN START. This book is dystopian horror to the nth degree and not for the faint of heart. Envision a world in which we no longer consume animal meat due to a virus, and instead we breed humans as “special meat.” Bazterrica is heavy-handed and gets very detailed about this gruesome new world, clearly making a statement about overpopulation, the meat industry, and what happens when we fool ourselves by using pretty language instead of calling a thing what it is. Despite the intensity and graphic nature of the plot, I had a hard time putting it down.

Content warnings: cannibalism, rape, experiments on non-consenting humans, suicide, infertility, death of a child, trafficking, animal harm and killings, graphic descriptions of EVERYTHING.

TENDER IS THE FLESH: By Agustina Bazterrica 🥩
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Thanks @randomhouse for the free eBook! I’m gonna start this post by saying if you’re at all sensitive, this book comes with a Massive content warning! It’s extremely graphic and gruesome (like every page)! I recommend this book if you loved The Purge, Hostel, and The Saw movies. It’s about post apocalyptic society breeding humans to consume as “special meat” after a virus makes all animal flesh contaminated and deadly. It separates the human race as those who eat and those who are eaten. So with that in mind let’s discuss the metaphors & meaning behind all the gore.
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So it may seem like I’m all over the place with what I like to read... because I AM all over the place with what I like to read! Middle Grade on through Dystopian horror! So why doesn’t blood and guts trigger me? Well, I work in it everyday. I’ve seen some pretty real life gruesome stuff. Bazterrica takes the stuff of your worst nightmares and draws themes of how harmful racism, machismo, sexism, and classism is in society. This book is the extremes of dehumanizing for the purpose of self preservation. This story is written in what seems like a cross between 1st & 3rd person, in which the MC is never named and often the writing seems like it’s coming directly from his point of view. It adds an eerie distancing element to the story overall and works really well, kinda like Fight Club. When our main character is gifted a FGP (First Generation Pure) female, he begins to develop human feelings for her beginning with worrying if she’s cold or had enough to eat. As this relationship develops (only so far because the FGP has had her tongue cut out) our MC starts to really question the way things have turned in the world, and how he upholds that standard as a butcher “just doing his job”.
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Read this book If you like horror and can handle violence and gruesome details. If you like fiction twisted up with themes of injustices happening in the real world set in a dystopian society that mirrors the white supremacy construct. There is a lot to unpack with this one if you dare! This would make a really good movie.

#tenderistheflesh #agustinabazterrica #dystopian #postapocalypse #horror #randomhouse #partner #bookreview

Holy.

This book.

I saw the title making the rounds on Twitter with some of my favorite reviewers, so I decided to request and was thrilled to be approved.

When the government insists that animals have been infected with a deadly virus, humans become the livestock. Marketed as "special meat," cannibalism soon becomes the norm, and Marcos is one of the most knowledgeable in the business. Grappling with his own grief and moral fortitude, Tender Is the Flesh follows Marcos down a rabbit hole of tragedy and gives us a glaring view into a world where people are on the menu.

I had no idea what I was in for when I started this book. I read A Modest Proposal in college, and that doesn't even scratch the surface. Bazterrica took this metaphor to a whole new level. This is not a book for weak stomachs, so if you're averse to graphic gore, bloody imagery, and stark violence, consider this a warning. Marcos tours the slaughterhouse, describing in minute detail the process the "head" endures from start to finish. I've seen documentaries about meat processing plants before. I have some prior knowledge of what conditions can be like and the definition of "humane," but reading this as people being bred for slaughter really hit me on a visceral level, kind of the same reaction I had to watching Human Centipede the one time I made that horrible mistake.

The writing is superb, and the symbolic, metaphorical nature is important and difficult to miss. Bazterrica's commentary on socioeconomic status and class differences speaks volumes. I found it particularly interesting the lengths characters would go to in order to distance themselves from stigma. For me, this is a clear reflection of the numbness that happens when we get used to atrocities, changing terminology and sugar-coating descriptions in order to normalize the horrors. Bazterrica highlights the danger of blind acceptance, of losing our ability to question authority.

I won't comment on the ending, other than to say that it knocked my core.

While I can't say that I enjoyed this book (I'm not sure it's a book that's meant to be enjoyed; similar to Marcos' interview of the tall and short man) I certainly took a lot from it, and I sure as hell won't be forgetting it any time soon.

Big thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY.

** Trigger warning for violence, including rape, murder, cannibalism, and animal abuse. **

He doesn’t call it special meat. He uses technical words to refer to what is a human but will never be a person, to what is always a product. To the number of head to be processed, to the lot waiting in the unloading yard, to the slaughter line that must run in a constant and orderly manner, to the excrement that needs to be sold for manure, to the offal sector. No one can call them humans because that would mean giving them an identity. They call them product, or meat, or food. Except for him; he would prefer not to have to call them by any name.

###

“I know that when I die somebody’s going to sell my flesh on the black market, one of my awful distant relatives. That’s why I smoke and drink, so I taste bitter and no one gets any pleasure out of my death.” She takes a quick drag and says, “Today I’m the butcher, tomorrow I might be the cattle.” He downs his wine and tells her he doesn’t understand, she has money and can ensure she’s not eaten when she dies, a lot of people do. She gives him a look that could be pity: “No one can be sure of anything. Let them eat me, I’ll give them horrible indigestion.” She opens her mouth, without showing her teeth, and lets out a guttural sound that could be a cackle, but isn’t. “I’m surrounded by death, all day long, at all hours of the day,” she says, and points to the carcasses in the fridge. “Everything indicates that my destiny is in there. Or do you think we won’t have to pay for this?”

###

In this instant, he thinks he’d like to die here, in this terrarium, with these puppies. That way at least his body could serve as food and these animals could live a little longer.

###

The first few times TENDER IS THE FLESH popped up on my radar, I decided to pass on it, or at least on the early review copies: as a vegan, I knew there would be A LOT to unpack in a review, way more than I have time for. (I tend to go overboard on novels involving animal rights themes, okay.) And there is! But a glowing review from a fellow animal advocate made me reconsider, and I’m glad I did. TENDER IS THE FLESH is far from what I’d call an easy or even enjoyable read, but it’s a haunting tale that will hopefully force some readers to reexamine their relationship to nonhuman animals.

Marcos Tejo works at the Krieg Processing Plant, as the second-in-command to the plant’s owner. (It’s hard not to picture Dwight Schrute here, for reasons I’ll elucidate later.) His job involves fostering relationships with suppliers and buyers, finding and training new workers, and cleaning up the messes Krieg would rather not deal with. Unlike his father, who also worked in animal agriculture, Marcos does not deal in pigs and pork, but in “special” meat: the flesh of human animals. (But not “people.” Never “people.”)

TENDER IS THE FLESH is set in a dystopian near-future where a virus called GGB has made consuming animals – or interacting with them in any way, shape, or form – unsafe for humans . Naturally, this led to the end of animal agriculture as we know it; but the effects are far more extensive than the book’s synopsis suggests. In the wake of GGB, all the world’s land mammals – from dogs and cats to chickens and cows – were wiped off the face of the planet, supposedly to protect humanity from the virus. In the process, we have all but annihilated our connection with the natural world.

(From the psychological benefits of animal companionship to the ecology of community, please pause and take a moment to truly imagine what sort of impact this might have on our individual and collective psyches. Like, it’s kind of wild, in a bad way: the feelings of alienation and disconnectedness Bazterrica conjures in her barren, humans-only landscape. I, too, would like nothing more than to die at the bottom of a dog pile if faced with such an existence.)

But back to the Krieg Processing Plant, where we follow Marcos through the soul-crushing monotony of his day: visits to buyers at laboratories and game reserves, interviews with prospective new employees (who have to be crazy to want to kill other people for a living, or else will be driven mad in time), frantic sex on a table with an eccentric butcher lady friend. Depressing updates from the senior care facility where his father, who suffers from dementia, is counting down his days. Inescapable family dinners with his sister, whom Marcos cannot stand. Illicit trips to the now-abandoned zoo, where he and his father once shared happier times. Fruitless calls to his estranged wife Cecilia, who’s been staying with her mother ever since the loss of their son Leo to SIDS.

And then everything is suddenly and thoroughly upended with a simple gift: one of Marcos’s clients surprises him with a very pricey purebred female, conveniently delivered right to his door, Marcos’s property with which to do as he wishes.

Well, not exactly: there are strict (albeit convoluted) rules in this dystopia. For starters, “reproduction of head is only permitted by artificial means.” (Even the head are not allowed to copulate amongst themselves.) Slavery – either sexual or otherwise – is outlawed; we’re not savages, after all! Marcos can eat his new female – one cut at a time, if he so desires – sell her for a profit, or leave her there to starve. But rape is where his society draws the line (if only).

While he initially views the female as a problem to be taken care of, slowly she becomes a receptacle for all his repressed emotions, chief among them his grief: over the death of his son, and the extermination of the animal world. He even gives her a name (Jasmine), which is strictly forbidden: just ask any 4-H kid how humanizing the meat worked out for them.

I think you can guess what happens from here. Thankfully – and again contrary to what you might expect from the synopsis – THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY. Had Bazterrica tried to twist it into one, this would be a much more venomous review. But she gets it: there cannot be any semblance of a consensual relationship between a person and his property, and any sexual activity within the confines of such unequal power dynamics is necessarily rape. From Marcos’s imprisonment of Jasmine when he’s not at home, to the story’s (not-so-) shocking denouement, it’s always clear that this is not a romance, trappings of such be damned. (Nazi offer/Jewish captive trope, I’m looking at you.)

TENDER IS THE FLESH is a shocking and graphic horror story, but it’s so much more: a window into the world of animal agriculture (and if you’re appalled at what happens to Jasmine and her peers, what of the billions of nonhuman animals that are imprisoned and killed by animal ag., every year, in the US alone?); political satire (between the virus and the many conspiracy theories swirling around it, it’s hard not to draw parallels to the modern day); and a critique of capitalism (One of those conspiracy theories? GGB was simply a hoax to reduce overpopulation by killing off the poors, the disabled, and the otherwise marginalized. Not so far from the truth, I don’t think.)

From a vegan perspective, Bazterrica’s attention to detail is spectacular, if in a sickening sort of way. The mechanisms of animal agriculture, rather than being upended by the absence of nonhumans, were rather superimposed onto their human cousins – and seamlessly, at that. From the mental tricks we actively adopt to dehumanize and objectify animals – denying any and all evidence of their sentience and intelligence; giving them numbers instead of names; using euphemisms to make cruelty sound more palatable; carrying out the torture and killing in nondescript, remote buildings – to the process of enslaving, murdering, deconstructing, commodifying, and selling an individual, Bazterrica has clearly done her homework.

In Marcos’s world, head aren’t just food: they’re also research subjects, organ and tissue growers, entertainment, game, trophies, sacrifices, and offerings. Sex slaves too, or at least for those rich and powerful enough to evade the law. (Before you object to this last comparison, consider: bestiality is legal in three US states & DC; crush videos are a thing; and undercover investigations have documented countless cases of sexual abuse and rape in animal agriculture facilities.) No part of the human is wasted: their skin is harvested to make leather; their hair, wigs. Penises are touted as an aphrodisiac.

Some of the elements of Bazterrica’s world seem like they’d be at home in a Margaret Atwood novel (this amounts to high praise from yours truly). To wit:

"On the way to the exit, they pass the barn where the impregnated females are kept. Some are in cages, others lie on tables. They have no arms or legs. He looks away. He knows that at many breeding centers it’s common practice to maim the impregnated females, who otherwise would kill their fetuses by ramming their stomachs against the bars of their cage, or by not eating, doing whatever it takes to prevent their babies from being born and dying in a processing plant."

Right now I’m picturing ORYX & CRAKE, particularly HelthWyzer’s creation of animals lacking in central nervous systems, so that they’d be unable to feel all the cruelty inflicted upon their genetically “modified” (read: ruined) bodies. (A science fiction contrivance which has become all to plausible IRL.)

There’s also the exquisitely obscene irony baked into this spectacle (pun most certainly not intended):

"The smell of barbecue is in the air. They go to the rest area, where the farmhands are roasting a rack of meat on a cross. El Gringo explains to Egmont that they’ve been preparing it since eight in the morning, 'So it melts in your mouth,' and that the guys are actually about to eat a kid. 'It’s the most tender kind of meat, there’s only just a little, because a kid doesn’t weigh as much as a calf. We’re celebrating because one of the farmhands became a father,' he explains."

Marcos’s peers seem to have (d)evolved from merely tolerating cruelty to actively celebrating it – and nowhere is this more evident than in the latest culinary fad sweeping the nation, “death by 1,000 cuts”:

Off to the side on the countertop, he sees a book. His sister doesn’t have books. The title is DOMESTIC HEAD: YOUR GUIDE TO DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS. There are red and brown stains in the book. He feels he might vomit. Of course, he thinks, she’s going to carve the head up slowly, serving pieces every time she hosts an event. The death-by-a-thousand-cuts thing must be some sort of trend, if all her guests are talking about it. An activity for the whole family, cutting up the living being in the fridge, based on a thousand-year-old form of Chinese torture. The domestic head looks at him sadly. He tries to open the door, but it’s locked.

Enter: “Burger On the Go” by Dwight Schrute.

I could go on and on – Marcos’s veganism, for example, is just begging for analysis – but you really have to read this book for yourself to feel the weight of it. It’s as shrewd as it is horrifying.

A virus has infected all animals, and while this virus didn't seem to effect animal-kind too much, any animals consumed by a human will result in death to the human. The government has decided to legalize the consumption of human meat which they call "special meat". All meat processing factories that were used to process animals now process humans. This story follows Marcos an overseer of the meat plant who hates his job but needs the money to take care of his sick father.

I don't even know where to start...

A lot about this story worked really well. Was it horrifying? Yes! Could I put it down? Nope. The way the the story unfolded was so unique and it made sense. The author fleshed out (sorry, I couldn't miss the opportunity), all of the reasons this alternate "normal" functioned the way it did. Bazterricq answered all of the questions I had as to why things were the way they were and on a scary level, a case was made for how easy it would be to get here as a society.

The power of the dehumanizing language used to describe something so inconceivable really disturbed me. I read an entire chapter about human's being processed in a meat plant and yet, the horror of that didn't come from the descriptions but from the fact that the language was so dehumanizing I forgot multiple times that the subjects being processed weren't animals.

The mercy of Tender is the Flesh is the brevity of the story. The book clocks in at 240 pages and I am REALLY thankful for this small mercy. I'm not sure I could have handled 10 more pages of this. Tender is the Flesh had the wit and strength of a page turner and the lasting power of a classic.

It is worth noting there should be several content warnings on this book outside of gratuitous descriptions of violence. There are mentions of rape, a graphic scene of animal abuse and probably somethings I blocked out shortly after reading it... so tread carefully!

Thank you to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC of Tender is the Flesh in exchange for an honest review.

You can find Tender is the Flesh at bookstores near you on August 4th!

This may be one of the darkest, most disturbing books I've ever read. Possibly because it provides a glimpse at a horrific, entirely believable future.

Marcos works in a meat processing plant. However, all animals have become diseased and eradicated, and the meat now being widely consumed is that of humans, or "head", bred to be eaten. Various, arbitrary rules are established, and often ignored. This is the world of legalized cannibalism.

We follow Marcos through the struggles of an ordinary human life (family, love), as well as new complications that come with his unconventional job (witnessing daily brutal murder, religious sacrifices, humans being treated like lab-rats). When Marcos is presented with a morally questionable gift, Marcos falls down a rabbit hole of bad decisions, strange consequences, and evil characters.

The blunt descriptions of human torture and murder certainly made me consider my carnivorous ways. Be warned, this book is incredibly graphic from the first chapter. Bazterrica holds nothing back. Her brief chapters, and minimal writing style really drive the story forward at a sometimes alarming pace. I genuinely had no idea how the book would end, but held on tightly throughout the ride.

I'll be thinking about Tender Is The Flesh for a while. So much happens in this relatively short book, and there are so many things to consider. Desperation runs throughout. This is literary horror in its most terrifying form, but incredibly well written. Open your mind, steel yourself, and prepare for one of the most bizarre novels you've ever read.

I received an ARC of Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica and translated by Sarah Moses. The premise is a dystopian world where animals are contaminated with a deadly virus forcing humans to eradicate them and look toward a new protein source; humans raised for slaughter. With that description in mind, I knew this would be a dark book but I was not fully prepared for how nauseating and vile this book would be. I literally felt like throwing up every time I picked this book back up and the ending was so shocking that I burst into tears.

Content warnings for cannibalism, graphic animal violence, rape, branding, slavery, and dismemberment.

The story follows Marcos who is floundering after the death of his infant son. He works in a human processing plant and justifies his job because he needs to money to look after his ailing father. He looks down on people who eat "special meat" and feels morally superior. However, midway through the book, he starts making awful choices (including eating people) that show he is no better than the cannibals. I felt the author was sending incredibly mixed signals. As a satire, it would've felt stronger if Marcos would've made consistent choices.

Something I felt missing was the option to be vegan. It is mentioned in passing that there are some "veganoids" but because that option wasn't really explored, it made it harder for me to buy in that people would immediately resort to cannibalism.

The writing was very simple. "There are trees outside the cage, and he leaves it to walk beneath them. It's a hot day and the sky is clear. The trees provide a bit of shade. He's sweating." Oftentimes, the author (or translator) chose to use pronouns instead of names, making it confusing who they were referring to. I had to reread paragraphs using context to figure out who she was referring to.

Because the writing wasn't strong, the descriptions were horrifying, and the satire message was muddled, I ended up giving the book 2 stars. I feel this book should be marketed as horror rather than dystopian. People who like to read terrifying books might be the only ones who would enjoy this story.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a honest review. This book will be published August 4, 2020.

Tender is The Flesh has been on my radar since I first heard about it. Though it is relatively short, it is a nauseating and disturbing read. A virus makes animals inedible to humans so they turn to cannibalism for survival. Now that is terrifying concept but didn’t seem too far fetched in regards to dystopian novels. I’m actually surprised more dystopian novels aren’t centered around this. This was not an easy read but I couldn't stop reading due to curiosity and where the story was leading. I will probably be thinking of this book for a long time.

Trigger warning: aside from the gory details of killing humans there's also rape and animal cruelty

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the advanced copy!

Tender is the Flesh is a gory and harsh criticism of factory farming, but it's also an overarching critique of human nature, the culture of excessive consumption, and capitalism. It imagines a world that has descended into cannibalism: suddenly animals have come down with some kind of virus that makes it impossible to eat them, and so the world pivots to eating humans. I think this is the only bit where a good amount of suspension of disbelief is necessary, as it seems like everyone pivoted a little too quickly to be believable. Then again, this is meant to be a satire, and satire is, by its nature, a little overblown.

The story is told entirely from the perspective of Marcos, who works in one of the factories slaughtering and distributing humans. And Marcos...does not shy away from details. There is no eliding the true horror of what it means to farm and eat people; the author tackles pretty much all of the aspects of this that you can imagine, and there are some scenes in this book that have scarred me for life. The depiction of how easily people shed their humanity was particularly chilling. There is also some great commentary about the power of language, branding, and marketing; humans are never referred to as "humans" but as "head" or some other euphemism, to encourage cognitive dissonance.

There is a bleak inevitability to this world. Even Marcos, who often thinks about how disgusted he is with what the world has come to, still succumbs to the new normal eventually, in a way that is less hypocritical than it is pragmatic. It's...all pretty awful, not gonna lie, but the book is actually great. I couldn't stop reading, and yeah, it was mostly morbid curiosity, but it was also that I was in awe of how well the author fleshed out this dystopic world!

Also, trigger warning for some serious animal cruelty here (in addition to like...a host of other things as I'm sure you can imagine); I'm not bothered by much but animal cruelty just kind of hits me in a weird place and there's a decent amount of it here that's hard to stomach.

This novel was horrifyingly beautiful. The world the author created is described in startling detail, with vivid images that stay burned into your consciousness. The main character is complex and realistically flawed, and although some scenes verge on being overwhelmingly graphic, there is a poignant, tender note that pushes the reader to finish the story. The novel is a dark but chillingly truthful look into human nature and the lengths people will go to maintain their world.

Thank you, NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book.
I have read it in one sitting. The translation is great and writing is superb. The story plot was very hard to 'digest', pardon the pun, in a good way. The question I would like to ask is: "Would you...?"

It's always a delight to read science fiction in translation and even more that ava raris, Latin American science fiction. Latin American lit is so often crushed into the mold of magic realism that, like a black hole, publishing sucks up all the works that do not ascribe to that category and condemns them to darkness. But Tender is the Flesh is definitely science fiction. It would sit prettily (or disturbingly) next to The Road or Under the Skin. It has that quality of a literary, high-quality dystopia that academics like to feast on. It's also entirely engrossing.

The plot is basic. In a near-future (or alternate reality?) dystopia, cannibalism is a common occurrence. People are bred for meat consumption and graves are ransacked for tasty cadavers. A man who works in a meat processing facility suddenly finds himself with a costly luxury gift: a human who should be consumed for her meat. Cue moral dilemmas and ruminations.

White audiences often demand 'authentic' Latin American novels. By which I mean they want a word italicized every paragraph and enough 'local color' to render a text into the equivalent of a cheap, plastic Frida Kahlo statuette. Tender is the Flesh obviously does not evoke any of those plastic concerns. It's bold, nasty and entirely it's own thing while also reflecting an era that I like to call New Latin American and Hispanic Fantastic, which has little to nothing to do with magic realism (see Michelle Roche Rodríguez and others).

It's a very interesting book and one that any science fiction fan should pursue with the obvious warning that it's pretty dark material.

Effectively an anti-factory farming polemic satirized to its shocking, inevitable conclusion, Tender Is the Flesh is a horrifying and grotesque piece of work. Translated from the Spanish brilliantly by Sarah Moses, it tells the story of a man named Marcos who recently lost his son to a cot death and is estranged from his wife as a result. Marcos works at a local processing plant – but instead of cattle, the plant farms and slaughters humans, following a virus which infected all non-human animals, rendering their meat unsafe to eat. But these people are no longer referred to as humans; so desensitized is everyone to their new dietary reality.

This book made me feel physically ill every time I picked it up, but I found it equally hard to put it down. I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life, primarily in protest against factory farming, so it’s safe to say that this novel’s central conceit resonated strongly enough to compel me to keep reading, but it would be reductive to say that condemning the meat industry is the only thing Bazterrica is doing here. This book focuses equally on the question of what it means to be human (I can’t get a sort of half-baked Never Let Me Go comparison out of my head, even if the similarities truly do end there – but there’s a reason that’s my favorite book; it’s a theme that I find endlessly fascinating to wrestle with) and the ways in which we allow our personal ethics to be shaped by those in positions of power.

It’s not a flawless book – I think the (air-tight) worldbuilding occasionally overpowers the character-driven part of the novel, which I was honestly fine with until something happened that made me wish the character development hadn’t been quite so withheld from the reader, so I initially rated this 4 stars when I finished, but on second thought, I think this book will be seared into my brain forever, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for what Bazterrica has achieved here.

This is not an easy book to recommend, and I cannot emphasize just how strong of a stomach you need to make it through this, but, somewhat perversely, it’s not a hard book to love. I’d say it’s probably the single most disturbing thing I have ever read (A Clockwork Orange has been dethroned at last), but that is in no way a criticism.

I’ll be posting a full review on Goodreads closer to the release date but I love weird, inventive books like this. Even if the writing isn’t completely my vibe, conceptually it was enough to keep me interested and see it through to the end. Oh, and kind of turn my stomach.

Powerful, disturbing, fascinating, thought-provoking. May be too much for some readers. Reminded me in some ways of Under the Skin by Michel Faber in which humans are considered livestock for consumption. This was a difficult read but raises a lot of important questions about how humans treat one another, class, meat eating, and more.