Source: Goodreads

Book Review: Tender Is the Flesh

In the future, a mysterious plague infects all animals, making them poisonous to humans. Then, governments initiate “Transition”. Now, eating human meat is legal, though no one calls it that anymore. Working in a processing plant, Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living; he instead busies himself with transportation, processing, consignment… anything but the moral weight of it all.

I feel that Tender Is the Flesh is a critique of how humans sometimes try to justify the unjustifiable. Instead of saying “human meat”, they call it “special meat”. Instead of calling the subjects “people”, they say “products”. Instead of calling it “cannibalism”, they ban the work entirely.

Reading it is a bit unsettling for me. The graphic description of the slaughtering process is detached to paint the picture of the new normal. And I swear I can never guess that ending; it adds to the feeling that something is wrong with everything and everyone in the story, even the MC.

To conclude: eat vegetables, not your neighbors, folks.

3/5