Tender is the Flesh- *Spoilers*
I was not able to read near as many horror or dark books in the month of October as I originally would have liked. This doesn't surprise me as that is how this entire year has been. Let's talk about cannibalism shall we? I went into this book seeing how many recommendations this book got and being how short it is decided to fit it in the already burgeoning TBR/CR list. According to GR its only 211 pages, so a few days read at most. I went into this only knowing that it was basically factory farming flipped on its head in a world where humans are the ones put to slaughter.
Before I get into what I didn't like let me just say that this was executed very well. It was read all the way with that look of disgust on my face. The prose wasn't superb nor should it have been. It read more like one man's journal into a world where we farm and slaughter other human beings because we can no longer eat any other animal. Thinking about it in that way it doesn't seem too far off. I mean I'm sure the world would find a different way but it was an interesting perspective. The main character was very lackadaisical about the whole thing except for the outbursts of anger that were kinda puzzling.
I've seen this book on quite a few Horror/Scary reads to read for Halloween but at no point in this book was it scary, or even creepy. The concept itself is interesting and disgusting at the same time, but nothing of this book rang of fear. I mean the worlds climate criss which in effect, food crisis will finish off humanity in the not too distant future but it didn't read like a horror book.
And now we get to what didn't work for me. This book basically had No plot. The MC went to his job at the plant and had an uncomfortable and what feels very non consensual relations with one of the "heads" as they are called in the book. This gets him nowhere except with a baby from a non human, human.
Like what was the point of this story, just to provide a snippet at this fictional life? because there is no beginning, middle or end to this book, it just kinda stops. Ok he works at the plan, then gets into an illegal relationship with a "head", then she gets pregnant... then what? There was a scene where the MC found puppies, which in itself could have led credence to the idea of the origination story of this society or the disease that affected every other animal prior to this new normal of eating humans. Why are conspiracy theories about this virus hinted at if it leads nowhere? I tend to like books where the plot is the driving factor. If it weren't for the whole cannibalism aspect I probably wouldn't have finished it. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this but wasn't really impressed.
3/5.