Trigger warning: Rape
Not going to lie, if I had read this last year, I would say, no way would the world do something like this, but now in the year of 2025, I doubt there would be any reluctance for people as long as they got their meat. Honestly, not too much to say here. This was a great and terrible read. I also have to say that I was fooled by the character of [redacted]. I thought they were a good person and then you get that ending and I went…well shit.
Tender is the Flesh follows a world where animal meat has been contaminated by some virus that is deadly to humans. People still need their meat though. And now we have people growing “special meat” to make sure that people continue to get their ounces of flesh. Honestly, this book put me off of red meat more than I already was. We follow the character of Marcos (who is vegan) who works at his family’s old slaughterhouse in order to provide for the “special meat” that people are consuming. The whole book follows Marcos as he is dealing with his wife having left him, his sister not helping with their father, and now having to deal with one of his clients giving him a “breeding female” as a gift. All in all, this book just makes you despair of humanity.
I don’t want to talk too much about this book without giving away things, but honestly the flow of the book was pitch perfect. You get to see so many sides of Marcos and even his social climbing sister.
The setting of the book takes place in an alternate world post Transition where people are consuming “special meat.” The justifications for it are wild as heck I have to say and I have to wonder at the science of “if you don’t eat red meat” you will die that many said. I can’t recall the last time I had red meat. I am not a vegetarian, but I just hit tons of mushrooms, veggies, chicken, and fish. I am trying to recall if anyone even mentioned eating fish and honestly I can’t recall.
The ending was a shocker and just made me shriek a few times. It’s awful and brilliant, and honestly I can’t see myself reading this again though I gave it 5 stars.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2025, “Lost in Translation.”