Tender Is the Flesh
By: Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses (Translator)
Genre: Horror, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 209
Published: August 4, 2024 (1st Published November 29, 2017)
Publisher: Scribner
Dates Read: October 23, 2025 - November 30, 2025
Format: Paperback

Marcos’s wife left him, his father has dementia, and his job isn’t exactly the best thing on the planet – but he tries not to think about it. After the infectious virus made all animal meat poisonous to humans, the government initiated the “Transition”, making human meat “special meat”, and Marcos is now high up at the plant that distributes the meat.

Then one day, he’s personally given a female head of the finest quality. Even though he’s fully aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden by death, Marcos slowly starts to treat her as a human being.

Right, okay, so I didn’t really have any problem with this book until they talked about the teens and the puppies – that’s what made me put the book down for a minute. Nothing about the care and managing of the head, not how they were slaughtered, not even how they were talked about! But I had an issue with the puppies!

Like, I feel for Marcos and what he was going through – and the final straw was pretty warranted when it finally came, but I was still shocked at the ending and how it was rounded up. If one thing didn’t happen, would it have changed the outcome??

But like – how does one describe this book anyway without going into a whole thing about it?? I wouldn’t call this scary… disturbing sure, but not scary. Unless you’re looking at it by the way of “this is what humans could do”. 
Overall, it’s a different read – and definitely not for everyone, especially for anyone with a weak stomach I would say, but if you’d like something totally out there this will be it.