Imagine a world where people no longer ate animals. That, to me, already sounds like a horror story. Or, if you’re a vegetarian/vegan, you might think this sounds wonderful. But wait, I haven’t finished. In this horror-dystopian novel, Tender is the Flesh, Argentine author Agustina Bazterrica presents a world where nobody eats animals, but they do eat other humans instead.
I’ll give the vegetarians and vegans a few moments to digest that idea.
Still with me? Okay. Let’s continue.
Tender is the Flesh is not your typical cannibalism horror story. You’re not going to come across Hannibal Lecter in any of the pages here. In this story, our world is recovering from a global catastrophe after every animal on the planet has become infected with a deadly virus. As a result, every animal on the planet has been slaughtered. There are no more zoos. Nobody keeps pets. And people go outside with umbrellas, not because it’s raining, but because they’re terrified of birds shitting on them and the excrement being fatal.
But scientific research has found that humans still need to eat meat. So the law has been changed. Not only has cannibalism been legalised, it has also become industrialised and normalised. There’s a line in chapter one that will stick with me: “Meat is meat. It doesn’t matter where it’s from.”
This is a world with two types of humans. Those who go about living their ordinary day-to-day lives, and those who are bred with the intention of being meat. The latter have their vocal cords removed soon after birth, making them submissive and compliant. They have no names and no identities. They are reared and fattened up until the time comes for them to be slaughtered for their meat.
Our protagonist in this tale is Marcos Tejo. Estranged from his wife after the death of their infant son, Marcos is a very senior figure in a slaughterhouse. Through time, he has become desensitised to the work – he doesn’t morally agree with it – but needs the job to pay the sky-high bills for the care home where his father resides. His father has dementia and doesn’t even recognise him.
Marcos is vegan and doesn’t agree with the practice of normalised cannibalism. He does, however, have an affair with a local butcher, who also happens to be the only female butcher in the industry. She sells high-end delicacies like penises, noses, testicles, eyeball liquor, and tongue á la vinaigrette.
Not only does Marcos not agree with the practice of legalised cannibalism, he actually believes that it’s nothing more than a government conspiracy. A way of controlling an overly large population. Things become all the more complicated for Marcos when a client gifts him with a female human. One intended for breeding and then slaughtering. The problem is that Marcos finds himself attracted to her. Something which is against the law in this world. There are fatal repercussions for those who play with their food.
This isn’t a book for the faint-hearted. It’s not a blood and guts slasher. This is more of a moral and psychological horror, which will challenge how much you think you can stomach. As crazy as it might sound, this is a book that gave me Black Mirror vibes. I got the feeling that the world in this book is one that might not be a million miles away from our own. It’s also a tremendous read and one of my favourites I’ve read so far this year.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆ (4 stars).
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