From the Bookshelf of The Procrastinators Book Club…

Tender Is the Flesh

Agustina Bazterrica

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Discussion: Group Read Discussions

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* The Raven Cycle (SERIES READ 2025)
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Nov 04, 2024 Delirious Disquisitions rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult, dystopia, contemporary, sci-fi, horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had to go back and reread some of the passages to make sense of the ending. And here is what I make of it: Marcos never once looks at the “head” as anything human. Rather, it is the readers who still perceive the “heads” as humans. So all of Marcos’ actions, telegraphed through that lens, are seen as acts of compassion and love for a fellow human being. When it's not that at all. Marco never looks at the “head” as anything other than a pet, a fertile incubator for breeding, and a vessel for hi I had to go back and reread some of the passages to make sense of the ending. And here is what I make of it: Marcos never once looks at the “head” as anything human. Rather, it is the readers who still perceive the “heads” as humans. So all of Marcos’ actions, telegraphed through that lens, are seen as acts of compassion and love for a fellow human being. When it's not that at all. Marco never looks at the “head” as anything other than a pet, a fertile incubator for breeding, and a vessel for his child. In her, he finds some semblance of hope for a better future in which his child would be alive and well and fix the hole that his son’s death had left behind. All his yearning, longing, and concern is directed at the growing fetus in Jasmine’s stomach. He is always hugging her around the stomach or touching her stomach in some way whenever he shows any kind of intimacy towards her.

He also enjoys her company in the same ways he and his father once enjoyed the company of their dogs. He interacts with her as one might with an intelligent pet or cattle. He names her, teaches her the basics of survival so she can stay at home alone and not hurt herself (or his child) when he’s away; he teaches her to eat and drink, use the bathroom, lets her watch TV for amusement, feeds and clothes her, pets her head to reassure her. Marcos never teaches her how to be independent like a human who can survive beyond these four walls he keeps her tied to: he never teaches her to read as he thinks it's pointless “if she can't speak and will never be a part of society that sees her only as an edible product.” It is a sentiment he also agrees with.

Marcos repeatedly says how, unlike his father, he never had any issues adapting to the “Transition”. As a post-transition man he never has any problem differentiating between humans and “heads”. In fact, all of his actions towards Jasmine has a precursor, a knowledge bank of information regarding the care, breeding, and processing of FGPs that he draws from: whether it's the post rape cleanup of one of the FGPs where he learns the “heads” cannot talk talk but can be bread, or the discussion about their fertility (juxtaposed with his wife’s low egg count), or the description of how one of his colleague is able to sooth the “heads” by hugging them from the back and petting their heads, or the consistent foreshadowing of the method of slaughter (hit the head with a blunt club before slitting the throat), etc. There are cautionary tales of men falling in love with the heads and getting arrested for their crimes. Marcos carefully catalogs all of this information for when he finally sleeps with her. He even has violent, messy, raw sex with Spanel before he touches Jasmine.

The line “she has the human look of a domesticated animal" when he kills her in the end is likely because she has done her part in birthing his child because of the way she reacts, desperately reaching out to the child as he's being taken away. In that moment, he sees her as a domesticated pet that's grown human-like characteristics (still not quite seeing her as human). It's a direct comparison to his father’s attachment to the dogs and how he lost his mind when he had to put them down. But unlike his father, Marcos has no qualms about getting rid of Jasmine once she’s served her purpose. He never envisions a future with her even though he did entertain thoughts of running away from everything with her (while she was pregnant). Notice how he always refers to the child as “his child” or “his son” and finally “ours” when he holds the child up to his wife. He never once acknowledges Jasmine as the mother.

I think, more than the dystopian horror of a world post-transition, it's Marcos’s actions that really drive home the horror of living in such an environment. Marcos is a fully post-transition human where he completely assimilates to the divide in species between humans and “heads” as others. As horrific as it is, it's the only way of survival in a broken world where there is no room for morals and ethics. As for his lack of compassion, I believe that there are all kinds of sufferings in the world, and not everyone has the capacity to feel empathy on a universal scale. Sometimes, personal tragedies can feel so very all encompassing that it selfishly trumps all other emotions. Marco’s personal grief over his aging father, his eventual passing, the death of his son and the dissolution of his own marriage means that he’s fully alienated himself from the larger society. His isolation and voluntary exile is like a bubble where none of the horrors from his everyday life can touch him. He is desensitized to it all and fully subscribed to the “us” versus “them” mentality. Marcos never looks at Jasmine as human, he has the capacity to feel for her suffering. He takes care of her as a farmer tenderly takes care of his cattle, right before he cradles her body, and slits her throat for food to feed his family. 3.5 stars. ...more

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Aug 15, 2023 HeatherH rated it liked it

wtf did I just read.....

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Feb 23, 2025 Duygu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: a-book-read-from-every-country, popsugar-2025, aty-2025, argentina

This. Book. I don’t even know what to say. My question to those that have already read it, if you feel outrage at how “some” humans are depicted and treated, then does that make you a hypocrite in real life for eating and slaughtering certain animals deemed acceptable to do so while cuddling and protecting puppies and kittens? Also, that last sentence?!? “She had the human look of a domesticated animal”.

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Aug 01, 2022 Melissa rated it it was ok

2.75⭐️

All animals become inedible and people learn to fear them because you could die. People need meat, so they start a new meat factory “special meat”.

The thought provoking topic of how we look at meat with animals today being the source to where in this story humans are harvested was interesting. Dehumanizing humans in order to become ok with what you now eat is scary. This was a pretty fast read which is nice. I did appreciate Marcos for most of this story because how he interprets his job ...more

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