Working at a local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans — though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marco’s tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then the governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat — “special meat” — is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost — and what might still be saved.

Review and Rate:

This book depicts graphic scenes of procurement and harvesting of human meat. The contents of this book might be upsetting to some readers. If you are not okay with reading about the death of children, pregnant women, or people in general I would not recommend reading this book.

Tender Is The Flesh follows Marcos Tejo, a processing plant employee who recently lost his child, and is currently separated from his wife. Marcos is navigating his life while he deals with the grief of losing his child, which forces him to view his life with “Pre-Transition” eyes. Which just means that things everyone else views as normal now seem strange or even grating to him. Tasks that he use to be able to preform for his job now seem monumentally difficult, the foods they all eat seem disgusting, and he doesn’t have the will power to keep doing the same things over and over again.

While the main theme of the book is not the struggle of grief I would say it’s a very important driving power for Marcos. Without his grief he would not be the person he is at the end of the book. Without his grief he would not do the things he does. The grief of loosing his child is not the only grief he suffers under. Marcos also grieves the world there was before the “Transition”. A world where it was okay to have pets. A world where humans filled the streets. A world where you didn’t have to think about the meat you were eating. That world weighs on his shoulders because he believe the absence of it took his father away from him. Marcos is a man full of grief and his choices reflect that.

The main theme of the book is corrupt governments, and the willingness to follow them. To adapt to the new world order because it’s easier to follow instructions than to think for yourself. The Government tells the people that animals have a virus and eating their meat, being bitten or scratched by them, will kill you. Even though some scientists have come out to disprove this, and wound up dead as a result. Even if many people didn’t believe them, they still killed and burned as many animals as they could because it was easier to believe than ask questions. The Government tells the people that vegetables aren’t enough to keep them healthy, that they need meat, and that they have a solution. People meat — “special meat” — is government sanctioned. It’s the solution. It’s not a means to control populations, to control people. Curfews are in place to keep them safe, to keep them healthy. People aren’t really people if you don’t give them a first and last name.

That being said I found the writing style very interesting. It’s obviously a very intentional aspect by the author to refer to the main character (mc) as “he” the entire time. It creates a distance between the reader and the mc which I really enjoyed. The only time we hear his name is when another person chooses to use it. While he is a person with a first and last name, we as the reader do not see him as that. He is simply him. Not Marco, not Tejo, just him. Another nameless cog in the processing plant. I think this helps to normalize the things happening in the book, just like the government normalized cannibalism. 

I usually have a favorite quote from the book by the time that I finish, but I didn’t for this one. I was waiting for some profound sentence to help explain away the human experience, but one never came. There was no need to understand why the things in this book were happening, because they were happening simply because the people in the book allowed and wanted them to happen. I kept waiting for the moment I would understand why this story was written but what I have come up with is that at the end of the day, humans are capable of great evils and when give the chance, they will willingly do them.