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So during my last monthly trip to he library, I borrowed Chainsaw Man Vol 5 and 6 (which I will talk about soon) along with an interesting book I had never heard of before called "Tender is the Flesh". The cover had an interesting, simple collage/mixed media look to it, with a red silhouette of a cow's head overlaid on a grayscale picture of a woman's face.
The summary briefly went over the plot, with involved a deadly virus one day infecting all animals on Earth, making human meat inedible to humans and how it eventually led to the global legalisation and normalisation of eating human meat (referred to as "The Transition"). I thought "Oh! This is kinda gruesome! Is it a splatterpunk book or something?" and became intrigued, so I borrowed it.
And sure enough, it was indeed an extreme horror/splatterpunk book, and apparently a popular one too! As soon as I shared a pic of it on my IG, almost immediately I had 2 two friends DM me about it, asking me where I got it, saying that it was really good etc. And after reading it over the course of the month, I can indeed confirm that it's pretty good!
The story is told through the POV of Marcos, who had previously lost his newborn son, Leo. His wife, Cecilia is distraught by the loss and is living far from home with her mom. Their marriage is tarnished by the loss. He is having an affair with a butcher in town. His father is suffering from dementia. And his job involves working an a processing plant that breeds and kills humans for consumption. One day, after visiting a breeding center for business purposes, he receives a "First Generation Pure" female from the boss of that center as a gift. Everything goes haywire for him from there.
The world building is so strange, dystopian and fascinating to me. The virus led to many animals, even people's pets, being mass murdered and burned in the streets out of fear. The Cattle industry went to shit. Real funerals aren't held anymore, but rather simulations of them. The poor are either cannibalized or forced to live as outcasts of society (scavengers). The obvious answer to this problem would most likely be to just become a Vegan, right? I personally interpreted it as there there being some kind of stigma against veganism (along with severe, worldwide mass panic) that would have prevented this. I think the book could have done a better job looking into that aspect of the world building better, but regardless, it did a great job at writing about this terrible world.
The writing style of the book is so captivating and unique to me. The way it describes the atrocities committed in the book isn't sugar coated at all. It's very blunt and completely uncensored, but it's very cold and casual, like it's just some minor thing being briefly mentioned in passing. The writing style perfectly compliments the way the book explores the importance of language and how it can be used to manipulate people into accepting, committing and even glorifying such barbaric practices.
That's not "Special meat", that's a man's kidneys. "The Transition" was just the legalisation of cannibalism. The "First Generation Pure Head" in the plant's breeding center are just people, treated like cattle.
This book is not an empowering, hopeful tale about taking down an oppressive, fucked up system enabled by capitalism and apathy. Not at all. Rather, it's more like an exploration of what a society like that would be like through the eyes of a character who's at least honest enough to say it like it is, despite not being too great of a person himself. Topics like women's rights, immigrant rights, human cruelty and capitalism are big topics that are heavily touched on here.
If you're looking for a good splatterpunk/extreme horror book about cannibalism to read, then I highly recommend this one. What may look like some violent "vegan propaganda" story is really more of a cautionary tale and satire about how forcing people into such dire settings can force them to dehumanize themselves and others just to get by.