Laura

So…yeah. While initially the plot intrigued me, as I’m a big fan of horror in general and was drawn in by a couple of the main tropes featured here (post apocalyptic, exploration of cannibalism, etc), I just found this story to be lacking. While the writing style irked me, I chalked at least part of that up to the fact that it’s been translated and assumed that something was lost along the way, and while it’s a short and ‘easy’ read, it’s just…not great. A majority of it feels like shock horror for the sake of shock horror—gruesome and constantly trying to outdo itself, while not really bringing in a ton to back it up. Filler material feels very unnecessary, and particularly upsetting scenes add to an all around miserable story about unlikable characters that really kind of…goes nowhere. Like, there’s a plot, but it led up to what felt like not a whole lot, and the twist at the end undid a LOT of the characterization given to Marcos. Part of it just may be the way it was all presented, but it was so incredibly lackluster, and I just couldn’t get myself to care about all but one character. Obviously, this book is an extremely heavy handed criticism of the factory farming industry…but while Texas chainsaw did that well, tender is the flesh just. Did it. The author casually drops in extremely triggering tidbits of information here and there, and while yes, it’s obvious from the summary that it’s gonna be a doozy, there was a variety of really, REALLY upsetting scenes and one-liners, so definitely proceed with caution. Other than that, it was just…well, the best word I’ve found is lackluster. Self-indulgent, and not in a good way. While horror never NEEDS to be realistic to be enjoyable or at the very least interesting, there are issues with the world building in this that started bothering me from the moment they became apparent and then never stopped. This world is, as I said, utterly miserable, and it just makes it difficult to get through the story when there’s literally no redeeming qualities about anyone anywhere. 2 stars, because 1 feels harsh, but I really do not understand the hype at all with this one and just walked away bummed out and in need of a mental purge…and this is coming from someone who consumes a LOT of horror, of all kinds.