Tender Is the Flesh

i picked up this book thinking that the idea of a dystopia driven by herd mentality and industrialized animal cruelty being extended to humans was pretty intriguing, but it didn't end up doing too much for me. this book was disturbing at times but sort of in the way where it's not saying much by being disturbing, it just is. also, the writing style was fine, but it didn't stand out or grab my attention by any means.

despite him having a tragic backstory or whatever, i felt almost nothing for the protagonist. and don't get me wrong, i love an evil protagonist when done well, but Marcos' characterization felt pretty cold and detached. maybe you could argue that's the point, but it just ended up boring me.

i more enjoyed seeing his descent into increasingly erratic behavior near the end of the book because his character became more hinged on absurdism than detached conformity, which i think is a more realistic and human reaction to the world he lives in.

all in all, the book was gross enough to entertain me enough to keep reading and it has some thought-provoking themes, but i think the author could've delved into these concepts in a much more meaningful way by putting the focus on character development rather than on plot and world-building (which honestly wasn't even that developed on a larger scale, either).