Tender Is the Flesh

Pretty tricky to read book, not just because of the sometimes pretty graphic descriptions, but also for the short, staccato nature of the writing. I think it did serve a purpose though - it does help put you in the mind of the main character, someone who is broken and desensitised. But this was kind of shattered towards the end of the book, because all his actions suggest someone who is changing, then the final chapter completely undoes that, making it feel entirely out of character. Like I get plot twist or whatever, but this just felt unsatisfying.

Also, I thought the set-up was a bit unrealistic - like everyone just went along with breeding humans for food? And its alluded to that the whole 'animal meat virus' thing was actually a hoax, but this seems like something that would be hard to cover up. The parallels to the real-world meat industry I also thought were a bit ham fisted, like I know the industry's not great, but its certainly not normalised to, for example, keep a cow in your house and slowly vivisect it for pieces of meat.

Still, I thought the narrative and writing were great, especially with the portrayal of the main character (until right at the end)