@@withcindy Omg I got pinned. Such an honor. Anyway, even though you were cosplaying as Jughead Jones in this video, Cindy, you have so much more personality and wit than that "weirdo who doesn't want to fit in" Anyhow, great and funny video as usual. Btw, the Shiver excerpts made me physically cringe.
"Werewolfs actually hit the two things that i'm interested in which are : Hot dumb muscular man who are loyal to you, and cute dogs." Classic Cindy forgetting that she's also a closeted furry, but we all know the closet is made of glass
@@withcindy C'mon, come to FWA or MFF or somethin' and do a bad book reading. You know who likes books? You know how likes *dissing on bad books?* Fucking furries. That's right. All the internet knows us as drama, and you can, too.
shiver is def the kind of book that you cannot read unless you're 13 and/or have read it at 13 and now nostalgia blinds you to everything that happens in it during re-reads
the funny thing is that i cannot, for the life of me, remember if I actually read this book, or if my sister talked SO much about it when she was 13 that I've just internalized her descriptions of what happens. Like I know I STARTED the book, but did I finish it? Did I read the two sequels? (The fourth one was never translated, and I didn't know english well enough then to read a novel in it) Who knows. I certainly don't! It's the great mystery of my literary history (rhyme unintended)
@@withcindy very likely considering that u read those passages and a part of me was like, that's kinda weird, but my reaction was still 'awee', coming deep, deep from within whichever part of my soul is still inhabited by 13 yo me 😂 man being a 13 yo 'girl' (or adjacent. or thought to be) really is something else haha, especially when you mix up neurodivergency in there
I am finishing tender is the flesh, and I am absolutely mesmerized. It is one of the best books I have read in recent years. Yes, you can be proud of her
@@withcindy The dream ended before the fight did. I'd like to imagine that they tired out and agreed to a tie because that's true equality in their eyes.
Honestly, I respect the hustle. If the Shiver series was what was needed for Maggie Stiefvater to a) get that money and b) get enough connections in the publishing industry to further her career, I say good for her. She used her money and clout to publish actually good/interesting books that showed significant growth as an author, which is more than some authors can be bothered to do.
"I think we're taking a dark turn here and not in a way that enhances the narrative" just entered my dictionary. I'll be stealing this with ✨NO SHAME✨.
I couldn’t get over the fact that the guy in tender is the flesh was basically committing bestiality. Like even if you didn’t view it that way there was still a complete power imbalance like girly had the education of a fetus
@@tammy5466 Idk as someone with NO CONTEXT so don't take what I say seriously, i think there's something a bit strange about comparing low education to bestiality???
I wasn't shocked at all by the ending of Tender is the Flesh. He never once stopped treating Jasmine like an object, specifically his possession. And having sex with a person who cannot consent? From the start I was like this man has NOT started seeing her like a human being
Tender is the flesh was one of my top reads actually, it felt like a bad relationship that everyone kept telling you “he’s no good! He’s gonna hurt you” and it turns out they were right. Still loved it though 😂
I also really enjoyed “tender is the flesh” but I read it with the knowledge it was like a really disturbing horror movie and you weren't supposed to root for the main character at any point (imo of course)
Also Maggie has talked about the Shiver series and has eluded that it’s not something she wanted to write, but something that her publisher encouraged to write in order to get her feet in the door. She’s said she’s not even really into werewolves, which is why a lot of it is more wolf based then the classic depictions. I can’t even really blame her either tbh, there is a rift between writing for passion and being able to use authorship as a career and sometimes a persons gotta do what a persons gotta do. Still can’t bring myself to read it, though. Same with her first duology. It does go to show how far you can develop your writing, though. Whenever I feel kinda bad about how good her writing is in compassion to my own I just think of these early works and remember that writing is a SKILL that we hone.
I loved the ending of Tender is the Flesh lmao! I was scared there was going to be a “happily ever after” with the main character and that poor girl, so I was just happy it wasn’t that.
When it comes to Shiver, I really think Maggie used the Twilight craze to break through in the publishing world. I haven't read Shiver, but I absolutely love The Raven Cycle and I know that series was her passion project that she worked on for a decade before publishing it and rewrote numerous times. Compared to that, I think Shiver was just means to an end. And you know what, I can totally respect that
I was OBSESSED with Shiver 12 years ago. Honestly, I had a great time reading the series in middle school and it’s been nice to see Maggie’s writing improve over the years
my toxic trait is being more and more interested in reading baby teeth every time Cindy talks about it just becaste the father character sounds fucking hilarious and it just all sounds like a fever dream
I liked it, but it’s very… weird. If you go into it w no expectations, and knowing that half the book is written from the little girl’s point of view and half from the mother’s, you might like it. However, I also love the author’s style and I’ve read another book by her before, so it could be that
the part of cannibalism rather than vegetarianism is actually a kinda reference to a book that took place at a civil war in Argentina (el matadero) the quote would roughly translate "a stomach used to meat won't be satisfied with vegetables". Highschool reminiscing ~
Cindy: animal meat is poisonous Me: so they're just vegetarian, which is the rational thing to do. Cindy: so they eat people Me: why did I think this was going in any other direction?
Youre right about movie vs book. Movies can be flashy to the point it's kind like a parody and becomes it's so bad, it's so good. But when it's a book, it doesn't have the same appeal. Because when you're reading, you're forced to use your own imagination, to see yourself as the characters. With movies, you can detach yourself and just watch the characters do their businesses.
as an argentinian, i regret to inform you that me and my friends would talk about stuff like inflation before class when we were like, 13. i am unfortunately an exposition giving teen
The whole building up ( 15:28 - 15:36)to the line "would you f@ck a cow" was UNHINGED 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I DID NOT see it coming, I almost stabbed myself with the knife I was using to butter my toast!! I am still crying laughing while writing this...omg....I love this channel.... can't wait for the vlog where you dive deeper into this crazy story!! 😵💫😵💫🤣🤣🤣
I read shiver when I was 11-12 and while I could not tell you anything about that book but I did eventually develop an obsession with trashy werewolf romances, so clearly Maggie did something to my adolescent brain 💀
not to be gross and sappy but cindy is forever my comfort booktuber. thanks for making us happy this year bestie. ur vids made the year more bearable 💘
First book completely missed the part where the vast majority of sexual assaults actually occurs within the family circle. In most cases, the perpetrator is your significant other or a family member 💀
That’s true in general, but the book was set on a college campus with student victims, where rates of SA by someone you don’t know or just know at an acquaintance level are much higher Edit: I’m by no means defending the book, I read it back in March and didn’t like it
Cindy! If you want a good feminist book that is nuanced, I HIGHLY recommend Kaikeyi by Vaishanavi Patel (it's also a mythology retelling from the "villian's" perspective, the main character is aro/ace, and it's just very good in general)
@@withcindy Yes! The book is very accessible to anyone! I am coming in from a biased perspective, since I grew up on the story of the Ramayana, but I think it does a good job at explaining anything you need to know, and diverges from the source material, so you don't need any prior knowledge!
@@withcindy It doesn't hurt to have just a very basic outline of what happens in the Ramayana, since it helps show where the stories diverge, but you should be able to understand everything without.
Shiver was the first Maggie Stiefvater book I read. It was weird and really forgetable so I never continue the series. I read the raven circle after and I couldn't believe it was written by the same person.
I said it in a comment that I think got buried but Sweet/ Vicious is a show with the same premise! I think it’s from like 2016 but it was ahead of its time. It was a satire about taking down rape culture about bad ass sorority girl. It was actually funny and nuanced.
They Never Learn is SA revenge for all SA victims but past that, it's not a lot. But abuse victims need that feels good content in a world that doesn't care about them. Booktok has no idea how not deep it really is. -A casual They Never Learn fan
No bro, everything totally has to be an analytical intersectional gender-inclusive libfem social critique! Women aren't allowed to enjoy violence and revenge bro
The way you described basically the cognitive dissonance in Tender is the Flesh reminds me of the sentient chickens farming other chickens in Bojack Horseman. The latter are bred as livestock and given hormones, so it's fine, they're just food lol.
i didnt know i would go into this video and be THRUST BACK INTO MIDDLE SCHOOL. I read the whole shiver series in like a week in 8th grade. you literally got me whiplashed and flashbacking into that time. agree with everything you said about shiver. why did middle school me swoon over being sniffed. a simpler time bruh
I remember the Shiver series being interesting for the fact that the bubblegum pink "villain" was actually made into a deep, human character, and in the last book she is the protagonist. But I read it a long time ago...
I read Shiver at like 16 when it came out and loved it lol. I'm not sure if you're aware, but the original hardcovers had colored ink matching the cover for the whole book and it was like the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I thought the ending for Tender is the Flesh was the perfect ending for the message the author was trying to convey. Because you think that just maybe the main character will finally see Jasmine as a human being but all he saw her as all his feelings were because she was carrying his child. As soon as Jasmine and the child were separate he didn’t see Jasmine as human. Much like how women are viewed as objects and how their value is attributed to the children they create in the real world. Also the bestiality aspect the a lot of people seem to have is fascinating because the “head” are humans. Even without proper education they are shown to be capable of higher thought and the characters in the book acknowledge at-least somewhat that the head are human beings. So is it the readers who view the head as inhuman? (I’m probably reading way to much into it lol)
cindy have you ever thought maybe the reason why you are upset that the characters dont struggle in the books is because you struggled too much in your life? 😭😭
I read shiver couple years after i read the raven cycle and i was so terrified that i just halucinated how good trc was or was not in my right head while reading it cause how did the same person wrote something like that just a few years before
When I was at SDCC this summer, Maggie was in a panel and mentioned that Shiver was written to be more about fitting in and finding yourself than a werewolf story, which is why she thinks so many middle schoolers appreciated it when it came out. Since a lot of people are commenting here that it was a foot in the door for her, I'm assuming the wolves were for the marketing, but the fitting in was the story she actually wanted to write. And overall she seemed almost uncomfortable talking about the series. I loved it when I read it in early high school and had brought it with me for her to sign for the nostalgia (and I already have TRC signed) and she jokingly asked if it made me cry. I have never cried at any book/movie and when I told her no she seemed quite pleased that I didn't and said she never does either. So add all that with your comments Cindy and I'd think Maggie would agree with your assessment.
@@aimisofea7964 I'm not sure entirely but I think the midway point might be when the author includes a very unexpectedly weird sex scene. And the end is a twist because throughout the whole book this man is talking about loving and caring for this woman and their child. But once she had the child he instantly murdered her and planned to eat her. He only wanted the child all along. To me it was a suprise but maybe I'm dumb
@@Topdoggie7 I didn't really see it as a romance, more like a power imbalance relationship in which the protagonist tries to convince himself he's different from the rest because he cares about her, or at least that's what I though.
When I was in middle school, my friend told me to read the Shiver series and I accidentally started with the second book, Linger. I totally didn't realize until halfway through and I just ended up going on to the 3rd book and never reading the 1st because I didn't give a shit about the main romance, but there was a secondary romance that started in the 2nd book that my 13-year-old brain latched onto. The fact that I could skip the 1st book and still understand the story tells you everything you need to know about this series lol
Haha, I did the same thing! Didn't realise till halfway through. Also read a book about fairies about the same time and the main character was obsessed with naming types of phobias. I thought it was the best thing ever written
Omg I did the same thing but I started with the third book and I literally didn’t even notice until I got to the end of the book and realized that the first two books were being promoted on the back cover. And the fact that I never once was confused and questioned whether I missed something says a lot.😭😭
A book i recommend in place of “They Never Learn” is A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers! i’m currently reading it! It reminds me of american psycho writing but with a food critic instead! You’ll have to look into it!
I was misreading it as "*Tinder* is the Flesh" and was wondering when the dating app was going to come into play 💀 (Although, that mental prompt did sound like a more intriguing premise to me than what the actual plot was, lol)
If you want a book like Moonlight Child that actually goes into the psychological aspects of trauma and discusses both the good and bad of the foster care system I would highly recommend A List of Cages by Robin Roe. One of my favorite books of all time plus she used to be a social worker so you can tell she put a lot of care into it.
I just want to comment that in the scene with the teenagers in Tender is the flesh the MC didn't help the puppies because he is an asshole. He doesn't even think about saving them. I remember there were no feelings of anger nor guilt from that dude.
NAUR I WAS SO EXCITED TO READ TENDER IS THE FLESH DKLSNDN cindy please make a video on creepy books that leave you thinking, "wtf did i just read?" but like in a GOOD way
OH MY GOD, I remember Shiver, because my English teacher recommended it to our whole class in like, 8th, 9th grade? I'm pretty sure it came out during the height of the Twilight phase, and the text being printed in blue ink was noteworthy enough to mention lol. I tried reading it because she gave all of us free copies, but I never got very far. Oohh my god this is so funny, memory unlocked 😂
Maggie Stiefvater is my favourite author of all time, like I fuckIng live up this woman’s writing’s ass, but I’ve never been able to get more than half way through Shiver and I’m so glad it’s not just me 😂😂.
So it’s called “They Never Learn” but she has been covering her tracks so they don’t know there is connection between the deaths, so what lesson is she trying to teach?
Shiver wasn't Maggie's first book she had published two faerie books before the first book being Lament. Shiver was her first big book though and yes it like a lot of YA paranormal romance books that came out around the same time (Hush, Hush; Beautiful Creatures, Fallen) was being released by publishers to attract the Twilight audience. I like seeing the old work of big artists cause its inspiring to newbies to see hey your stuff may be meh now but you can greatly improve!
Trying to give Maggie stiefvater the benefit of the doubt (idk why, I’ve never read anything of hers) but apparently she was 28 in 2009 when Shiver was released, HOWEVER, it looks like she was homeschooled, so that’s probably why Shiver was… the way that it was
Interesting that Tender is the Flesh was on this list! As far as “would you fuck a cow” though - it is expressly forbidden in their universe too, punishable by death I think. So basically yeah, def would fuck a cow. Agree that the puppy scene was ridiculous, but I loved the ending! That last line totally cemented it as a 5 star for me, I saw it as a commentary on how the main character is not exempt from the society he’s been critiquing; how we can pick and choose morals when they suit us. It was the perfect ending to me.
Shiver is just astounding to me not just because the writing is shockingly bad but because it does not even seem like it could have been written by the same author who wrote the raven cycle. For someone with such a distinctive and dare I say it, quirky, voice in TRC and call down the hawk, the writing style of Shiver is just completely different. Maggie, the glow up was insane good for you
I've seen this 4 weeks ago, saw Cindy didn't like Tender is the Flesh, and then a different booktuber said it was their (I think) 2nd best book of the year and I was like "I need to get to the bottom of this, I need to know which is true." so I read Tender is the Flesh and I've learned my lesson - Cindy is always right. and now I have to live with the knowledge of everything that happens in that book 💀
I think a book that has a similar concept to tender is the flesh is "sirene" by Laura Pugno. She's an Italian author and I don't know if an English translation exist, but it has been a really good book for me. It describes a distopian world where sirens became a slaughter creatures and It's interesting because even if they are treated as animals they are very similar to humans. I really recommend it.
i remember reading shiver after finishing all the raven cycle books and it’s like reading shadow and bone for the first time after finishing crooked kingdom except infinitely more boring
Shiver is litterally my most favorite book... I mean tbf, I did read it when I was like 16 and going through it, and now, 10 years later it may just be nostalgia... But I have read and listened to this book far too many times to count. Ive read the next 2 books, Linger and Forever, as well. I love those too.
I would argue that "Tender is the Flesh" goes a little overboard when it comes to representing the cruelty we show farm animals in the meat industry. If somebody bought a cow to keep on their family farm and they ate it alive (as in that whole "death by a thousand cuts" moment the mc's siser had) or cut its limbs off while it gestated its calf, I do believe that person would be in some serious trouble for animal abuse! Normal people generally don't like the idea of any living thing going through unimaginable suffering just for funsies. I think the characters in that book are comically sadistic.
Tender is the Flesh is so over the top, I laughed out loud at it few times. Like the description of them drinking titty milk or the parts in the hunting place, it was all so ridiculously "we live in a society"
I remember reading Shiver back in ... middle school? (I don't know what the U.S equivalent for mexican secondary school is) I loved it like the dramatic teenager I was and I tried to read it again recently... and it's just.. no. Just no
Tender is the Flesh was so atrocious. I could not believe how many people hyped it up lmao Horrible execution and completely unbelievable characters in the story itself. Seeing it hyped as like ~the be all end all for gory horror~ is insane
The premise of Tender is the Flesh reminds me of that YA dystopian book about human pets and how an owner falls in love with his bodily-modified human pet. I never read either book, but I can only imagine how weird they were...
I legit thought you were being sarcastic and basically saying "the premise of tender is the flesh reminds me of tender is the flesh" 💀 because that's literally what happens in the book
@@blerp2107 Did Tender is the Flesh have an underground railroad because Perfected (the YA dystopian I was talking about) sure did lol. Again, this is secondhand knowledge. Didn't actually read it myself
As someone who just wrote a final paper about fictional cannibalism and Tender is the Flesh, I feel so seen by your review… the novel, its prose, and its concept are far more interesting to analyze than to read. Like with people straight up talking about assault and eating babies, live amputation, literally beating puppies… it got to the point where it was almost comedically macabre and just exhausting. I get what the author is doing by displaying the worst of humanity in this dystopia, but, like you said, the whole thing lost steam and felt like parody by the end. TLDR, Your next video can’t come soon enough. Keep up the good work!
I thought for a second Cindy was gonna talk about Baby Teeth the whole time without mentioning the dad being Swedish and I was about to get offended, but all is well
I think some authors really do start out writing horrible trashy books but improve later on LMAO like Holly black for example. I love her writing for the imagery, world building, and creepiness. Since I liked her books I tried reading a book she wrote before she got popular, it was called Tithe or something and was published in the early 2000s I think. Literally got whiplash from reading that because it doesn’t even feel like it was written by the same person and it was awful as hell. She was def trying to be too edgy and the writing was garbage and read like something an edgy teen would write LOL. Now every time I read her new books I think about how much her writing has improved and what how much work she must’ve put in to even come that far bc it was def a huge improvement
calling a book various genres because you wouldn’t otherwise know what it’s supposed to be is like the same vibe as calling a certain well-known mealy, bland, parched apple, Red DELICIOUS
I actually really liked Tender is the Flesh, but I can see why it might not be up some people’s alley. The book is a little bit more on the surreal side, you have to REALLY suspend your disbelief for the whole “legal cannibalism” take and realize the book is much more a metaphor about the way humans consume each other like resources, shitty governments, and shitty, shitty men. Also yeah, a take on the meat industry. In the end I think the main character’s decisions make sense because he’s proven himself to be an absolute fucking coward, who knows certain things are wrong, even feels a superiority about it, but continue to be involved DIRECTLY in perpuating these sick systems. He puts himself first. He was using his “romantic partner” in the end, he treated her like a child even though he (spoilers) got her pregnant, he literally treated her like a dog and kept her locked up in a room in his house… of course he didn’t really “love” her, didn’t really view her as equal to him. …. That being said, it’s a dark af book, and the ending is not… Rewarding, per say, but it disgusts you in all the right ways. There’s a certain imagery that I haven’t been able to get out of my head even months after reading it, the way human bodies were treated in that book… literally horrifying.
Also must emphasize that the book is written by an Argentinian woman with the main theme being “in consumerist, capitalist societies, we all consume each other” and the premise being “a man who works in the HUMAN SLAUGHTERING INDUSTRY is gifted a naked woman who cannot speak” so it’s not meant to be a romance.
I have seen some of the most extreme, violent horror movies and thought I'd be fine with Tender is the Flesh, but I'm like fully scarred from that book. I read it in September and I can't get it out of my head. I literally need to bleach my brain.
another thing I hated about Baby Teeth is just the sheer ableist undertones of it -- not even undertones, actually, tbh, that book was EXTREMELY ableist. I hated how the author depicted neurodivergent kids, I hated the random violence against one of the disabled kids, and the fact that the dad straight up uses the R-slur?? When confronted with the possibility that his child might be neurodivergent? I also hate that whole thing it does where it depicts neurodivergent children as something that ruin's parents' lives.
Entertainment value aside, these videos are needed because then I’ll know what books are not worth my time! Life is too short to drag through mediocre books
Lol. I read the first paragraph of Baby Teeth and DNF'd. I haven't seen your videos on it but I am excited to go back and find them. Hahaha, Tender Is the Flesh is on my shelves waiting for me and I am kind of excited about it? Argentinians are fucking weird as shit and I do love it a lot. I will say though that I almost recommended it for my book club and I am glad I didn't cause my book won, lol, and maybe that isn't a book for everyone...but I kinda think I am gonna like it based on what you have said. Thank you for this amazing video, I have had a shit week (and an extra shit day) and it was just what I needed.
Cindy out here cosplaying Jughead Jones
HOW DARE YOU
She doesn't fit in and she doesn't want to fit in
CALLING CINDY SOMEONE FROM RIVERDAL LMFAOOOOOOOO
@@withcindy Omg I got pinned. Such an honor.
Anyway, even though you were cosplaying as Jughead Jones in this video, Cindy, you have so much more personality and wit than that "weirdo who doesn't want to fit in"
Anyhow, great and funny video as usual. Btw, the Shiver excerpts made me physically cringe.
if you haven't noticed, she's different
"Werewolfs actually hit the two things that i'm interested in which are : Hot dumb muscular man who are loyal to you, and cute dogs." Classic Cindy forgetting that she's also a closeted furry, but we all know the closet is made of glass
Shhhh
You got read
@@withcindy C'mon, come to FWA or MFF or somethin' and do a bad book reading. You know who likes books? You know how likes *dissing on bad books?* Fucking furries. That's right. All the internet knows us as drama, and you can, too.
😂 Dddddaaaammmmmm
Sounds like she'd really like Adastra
The "My husband would never abuse our child! He's..... Swedish!" quote has to be the funniest one of 2022
Imagine a crossover between Problem Child and Baby Teeth.
yes
Who needs spotify wrapped when you have cindy telling you the worst books she read year round 😍😍
The best kind of wrapped, for haters
The most interesting thing about the moonlight child is the fact that the author is named Karen McQuestion
That's gotta be a pseudonym
I honestly didn’t think you were serious until I looked it up.
I knowww- I could stop looking at the cover because of the name, it was very distracting
What the heck
“When else would she be washing dishes if not 3am”
Me watching this whole video after scrubbing my entire kitchen at 11 am: 👀
shiver is def the kind of book that you cannot read unless you're 13 and/or have read it at 13 and now nostalgia blinds you to everything that happens in it during re-reads
the funny thing is that i cannot, for the life of me, remember if I actually read this book, or if my sister talked SO much about it when she was 13 that I've just internalized her descriptions of what happens. Like I know I STARTED the book, but did I finish it? Did I read the two sequels? (The fourth one was never translated, and I didn't know english well enough then to read a novel in it) Who knows. I certainly don't! It's the great mystery of my literary history (rhyme unintended)
Do you speak from personal experience
@@withcindy very likely considering that u read those passages and a part of me was like, that's kinda weird, but my reaction was still 'awee', coming deep, deep from within whichever part of my soul is still inhabited by 13 yo me 😂 man being a 13 yo 'girl' (or adjacent. or thought to be) really is something else haha, especially when you mix up neurodivergency in there
I can confirm, I read the series at 13/14 and it will forever be 5 stars because of that 😄
So true my 12 year old self read all four books
"i'll accept cannibalism, but i'll be damned if i ever become vegan" lmaooo true af
lines must be drawn
@@withcindy correct don't let twitter cancel you
So true
real
baby teeth made me begin a "birth-control" list on goodreads shoutout to my iud
LOVE THAT
I have never felt less patriotic as a Swede than reading Baby Teeth.
I'm so sorry
You read it too?? You poor thing. I think the people subjected to this need to form a support group
Hope youre ok
I got recommended it as a “must read”🥲 I did a Masters in English lit so I’ve read my share of genres and topics but this was something else man😂
You poor thing
Cindy could make a 5 hours video about bad books and it still wouldn't be long enough. The comments, the criticism, the sarcasm, I NEED MORE
Maybe one day a book will be ridiculous enough to make it happen
@@withcindy let's all hope
Same 😄
When I heard ''but what about the argentinians'' I was so excited to hear about my country that I forgot this was a ''worst books I read'' video 😭😭😭😭
I'm sorry to ur country
Yo leí el titulo y vi cadaver exquisito en la miniatura y me la re bajo sjdj amo ese libro
Como otro argentino que ve a Cindy, debo admitir que el canibalismo sobre ser vegano es muy real acá
I am finishing tender is the flesh, and I am absolutely mesmerized. It is one of the best books I have read in recent years. Yes, you can be proud of her
I had a dream where Rysand fought Swedish Dad. All they did was yell about how much they respect women while slapping each other.
who won
@@withcindy The dream ended before the fight did. I'd like to imagine that they tired out and agreed to a tie because that's true equality in their eyes.
@@JuniperJadePRWould Rhysand say “I’m willing to keep going… but it’s your choice?”
@@animeotaku307 Sounds like something he'd say since he's a feminist.
@@JuniperJadePR LMAOOAO
Honestly, I respect the hustle. If the Shiver series was what was needed for Maggie Stiefvater to a) get that money and b) get enough connections in the publishing industry to further her career, I say good for her. She used her money and clout to publish actually good/interesting books that showed significant growth as an author, which is more than some authors can be bothered to do.
Gotta get ur foot in the door somehow !!
Sarah J Maas who?
@@Nachtmusiks SJM is far from skilled. Her own editors quit on her.
@@Topdoggie7 WHAT REALLY OMG
"I think we're taking a dark turn here and not in a way that enhances the narrative" just entered my dictionary.
I'll be stealing this with ✨NO SHAME✨.
U have my permission
A more elegant way of saying that not every subversion of expectations is good or smart
I couldn’t get over the fact that the guy in tender is the flesh was basically committing bestiality. Like even if you didn’t view it that way there was still a complete power imbalance like girly had the education of a fetus
yea it was GROSS
I agree with you but let's not call it bestiality because..... she was a human. I would compare it to just grape.
@@tammy5466 Idk as someone with NO CONTEXT so don't take what I say seriously, i think there's something a bit strange about comparing low education to bestiality???
@@sophiethepegasus yeah that rubbed me the wrong way too..
@@sophiethepegasus well yeah I agree but the main problem is there's no consent to give by the receiving party
I wasn't shocked at all by the ending of Tender is the Flesh. He never once stopped treating Jasmine like an object, specifically his possession. And having sex with a person who cannot consent? From the start I was like this man has NOT started seeing her like a human being
Tender is the flesh was one of my top reads actually, it felt like a bad relationship that everyone kept telling you “he’s no good! He’s gonna hurt you” and it turns out they were right. Still loved it though 😂
tbh the book rly did prove that men aint it
I also really enjoyed “tender is the flesh” but I read it with the knowledge it was like a really disturbing horror movie and you weren't supposed to root for the main character at any point (imo of course)
Also Maggie has talked about the Shiver series and has eluded that it’s not something she wanted to write, but something that her publisher encouraged to write in order to get her feet in the door. She’s said she’s not even really into werewolves, which is why a lot of it is more wolf based then the classic depictions. I can’t even really blame her either tbh, there is a rift between writing for passion and being able to use authorship as a career and sometimes a persons gotta do what a persons gotta do. Still can’t bring myself to read it, though. Same with her first duology. It does go to show how far you can develop your writing, though. Whenever I feel kinda bad about how good her writing is in compassion to my own I just think of these early works and remember that writing is a SKILL that we hone.
omg so she was just phoning it in?! good for her LOL
shiver is my villain origin story, it just kept getting worse - and i had NO technical analysis skills as a teenager so this is saying a lot 😭
Dude I'm astounded how bad it was
I loved the ending of Tender is the Flesh lmao! I was scared there was going to be a “happily ever after” with the main character and that poor girl, so I was just happy it wasn’t that.
tru a happily ever after would have sucked!
I loved Tender Is the Flesh as well. the main character read like 'I'm not like these other sheeple' so the ending was pretty good.
When it comes to Shiver, I really think Maggie used the Twilight craze to break through in the publishing world. I haven't read Shiver, but I absolutely love The Raven Cycle and I know that series was her passion project that she worked on for a decade before publishing it and rewrote numerous times. Compared to that, I think Shiver was just means to an end. And you know what, I can totally respect that
i support the hustle!! u gotta do what u gotta do
I was OBSESSED with Shiver 12 years ago. Honestly, I had a great time reading the series in middle school and it’s been nice to see Maggie’s writing improve over the years
Maggie set out to do a paranormal romance for middle schoolers and she did it !!!
Yes, I LOVED that book in middle school. I’m sure I wouldn’t appreciate it so much now, but it’s a great book for the target audience.
It's amazing to me she wrote both the shiver trilogy and the raven cycle/the dreamer series, the rANGE
my toxic trait is being more and more interested in reading baby teeth every time Cindy talks about it just becaste the father character sounds fucking hilarious and it just all sounds like a fever dream
its a good read if ur morbidly curious
i've started imagining the Dad from Fairly Oddparents in his place tbh
I liked it, but it’s very… weird. If you go into it w no expectations, and knowing that half the book is written from the little girl’s point of view and half from the mother’s, you might like it. However, I also love the author’s style and I’ve read another book by her before, so it could be that
the part of cannibalism rather than vegetarianism is actually a kinda reference to a book that took place at a civil war in Argentina (el matadero) the quote would roughly translate "a stomach used to meat won't be satisfied with vegetables". Highschool reminiscing ~
Cindy: animal meat is poisonous
Me: so they're just vegetarian, which is the rational thing to do.
Cindy: so they eat people
Me: why did I think this was going in any other direction?
Youre right about movie vs book. Movies can be flashy to the point it's kind like a parody and becomes it's so bad, it's so good. But when it's a book, it doesn't have the same appeal. Because when you're reading, you're forced to use your own imagination, to see yourself as the characters. With movies, you can detach yourself and just watch the characters do their businesses.
Yeah I think we can afford a little more grace for movies because they're so visual!
This makes me think that in a Movie Fan/Book Reader relationship, the movie fan is a pillow princess while the reader puts in the time
as an argentinian, i regret to inform you that me and my friends would talk about stuff like inflation before class when we were like, 13. i am unfortunately an exposition giving teen
are yall ok??
@@withcindy the argentinian economy is constantly in shambles. we very much are not
Our favourite time of year - Cindy ✨reading✨ books that she's read. (Get it? Get it? Like drag queens reading? Get it?)
Gotta read them for filth
no we dont get it whos reading again
🤦🏾♀️
The whole building up ( 15:28 - 15:36)to the line "would you f@ck a cow" was UNHINGED 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I DID NOT see it coming, I almost stabbed myself with the knife I was using to butter my toast!! I am still crying laughing while writing this...omg....I love this channel.... can't wait for the vlog where you dive deeper into this crazy story!! 😵💫😵💫🤣🤣🤣
A MORAL DILEMMA
I read shiver when I was 11-12 and while I could not tell you anything about that book but I did eventually develop an obsession with trashy werewolf romances, so clearly Maggie did something to my adolescent brain 💀
maggies impact!!
not to be gross and sappy but cindy is forever my comfort booktuber. thanks for making us happy this year bestie. ur vids made the year more bearable 💘
🥺🥺 ty so much!!
the title already has me intrigued lmao bad werewolf romances are my SHIT 😭🥴🤡
I WISH it was trashy fun but alas...
Try reading blood and chocolate then
@@jocelinetrancoso9112 already have 🤣
“Asymmetrical Dyed Hair B***hes”. Standing ovation for that line and also, ONE FOR THE MERCH LINE!
First book completely missed the part where the vast majority of sexual assaults actually occurs within the family circle. In most cases, the perpetrator is your significant other or a family member 💀
Yup. Completely awful book, anyone who might get something out of it can’t because it’s awful.
That’s true in general, but the book was set on a college campus with student victims, where rates of SA by someone you don’t know or just know at an acquaintance level are much higher
Edit: I’m by no means defending the book, I read it back in March and didn’t like it
@@ladyredl3210 Mostly it was popular with teens and college students who survived SA and wanted revenge. So there's the audience.
The perpetrator in the first book WAS someone she knew and friends and family though?
@@XOmangoXO This. It's flawed but the setting is rife with SA situations irl.
Cindy! If you want a good feminist book that is nuanced, I HIGHLY recommend Kaikeyi by Vaishanavi Patel (it's also a mythology retelling from the "villian's" perspective, the main character is aro/ace, and it's just very good in general)
do u think i would enjoy it with no knowledge of mythology beforehand?
@@withcindy Yes! The book is very accessible to anyone! I am coming in from a biased perspective, since I grew up on the story of the Ramayana, but I think it does a good job at explaining anything you need to know, and diverges from the source material, so you don't need any prior knowledge!
@@withcindy It doesn't hurt to have just a very basic outline of what happens in the Ramayana, since it helps show where the stories diverge, but you should be able to understand everything without.
Shiver was the first Maggie Stiefvater book I read. It was weird and really forgetable so I never continue the series. I read the raven circle after and I couldn't believe it was written by the same person.
She really glowed up
‘They Never Learn’ would be a great CW Show. Instead of Mr. Fitz being trouble, Aria takes over the English Department and takes on all the bad boys.
Mr Fitz needs to have died
@@withcindy I don’t remember exactly what happened with fitz in the books but I feel like he might have died
@@amyg8176 He was arrested, as he should.
He needed to suffer.
I said it in a comment that I think got buried but Sweet/ Vicious is a show with the same premise! I think it’s from like 2016 but it was ahead of its time. It was a satire about taking down rape culture about bad ass sorority girl. It was actually funny and nuanced.
They Never Learn is SA revenge for all SA victims but past that, it's not a lot. But abuse victims need that feels good content in a world that doesn't care about them. Booktok has no idea how not deep it really is.
-A casual They Never Learn fan
Ngl The Female of the Species is lowkey everything They Never Learn was trying to be (in terms of SA/how characters respond to it).
No bro, everything totally has to be an analytical intersectional gender-inclusive libfem social critique! Women aren't allowed to enjoy violence and revenge bro
The way you described basically the cognitive dissonance in Tender is the Flesh reminds me of the sentient chickens farming other chickens in Bojack Horseman. The latter are bred as livestock and given hormones, so it's fine, they're just food lol.
thats exactly how they processed the same rationale!! lol
Cindy: “You somehow find entertainment in that.”
Me: “It’s entertaining PERIODT. Why do you think we unsubscribe every other day?”
(Just kidding)
i didnt know i would go into this video and be THRUST BACK INTO MIDDLE SCHOOL. I read the whole shiver series in like a week in 8th grade. you literally got me whiplashed and flashbacking into that time. agree with everything you said about shiver. why did middle school me swoon over being sniffed. a simpler time bruh
SWOON OVER BEING SNIFFED??????
@@withcindy I SAID WHAT I SAID. kids so lucky nowadays with fairy smut. you had to take what you could get my middle school library was DRY ASF
Just realized that it's only Cindy's booktube videos I've faithfully watched. I think I am growing out of booktube but I will forever watch Cindy
Awww thank u🥺
I remember the Shiver series being interesting for the fact that the bubblegum pink "villain" was actually made into a deep, human character, and in the last book she is the protagonist. But I read it a long time ago...
Oh that's an interesting concept!
Oh that's an interesting concept!
I read Shiver at like 16 when it came out and loved it lol. I'm not sure if you're aware, but the original hardcovers had colored ink matching the cover for the whole book and it was like the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
Oh yeah, and then you’d go back to a book with regular colored ink and it would mess with your head.
YES!! The blue, green, and reddish brown. God it was so wicked honestly. It’s so painfully nostalgic
I thought the ending for Tender is the Flesh was the perfect ending for the message the author was trying to convey. Because you think that just maybe the main character will finally see Jasmine as a human being but all he saw her as all his feelings were because she was carrying his child. As soon as Jasmine and the child were separate he didn’t see Jasmine as human. Much like how women are viewed as objects and how their value is attributed to the children they create in the real world.
Also the bestiality aspect the a lot of people seem to have is fascinating because the “head” are humans. Even without proper education they are shown to be capable of higher thought and the characters in the book acknowledge at-least somewhat that the head are human beings. So is it the readers who view the head as inhuman?
(I’m probably reading way to much into it lol)
"I'll accept cannibalism, but I'll be damned if I become a vegan" lmao
cindy have you ever thought maybe the reason why you are upset that the characters dont struggle in the books is because you struggled too much in your life? 😭😭
Maybe ur onto something
Basically Cindy just want the characters to struggle more. I thought we're reading for the escapism 😶
I need an outlet for my struggles
Personally I am escaping my boring ass uneventful life by reading about characters STRUGGLING
@@rachael5300 The way I see myself in this, I-
I read shiver couple years after i read the raven cycle and i was so terrified that i just halucinated how good trc was or was not in my right head while reading it cause how did the same person wrote something like that just a few years before
LMAOOO maggie did what she had to do to make raven cycle happen
I’m glad to see that you didn’t suffer from Ms. Maas this year. A needed break ❤️❤️
maybe ill read colleen hoover next year
Oh dear lord 😭😭
When I was at SDCC this summer, Maggie was in a panel and mentioned that Shiver was written to be more about fitting in and finding yourself than a werewolf story, which is why she thinks so many middle schoolers appreciated it when it came out. Since a lot of people are commenting here that it was a foot in the door for her, I'm assuming the wolves were for the marketing, but the fitting in was the story she actually wanted to write. And overall she seemed almost uncomfortable talking about the series.
I loved it when I read it in early high school and had brought it with me for her to sign for the nostalgia (and I already have TRC signed) and she jokingly asked if it made me cry. I have never cried at any book/movie and when I told her no she seemed quite pleased that I didn't and said she never does either. So add all that with your comments Cindy and I'd think Maggie would agree with your assessment.
i’m never getting over reading the werewolf character from shiver describe himself as a “leaking womb” that book was really… a book
BABY TEETH had 2 Parts. It’s a separate dimension of discourse. So pleased to see it featured here.
I loved the end of Tender is the Flesh because the whole time I was thinking "They want me to believe this man is different from everyone else? Bet."
tender is the flesh just proves men aint it
It's like oh a weird romance. . . Naaaahhh.
can someone tell us people who dont mind spoilers what the ending was? as well as the midway point that cindy referred. im so curious🧐
@@aimisofea7964 I'm not sure entirely but I think the midway point might be when the author includes a very unexpectedly weird sex scene. And the end is a twist because throughout the whole book this man is talking about loving and caring for this woman and their child. But once she had the child he instantly murdered her and planned to eat her. He only wanted the child all along. To me it was a suprise but maybe I'm dumb
@@Topdoggie7 I didn't really see it as a romance, more like a power imbalance relationship in which the protagonist tries to convince himself he's different from the rest because he cares about her, or at least that's what I though.
When I was in middle school, my friend told me to read the Shiver series and I accidentally started with the second book, Linger. I totally didn't realize until halfway through and I just ended up going on to the 3rd book and never reading the 1st because I didn't give a shit about the main romance, but there was a secondary romance that started in the 2nd book that my 13-year-old brain latched onto. The fact that I could skip the 1st book and still understand the story tells you everything you need to know about this series lol
Haha, I did the same thing! Didn't realise till halfway through. Also read a book about fairies about the same time and the main character was obsessed with naming types of phobias. I thought it was the best thing ever written
Omg I did the same thing but I started with the third book and I literally didn’t even notice until I got to the end of the book and realized that the first two books were being promoted on the back cover. And the fact that I never once was confused and questioned whether I missed something says a lot.😭😭
A book i recommend in place of “They Never Learn” is A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers! i’m currently reading it! It reminds me of american psycho writing but with a food critic instead! You’ll have to look into it!
I was misreading it as "*Tinder* is the Flesh" and was wondering when the dating app was going to come into play 💀
(Although, that mental prompt did sound like a more intriguing premise to me than what the actual plot was, lol)
tinder is the flesh just sounds gross lolol
If you want a book like Moonlight Child that actually goes into the psychological aspects of trauma and discusses both the good and bad of the foster care system I would highly recommend A List of Cages by Robin Roe. One of my favorite books of all time plus she used to be a social worker so you can tell she put a lot of care into it.
I just want to comment that in the scene with the teenagers in Tender is the flesh the MC didn't help the puppies because he is an asshole. He doesn't even think about saving them. I remember there were no feelings of anger nor guilt from that dude.
when the video starts out “it has as much nuance as book twitter is capable of” you know it’s going to be a good one
there’s something so therapeutic about listening to cindy talk about the worst books i’ve ever heard about
NAUR I WAS SO EXCITED TO READ TENDER IS THE FLESH DKLSNDN
cindy please make a video on creepy books that leave you thinking, "wtf did i just read?" but like in a GOOD way
I'm still waiting to finish a book like that LOL
@@withcindy you should read haunted by chuck palahnuik! i LOVE it
"my wolf, my wolf" sounds eerily similar to "mate, my mate". Gives me ACoTaR vibes
don't--
OH MY GOD, I remember Shiver, because my English teacher recommended it to our whole class in like, 8th, 9th grade? I'm pretty sure it came out during the height of the Twilight phase, and the text being printed in blue ink was noteworthy enough to mention lol. I tried reading it because she gave all of us free copies, but I never got very far. Oohh my god this is so funny, memory unlocked 😂
why would ur teacher do this to u
@@withcindy the author may or may not have been visiting the school soon? still, embarrassing for her.
Seeing Shiver on the thumbnail unlocked my repressed preteens memories 😂😂😂😂😂
It’s like the Razzies for bad books and no author wants to be ‘Catwoman’.
Catwoman is better than these books
Maggie Stiefvater is my favourite author of all time, like I fuckIng live up this woman’s writing’s ass, but I’ve never been able to get more than half way through Shiver and I’m so glad it’s not just me 😂😂.
So it’s called “They Never Learn” but she has been covering her tracks so they don’t know there is connection between the deaths, so what lesson is she trying to teach?
I guess they never learned to track her down
Shiver wasn't Maggie's first book she had published two faerie books before the first book being Lament. Shiver was her first big book though and yes it like a lot of YA paranormal romance books that came out around the same time (Hush, Hush; Beautiful Creatures, Fallen) was being released by publishers to attract the Twilight audience. I like seeing the old work of big artists cause its inspiring to newbies to see hey your stuff may be meh now but you can greatly improve!
Trying to give Maggie stiefvater the benefit of the doubt (idk why, I’ve never read anything of hers) but apparently she was 28 in 2009 when Shiver was released, HOWEVER, it looks like she was homeschooled, so that’s probably why Shiver was… the way that it was
NOT U BLAMING THIS ON HOMESCHOOLING
@@withcindy and I’d do it again!!!!
Interesting that Tender is the Flesh was on this list! As far as “would you fuck a cow” though - it is expressly forbidden in their universe too, punishable by death I think. So basically yeah, def would fuck a cow.
Agree that the puppy scene was ridiculous, but I loved the ending! That last line totally cemented it as a 5 star for me, I saw it as a commentary on how the main character is not exempt from the society he’s been critiquing; how we can pick and choose morals when they suit us. It was the perfect ending to me.
i can def see that!! AKA the lesson is... men aint shit LOL
@@withcindy the moral of life tbh 🙄🙄🙄
Shiver is just astounding to me not just because the writing is shockingly bad but because it does not even seem like it could have been written by the same author who wrote the raven cycle.
For someone with such a distinctive and dare I say it, quirky, voice in TRC and call down the hawk, the writing style of Shiver is just completely different. Maggie, the glow up was insane good for you
i wanna know what maggie was going thru while writing shiver
I've seen this 4 weeks ago, saw Cindy didn't like Tender is the Flesh, and then a different booktuber said it was their (I think) 2nd best book of the year and I was like "I need to get to the bottom of this, I need to know which is true." so I read Tender is the Flesh and I've learned my lesson - Cindy is always right.
and now I have to live with the knowledge of everything that happens in that book 💀
HAHAHAHA omg
@@withcindy I'm sorry I didn't believe you, queen. From now on when Cindy says it's a bad book then it's a bad book.
I wonder if you'd like the movie Promising Young Woman better than They Never Learn?
I did like that movie better
ready to add all of these to my reading list in 2023 just to anger and entertain myself 💅🏻
Ur a masochist I see
Get those nails red and ready for the pain train, woo!
I think a book that has a similar concept to tender is the flesh is "sirene" by Laura Pugno. She's an Italian author and I don't know if an English translation exist, but it has been a really good book for me. It describes a distopian world where sirens became a slaughter creatures and It's interesting because even if they are treated as animals they are very similar to humans. I really recommend it.
i remember reading shiver after finishing all the raven cycle books and it’s like reading shadow and bone for the first time after finishing crooked kingdom except infinitely more boring
EXACTLY
Shiver is litterally my most favorite book... I mean tbf, I did read it when I was like 16 and going through it, and now, 10 years later it may just be nostalgia... But I have read and listened to this book far too many times to count. Ive read the next 2 books, Linger and Forever, as well. I love those too.
I would argue that "Tender is the Flesh" goes a little overboard when it comes to representing the cruelty we show farm animals in the meat industry. If somebody bought a cow to keep on their family farm and they ate it alive (as in that whole "death by a thousand cuts" moment the mc's siser had) or cut its limbs off while it gestated its calf, I do believe that person would be in some serious trouble for animal abuse! Normal people generally don't like the idea of any living thing going through unimaginable suffering just for funsies. I think the characters in that book are comically sadistic.
hope you’re doing well and recover from these books soon!
I will try ❤️
Tender is the Flesh is so over the top, I laughed out loud at it few times. Like the description of them drinking titty milk or the parts in the hunting place, it was all so ridiculously "we live in a society"
DRINKING TITTY MILK IS DEEP OKAY???
I remember reading Shiver back in ... middle school? (I don't know what the U.S equivalent for mexican secondary school is) I loved it like the dramatic teenager I was and I tried to read it again recently... and it's just.. no. Just no
Tender is the Flesh was so atrocious. I could not believe how many people hyped it up lmao Horrible execution and completely unbelievable characters in the story itself. Seeing it hyped as like ~the be all end all for gory horror~ is insane
I dont know about reading Baby Teeth but I sure as hell enjoyed your review of it! 🍼 🦷
The premise of Tender is the Flesh reminds me of that YA dystopian book about human pets and how an owner falls in love with his bodily-modified human pet. I never read either book, but I can only imagine how weird they were...
WHAT???? what book is this called
@@withcindy it's a trilogy, the first one is called Perfected
@@withcindy Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch. I found out about it through a TH-cam video by Crow Caller.
I legit thought you were being sarcastic and basically saying "the premise of tender is the flesh reminds me of tender is the flesh" 💀 because that's literally what happens in the book
@@blerp2107 Did Tender is the Flesh have an underground railroad because Perfected (the YA dystopian I was talking about) sure did lol. Again, this is secondhand knowledge. Didn't actually read it myself
As someone who just wrote a final paper about fictional cannibalism and Tender is the Flesh, I feel so seen by your review… the novel, its prose, and its concept are far more interesting to analyze than to read. Like with people straight up talking about assault and eating babies, live amputation, literally beating puppies… it got to the point where it was almost comedically macabre and just exhausting. I get what the author is doing by displaying the worst of humanity in this dystopia, but, like you said, the whole thing lost steam and felt like parody by the end.
TLDR, Your next video can’t come soon enough. Keep up the good work!
I thought for a second Cindy was gonna talk about Baby Teeth the whole time without mentioning the dad being Swedish and I was about to get offended, but all is well
I think some authors really do start out writing horrible trashy books but improve later on LMAO like Holly black for example. I love her writing for the imagery, world building, and creepiness. Since I liked her books I tried reading a book she wrote before she got popular, it was called Tithe or something and was published in the early 2000s I think. Literally got whiplash from reading that because it doesn’t even feel like it was written by the same person and it was awful as hell. She was def trying to be too edgy and the writing was garbage and read like something an edgy teen would write LOL. Now every time I read her new books I think about how much her writing has improved and what how much work she must’ve put in to even come that far bc it was def a huge improvement
Baby Teeth was...so friggin bad.
It was unique, I'll say that
@@withcindy That is true.
That starting quote was a ride on its own...
Thank you Cindy for another great video for me to repeatedly watch over and over 💙
Enjoy the hate ❤️
calling a book various genres because you wouldn’t otherwise know what it’s supposed to be is like the same vibe as calling a certain well-known mealy, bland, parched apple, Red DELICIOUS
i've been aimlessly walking around thailand for six hours during my layover and i'm finally home and a cindy video is just what i needed
Omg I was in Thailand last month
@@withcindy my cindy arc fr
I love it when Cindy is talking trash about Books 😍
"werewolf looking like Mitchel Musso"😂😂
I laughed so hard.
Oh, Cindy you are amazing!
I actually really liked Tender is the Flesh, but I can see why it might not be up some people’s alley. The book is a little bit more on the surreal side, you have to REALLY suspend your disbelief for the whole “legal cannibalism” take and realize the book is much more a metaphor about the way humans consume each other like resources, shitty governments, and shitty, shitty men. Also yeah, a take on the meat industry.
In the end I think the main character’s decisions make sense because he’s proven himself to be an absolute fucking coward, who knows certain things are wrong, even feels a superiority about it, but continue to be involved DIRECTLY in perpuating these sick systems. He puts himself first. He was using his “romantic partner” in the end, he treated her like a child even though he (spoilers) got her pregnant, he literally treated her like a dog and kept her locked up in a room in his house… of course he didn’t really “love” her, didn’t really view her as equal to him.
…. That being said, it’s a dark af book, and the ending is not… Rewarding, per say, but it disgusts you in all the right ways. There’s a certain imagery that I haven’t been able to get out of my head even months after reading it, the way human bodies were treated in that book… literally horrifying.
Also must emphasize that the book is written by an Argentinian woman with the main theme being “in consumerist, capitalist societies, we all consume each other” and the premise being “a man who works in the HUMAN SLAUGHTERING INDUSTRY is gifted a naked woman who cannot speak” so it’s not meant to be a romance.
I have seen some of the most extreme, violent horror movies and thought I'd be fine with Tender is the Flesh, but I'm like fully scarred from that book. I read it in September and I can't get it out of my head. I literally need to bleach my brain.
another thing I hated about Baby Teeth is just the sheer ableist undertones of it -- not even undertones, actually, tbh, that book was EXTREMELY ableist. I hated how the author depicted neurodivergent kids, I hated the random violence against one of the disabled kids, and the fact that the dad straight up uses the R-slur?? When confronted with the possibility that his child might be neurodivergent? I also hate that whole thing it does where it depicts neurodivergent children as something that ruin's parents' lives.
the book would be better if u thought it was gonna be a horror book about a demon child and then it turns out the mom was just ableist
Entertainment value aside, these videos are needed because then I’ll know what books are not worth my time! Life is too short to drag through mediocre books
I gotchu boo
Lol. I read the first paragraph of Baby Teeth and DNF'd. I haven't seen your videos on it but I am excited to go back and find them. Hahaha, Tender Is the Flesh is on my shelves waiting for me and I am kind of excited about it? Argentinians are fucking weird as shit and I do love it a lot. I will say though that I almost recommended it for my book club and I am glad I didn't cause my book won, lol, and maybe that isn't a book for everyone...but I kinda think I am gonna like it based on what you have said. Thank you for this amazing video, I have had a shit week (and an extra shit day) and it was just what I needed.
This is what i signed up for and I cant be more happy with my investment. Cindy's wrapped are my everything ✨
Especially the ranting wraps