After a grave virus eats away most animal life, Augustina’s characters resort to cannibalism in this dystopian universe.

Genre: Dystopian Fiction

I stumbled across this book and now cannot see the world the same again. This experience is life-altering, simply because there are severe parallels between our current factory farming and the world that Bazterrica creates in her novel. Human flesh* (a specific kind of human-bred meat) is nothing more than a way to feed and indulge those who can afford it.

Breakdown: Augustina does a tremendous job describing the characters and their headspace to her readers in this dystopian world. Once horrified by their choice to eat humans, the main character is now faced with living in their reality, working at a farming factory where they breed, kill, and sell human meat. The narrator describes the laws established to produce this meat, which they call “heads” and walks us through the process of treating them like farm animals. These “heads” are tortured, killed, abused, and without dignity (much like factory farming). 

Read it if: You want to be seriously horrified. 

Is it funny: No… oh no..

The cover: An amalgamation of a half-human and half-cow –terrifying.

Do I recommend it: I really do. If you’re not into horror or dystopian readings, this is a great one, to begin with. I am still recovering from it…

Rating: 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️