Cadáver exquisito
2015
- romance literature
- fiction, dystopian
- dystopias
- dystopies
- horror
- fiction
- science fiction
- thriller
- cannibalism
The story
**Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.** His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.
What it’s like
Clipped, flat prose reads like a plant manager's logbook, all short declarative sentences, inventories of weights, cuts and consignments, delivered with a numbed calm that makes the carnage feel administrative. The world is grey and sterile: fluorescent light over steel tables, refrigerated corridors, the smell of disinfectant, and drab interiors of a near-future city where the unthinkable has become routine. Sound is mostly machinery humming and the silences between terse exchanges, with a sick father's bedroom offering the only softness. The vibe is cold, bleak and unsettling, a slow-burning dread that tightens into quiet horror, suited to a late-night read alone or a grey afternoon when you want something that lingers. Pacing is steady and claustrophobic, and the emotional register starts numb and gradually cracks as a lonely, complicit man begins to see the person he is meant to process. Intensity is high: graphic butchery, explicit cannibalism, casual cruelty and sexual violence rendered without flinching, with revulsion and dread far more than suspense. Not for anyone wanting something gentle. For readers who want dystopian horror with literary restraint and moral unease.
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