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Tender Morsels

(2008, Fiction - Fantasy, Written by Margo Lanagan)
  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 16, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 17.
  • Is it any good?

    1.0
  • Common Sense says

    Graphic rape, incest, and more -- should be an adult book.

Themes in this book include:   emotional abuse, family relationships, loss, physical abuse
updated 09.14.09

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 17–18

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The culture depicted in the book is deeply sexist and misogynistic.
  • Role models:

    The main character may be somewhat positive, but the behaviour of everyone around her is terrible.
  • Violence:

    A young girl is repeatedly raped by her father, then repeatedly given drugs to cause her to have horrible miscarriages, graphically described. Then she is gang raped by local teens. When those teens are grown, each is brutally sodomized in revenge. A father kicks his pregnant daughter in the stomach, hoping to cause her to miscarry, he in turn is kicked in the head by a horse and killed, his injury graphically described. A girl contemplates killing her newborn baby by dashing her brains out against a tree and throwing her off a cliff. A man is mauled and eaten by a bear, graphically described, another is shot and killed with a bow and arrow. A man beats a mule to death.
  • Sex:

    A teen has a possible sexual relationship with a bear; a bear gropes a girl and licks her nipple, and other references to bestiality. A scene of sex; a boy boasts of his erection, then has an orgasm in his pants; many references to menstruation, a girl fakes menstruation to keep her father from killing the baby growing inside her. Bears mate while a girl watches, graphically described. References to prostitution, masturbation.
  • Language:

    "S--t," "feck" used in place of f--k, titty.
  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Drinking and drunkenness.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Tender Morsels

Parents need to know that this is not by any reasonable standard a book for children of any age. A teen is repeatedly raped by her father, then gang-raped by other teens who are then sodomized. Horrible miscarriages are graphically described. See the advisories for more horrifying details.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about why the publishers might have decided to publish this as a young adult book instead of an adult book. Do they hope to make more money? Do they think that any book with children should be sold to children?
  • Why would it have been chosen for so many best-of-year lists? Does its literary quality balance its content? For what ages would you recommend it?

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Our Members Say

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See all 9 member reviews

Most Recent Reviews

  1. I rate this title iffy for age 7 and give it 5.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Positive messages
    • Good role models

    clean

    An okay book for adults that enjoy fantasy novels, but not for teens of any age. As a high school English teacher, I read a lot of YA and adult fiction and keep an extensive library in my classroom. I'm not squeamish about mature content in books, but this novel crossed the line and I will not put it in my classroom. It opens with a graphic, descriptive sex scene between a dwarf and the town trollop and within the first 26 pages features the repeated rape of a teen girl by her father, two graphic descriptions of the aftermath of forced abortions that her father performs on her against her will, and the gang rape of the same girl by a group of village boys. Later, the book describes a sexual relationship between a girl (the child born of the gang rape) and a bear (that is actually a teen boy that's been transformed into a lusty bear). Some of the descriptions are frankly as graphic as Anais Nin erotica. Yes, the source material s dark. Grimm is dark. We all know that - but Grimm does not feature long, explicit, heavily descriptive and detailed sexual scenes (both erotic and violent). It's not a bad book - it's just not a young adult book. This is easily as dark, difficult, and disturbing a take on a fairy tale as any of the adult feminist retellings of myth and fable that I have read.

  2. Parent Reviewer
    I rate this title on for age 15 and give it 4.0
    My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content

    • My highlights are:
    • Positive messages

    A great read for older teens

    I loved this book and felt that while it may be disturbing for teens who aren't yet mature enough for it, most teens 15+ could draw some valuable implications from it. I also though that it was beautifully written with a wonderfully innovative story.

  3. Kid Reviewer Age 12
    Lives in New York
    I rate this title iffy for age 15 and give it 2.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Negative role models

    Not horrible but deffinetly not for tweens

    It was an averag book but it had too many detailed sex scenes. It wasn`t very good and I would suggest it to experienced readers,older teens and adults.

  4. Teen Reviewer Age 16
    I rate this title on for age 16 and give it 5.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Negative role models

    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Positive messages
    • Good role models

  5. Kid Reviewer Age 12
    I rate this title off for age 17 and give it 1.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Negative role models

    it is to nasty for to read and i very disgusting

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