A review by abbie_
Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for my free digital ARC in exchange for a review!

If you were a fan of more understated dystopian fiction novels like Severance by Ling Ma and Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, you’ll definitely want to look out for Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías when it hits UK shelves on 1st August!

Translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary in absolutely gorgeous, seamless prose, this muted piece of Uruguayan fiction had me gripped despite its distinct lack of plot. The atmosphere Trías creates is exactly what I want from disaster fiction - fuelled by unease, unsettling in the fact that it’s so believable. This was originally published in 2020, and I think Trías wrote the bulk of it before the pandemic hit, but it ends up drawing eerie parallels between the real life catastrophe unfolding.

The ecological disaster in Pink Slime is unnamed, but people must stay inside when the siren sounds as that means the ‘red wind’ is coming - a grisly phenomenon which strips the skin from anyone caught in it. The unnamed narrator adjusts to this new life in her coastal town, slowly emptying as more well off inhabitants flee inland. She remains behind, caring for a boy with an unnamed disorder (which makes him insatiably hungry), paid well by his upper class parents. The critique of how global events affect people who have money differently isn’t in your face but it’s impossible to miss.

I loved the claustrophobic effect of seeing a large-scale disaster unfold through the lens of just one woman. Her everyday worries over the boy in her charge, her mother (whose behaviour grows ever more erratic) and her ex-husband who is in hospital inflicted with the disease but somehow not dead (admittedly this was the only part that left me scratching my head a bit, it didn’t feel fully explored) remain, even as she navigates the increasingly hostile new landscape of her city.

I know lots of us might not yet feel comfortable engaging with pandemic fiction, but I highly recommend this unsettling little gem!
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