Worry chronicles two adult sisters living together. It is definitely a no plot, just vibes book, but a real and honest depiction of life. I found it be funny, while also being mundane at times. I definitely enjoyed, but if I was not in the right head space this book may have received a lower rating.

A headlong rush of words. This tale of Jules and her younger sister Poppy will make you nod in recognition and occasionally chuckle but might also exhaust your patience. Poppy has mental health issues and Jules worries about her, a lot (and justifiably). While set in 2019, it's a story that, minus references to social media among other things, could be told at any date because it's very much about the two of them. And a dog. I wasn't a fan of the ending but no spoilers from me. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Great imagery but not so much plot.

Wow, really not a fan. I went into this blind and didn’t know what to expect. I’m still not really sure what I read… there was no plot and the character's honesty drove me nuts.

Also, there was no warning that the ending was going to be so intense. There was animal abuse that came out of left field (so just a heads up). I feel like the entire book was just a bunch of red flags.

I appreciate NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read this book and review it honestly.

𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴."

Real as real. Siblingship is a slow 𝘚𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘥 episode. Dialogue driven sister-sister quibbles with overbearing parents that reminds me that perhaps all our families are dysfunctional. Families remind us that we’ve all got issues. And it’s how we handle the issues that make us who we are. Anxiety is just a big kiddy blanket for all the ways we’ve naturalized and commodified the traumas we’ve integrated early on in our lives from first love, the love we learn from our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers. And this love is warped.

For those who text dumb stuff to their siblings before responding to the podcast-length voice notes from their best friend. For those who want to learn how to better dance around the racist things your parents say (sometimes!) with combative humor.

Incredibly New York. Hilarious and full of heart. I’m waiting for Tanner to write pilots for Hulu and HBO dramadies because she writes characters towards earnest reality.

Worry follows two sisters, Jules and Poppy, as they navigate living together while having a complicated relationship and the general difficulties of being in your twenties in the late 2010s.

This is yet another “lonely unlikable woman in her twenties is struggling” book and I enjoyed it just as I usually enjoy books like that. Jules and Poppy were, in a way, even more unlikable than the usual unlikable main characters I read about because unlike those characters these two feel like real people I’ve known in my life. They weren’t cartoonishly evil. They were the kind of people you come across every day everywhere you go.

My very very favorite thing about Worry is that Alexandra Tanner did an exceptional job at writing realistic dialogue (and general interactions) between sisters. I was in awe while reading it and even now as I write this review and think back on it I’m still in awe of her ability to do that. I’ve never read a book with conversations between sisters that felt this natural and true to real life. It was almost creepy to be reading dialogue and behavior that captured all of the most intimate and minute details of my relationships and interactions with my sisters (don’t worry! Our relationship isn’t as toxic as Jules and Poppy’s lol) and the interactions I’ve seen other women I know have with their sisters.

Although I did enjoy Worry I didn’t love it. It wasn’t memorable to me. When I talk about books I’ve read this month I always forget about this one. But Worry’s greatest flaw for me is that although it was a HEAVILY character focused book Jules and Poppy didn’t have strong enough personalities or even characteristics to stick with me emotionally. I loved reading the interactions between them, even their terrible fights, but it was almost as though their relationship was the only “character” that had the depth and attention to detail necessary to create a true personality while they as individuals didn’t. Maybe that was the point. Maybe the point was to show that they’re hollow unless they’re intertwined with one another. Them being overly dependent on each other in every aspect of their lives is an idea that’s mentioned throughout the book so it’s not far fetched me to say that that might’ve been the point. If it was the point I can respect that and I think it’s a cool concept. But in any case it made the book less enjoyable at the time that I read it.

I recommend Worry!

Read 25% of this at the doctor's office and then an additional 20% at home post-work and all I can say is brutal!! I sometimes think I am a mean person but these gals definitely have me beat...there were some totally hilarious moments though so I am hopeful that this will find the right audience! I also think three years ago I would have eaten this up so that's some ~character growth~ for me personally

thanks to Scribner for the early copy through Netgalley and soz that I didn't actually finish it

Worry is going to be a talked about book, dripping in millennial ennui and charting the enmeshed and complicated relationship between two sisters in NYC. Jules lives in the city, in a relationship that she thinks is going to go the distance when her younger sister Poppy moves in, after having left their mother's house. On the surface, Jules has her act together- the aforementioned relationship and a stable job at a Cliffs Notes-esque company. Poppy appears more fragile. She attempted suicide in the past, something that is not talked about and is experiencing debilitating recurrent hives, which no one can figure out the cause of.

There is a sustained undercurrent of anxiety throughout Worry. Things on the surface are not as they appear. Jules spends her time on a secret social media account searching for mommy bloggers and conspiracy theorists. She amuses herself by reading these, but becomes obsessed with searching. While the relationship with the sisters is complicated, their mother adds another degree of pathology, often pitting the two sisters against one another, when also saying that they bring out the worst in one another.

At times this book can be funny (there's a three-legged dog named Amy Klobuchar, the girls go home and get "touched up" by their plastic surgeon dad as a sign of love), but also there is a sense of dread throughout. There is not all that much of a plot, as just when it appears something changes in their relationship, it reverts back to baseline.

The ending of this book will be polarizing- and triggering to some folks. If I had known going in about it, I may not have read, but I also don't want to spoil. I would have rated this book higher, if not for the ending.

Thank you to Scribner via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

OOF. This is one that started strong for me but the ending absolutely brought my rating down by half a star. I did not like the final few pages of this book or how it felt like it abruptly ended. Okay now that the bad is out of the way- here's what I loved:

1. Unlikable female characters: Jules could be painfully relatable with her cynicism and detachment from the world. Poppy was terrible but also pretty sure I've met tons of girls my age likenher.

2. The premise of two sisters living together: the arguing and love/could be very relatable at times having a sister. However, these two definitely outdo me and my sister's arguments lol.

3. Some parts were SO FUNNY: Honestly I laughed out loud at this book and its ridiculousness way too many times.

3 5 stars overall rounded up! Out 3/26

This book is unfortunately a DNF for me. I enjoyed it in the beginning until the negative conversation about Israel. Either the characters were seriously describing Israel as an apartheid, debating the validity of the BDS movement and accusing Israel of bombing everyone, or this was meant to be satirical. Either way it is harmful and upsetting given the current climate and the rise in antisemitism throughout the world. I was looking forward to the Jewish representation in this novel, but this is not the type of representation I want as a Jewish reader. I didn't find it funny.

Thank you Scribner for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The stream of consciousness in this felt so realistic 1) because of the actual content and 2) because the author is not looking down on her subject the way a lot of people who write internet obsessed twenty/thirty year olds do. I was trying to figure why I didn’t connect with this because I really liked the writing and realized that was the answer-i had very little emotional investment in the character, what happened to her, her decisions. poppy was more interesting honestly (she would hate that). I think this definitely has a large audience who will loveeeee it and alexandra tanner is very talented and i will be looking out for whatever she writes next!!

3.25 rounded up for debut and also prose!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the ARC!

"Worry" by Alexandra Tanner offers a candid and dark exploration of anxiety and sisterhood. The novel documents the days after Jules Gold's sister, Poppy, moves in with her. The book is described as "Seinfeldian", as I assume it to be sketches about nothing but daily life. Jules deals with anxiety, particularly around food poisoning and Poppy is dealing with hives of unknown origin and the aftermath of a suicide attempt. They're also both dealing with their mother, falling into conspiracy theories and Messianic Judaism, who generally seems absolutely uncaring about either of her daughters needs or cares.

This is one of those books where every single character is a horrible person and the text feels like it's 90% dialogue, feeling both quick moving and awfully slow at the same time. There's a lot of micro-commentary on internet-obsessed millennials and so much of the novel, it felt so accurate in a way that I haven't seen in literature yet, especially as someone who loves watching Ballerina Farm and other homestead mommies.

The book felt so blunt though. Scenes just switched from to another, the dialogue unending. The fact that both sisters are so mean to each other for no reason throughout the whole book was so upsetting. Though Jules' treatment of Poppy mirrors how she sees herself more than anything, the ending of the book is so sudden, which really affected how I think of it.

Overall, I think that if you like reading books with terrible people and dark humor with commentary on society, you'll LOVE this book. It's not for everyone, but if you like character-driven books with minimal plot and mostly internal and external dialogues, this is for you.

Thanks to Goodreads and Scribner for the copy of the book.

I finished this book a week ago and I still can't gather my thoughts about it. It's so raw and real. Worry is about two sisters and their messy relationship. I don't personally have sisters but I feel every sister's relationships are complicated yet extremely beautiful. This novel talks about some deep themes so I suggest to check trigger warnings before picking it up. It's very character-driven, it doesn't seem to have a plot or like anything is really going on, but I enjoyed the writing.

I don’t know how to rate or review this one. One on hand, I found the 2 main characters to be insufferable, but on the other hand I was interested in their lives and wanted to see what was going to happen. Which was not much, because very little actually happens in this character-driven story. I’m not sure if there was satire or if I laughed at the wrong things, and I felt really old while reading. But I overall enjoyed my reading experience, I think. I’m not sure how I feel, but I’m very curious what others are going to think of this one!

I could not maintain interest in this book because I did not find the characters interesting. I do not think I am the right audience for this author.

"WORRY delivers a rollercoaster of emotions wrapped in humor and tenderness. From sibling dynamics to the absurdities of life, including a three-legged dog named Amy Klobuchar and reflections on the nonsensical nature of work, this novel offers a wild ride. Its unexpected moments of warmth remind us of our flawed humanity, urging us to laugh at ourselves a bit more. Dive into this captivating read and experience its unique charm firsthand. Trust me, you'll love it!"

4.5 stars

This was so good, I couldn't put it down - it was one of those books that I wanted to neglect all my other responsibilities for. It's the story of Jules and Poppy, sisters that end up living together in NY. The sister relationship between Jules and Poppy is hilarious; even though they're constantly fighting it made me wish I had a sister! I loved the Insgram mommies that Jules was obsessed with, loved the totally toxic relationship Jules and Poppy had with their 'mommy' and 'daddy'. The ending was totally unexpected and a little traumatic, but other than that I really enjoyed it. Definitely pick this one up!

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC.

The statement “I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much” in book form. Chronically online, full of mind-numbing Instagram conspiracy theories, endless consumption and misery and nihilism. But I swear it’s also funny! I thought the writing and character work here was very well done. It’s difficult to capture the intense kind of love that is also deeply toxic and often hateful that can exist between sisters (and mothers), knowing that these characters are acting this way out of deep love and even deeper insecurity. I do think the ending was a bit strange and out of nowhere, it kept up the themes of this book but otherwise didn’t feel like it fit, being as quick and jarring as it was. If you are a fan of messy 20-something coming of age stories, I’d say this is another solid installment, though I can’t say it’s the strongest of the genre.

4.25⭐️ I absolutely loved this! I found a lot of myself in the main character, the story centers around the older sister Jules as her sister Poppy comes to live with her in NYC. Jules is used to her own problems taking a backseat to her sisters, and struggles to find her own voice in the world. It’s definitely a “no plot just vibes” kind of story, so if you’re not into that then I wouldn’t recommend it!
I cannot wait for this book to come out, and to hear other’s thoughts!

What did I just read? The blubs brought me in with comps to Frances Ha and Seinfeld, but it’s the worst parts of those two properties - a book about nothing with lost, narcissistic girls lacking any redeeming charm.

There were some funny bits and even some aspects where I recognized myself, but for the most part, it was like looking in a mirror and only seeing your disgusting flaws for hours at a time. Not how I want to spend my free time. Also, as an only child, I thoroughly did not understand the sister dynamic that was central to this story.

I usually love sad girl lit, but this was a bridge too far for me.

3.5⭐️

the definition of no plot just vibes!!

enjoyed the sister dynamic and the dysfunctional family, the mother made me laugh so much!!!!

the chronically online aspects were good and living in New York as a young person was spot on.

the ending, however, was not what I was expecting and it was kinda traumatic Imao I am not even an animal person but I was like Jesus Christ what is happening here…

I honestly don't have much to say but I'm glad I read and this book is one of my favorite covers ever

I am hit or miss with the cool girl lit genre - this was almost a hit for me !! almost...