actual rating: 3.5/5 stars

i always find it hard to rate books like the unworthy. this is one of those reading experiences where i was constantly caught between being impressed by the writing and wishing i was more connected to the story itself. i've decided to give it 3.5 stars and i think if certain elements had been fleshed out more, it easily could have been higher for me.

augustina bazterrica’s writing is stunning. the prose is dreamlike and unsettling, pulling you into a world that feels just out of reach. which really worked for the kind of story this is. i was often completely wrapped up in the language. the tone and atmosphere she created is honestly some of my favorite i’ve read this year.

but at the same time the story’s dreamlike quality also made it hard for me to fully engage. for most of the book i had this constant sense of not quite knowing what was happening or how things fit together. and while that was clearly intentional, it’s not always my personal favorite kind of reading experience. i like having something to hold onto and here i often felt disoriented.

what really pulled me in were the glimpses we got of the cult and the world itself because those parts really fascinated me. i loved the concept of exploring this kind of society and its structures and i thought there was so much potential there. but i found myself wishing for more depth and detail about the cult, the way the world operates, and the dynamics at play. the parts we did get were some of the most compelling in the book and i wanted them to be more fully realized.

this is a novel that thrives on ambiguity, atmosphere, and mood. and in those areas it absolutely succeeds. but i also think that left me a little detached emotionally. i wanted to feel more and to have a clearer sense of where the story was taking me.

that said i’m still glad i read it. the writing alone makes this worth picking up if you enjoy literary horror or more experimental storytelling. i think this will be a perfect fit for certain readers who love being immersed in an eerie, unsettling space without clear answers for example if you loved i who have never known men, which was a 2 star for me, i think you could really enjoy this one! for me i just wanted a bit more clarity and worldbuilding to really fall in love with it.

i’ll absolutely be keeping an eye out for whatever augustina bazterrica writes next. the talent is undeniable and i’d love to see her take on something a little more grounded in its world next time.

thank you to netgalley, scribner, and agustina bazterrica for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

The only reason this book isn't a 5 star is because I have no idea what I just read. This is not a book for readers that need answers to everything because in all honesty, it has very little world building and you never learn how The Sisterhood came to exist or what happened to the world outside the walls. Agustina Bazterrica always does an amazing job writing really unsettling descriptions of horror and she never fails to add complexities to the character that you're following. While I don't want to go into much detail about what the plot of this book is, I think the story telling was really well done and the way the story was told was super unique. I'll forever read everything Bazterrica writes because she is just an incredible storyteller.

While this didn't hit quite as well as effectively for me as Tender as the Flesh, it's a great second novel. I appreciate the length and the lack of a need to explain everything that is going on. Bazterrica does a fantastic job of creating fully fleshed out (excuse the pun), terrifying worlds.

First off, let me just give a quick thank you for NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

And now onto the book itself on which I have extremely mixed feelings.

The tone of this novel is something to behold. It's dark. It's delicate. It's haunting in a way that I cannot say I've come across before. It's beautiful. The most the reader will be able to take away from the description is that there has been a great apocalypse - The Water Wars, brought on by the worship of AI (sound familiar?) Little else is given to us in a way of explanation, but I felt that that was a good choice really. It's mysterious and dark, and a perfect setting for the masochistic monastery.

Now onto the story.

The first half of this novel drags on. There is no real point. Just a repeat of torture scenes by a morally confused lead with no name. I have no connection to her, so frankly, I didn't much care. Then finally, with the introduction of Lucia, the story surges forward. I had previously picked at this book with little sips. And from then on I sat down and finished the rest.

Only to have it end.

Just like that.

So suddenly that I feel almost nothing about it.

All in all The Unworthy is a dark and haunting read, that comes up just a bit short of what it could have became.

3/5

Will Bazterrica ever write something that lets me down? It isn't looking likely. I don't know how she does it, but each thing she churns out manages to make my stomach churn and my pulse race. She does what other horror authors often get wrong - She doesn't write gore or oddities for the sake of shock value. When she does it is intentional and feels like if she hadn't included those details, it wouldn't be the same read.

Unworthy will grip you from the first page and keep you enthralled until the last.

Agustina can do no wrong. I've been a fan for years - thank you for the early copy of this. I've devoured everything she writes and The Unworthy is no different. We are blessed to have a writer with such intensity. 10/10

Review for Reactor: In the convent of the Sacred Sisterhood, at the end of the world, lives a group of women controlled by piety, devotion and their ability to suffer for their supposed sins. Ruled over by the Superior Sister and the mysterious “Him,” the women are allowed to live in relative safety from the dangers of the outside world, where pestilence, climate change and other unnamed perils would certainly shorten their life spans dramatically. But what of the constant fear of life inside the convent, what of the constant impending violence? What of the indoctrination and religiosity of the Sisterhood that encourages the women to hurt themselves, hurt each other to climb up the ranks of the Chosen? What exactly are they being Chosen for anyway, and is it really better to live these heavily monitored, restricted lives, safe from dangers untold, than it is to be outside the convent walls?

In a world as bleak as the one in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and a creepy monastery that on the surface seems like a refuge, but with sinister vibes of maybe a larder for an alien that eats people or perhaps a grooming facility for some sort of sexual predator, a young woman is keeping a diary. It is probably not allowed, and the woman writing her story is working out what is going on as she writes, which makes for a creepily vague story with fun twists and not too many strong triggering scenes on-page.,

This was perfection!!! I love Agustina Bazterria’s writing so so much.

This book follows one of the members of The House of Scared Sisterhood as she deals with daily life where other unworthy members try to tear eachother down to prove themselves “worthy”, while dealing with all of this she starts to remember parts of her past from before the world collapsed and keeps a secret journal documenting it.

I found this book to be raw, gritty and griping I couldn’t put it down and had to know what was going to happen next! Agustina does a great job at genre bending in this book it’s a dystopian & a literary horror. I read this book MONTHS ago and I’m STILL thinking about it!

I would recommend this book who anyone who enjoys darker dystopian novels or “weird girl” horror!

This was an arc sent to me by the publisher but as always my review is my own.

This was dark but I liked it. I wish the world building was better. Jumping into it in the middle of the craziness made the rest of the book confusing and hard to follow along. But bits and pieces came together. I almost want to read it a second time because I think I’ll understand it more.

I finished this several days ago and I've been sitting on my feelings about it, almost recovering. It's very short and bleak and it just crushed me. The main character is an unreliable narrator but I still ended up caring so much about her for everything she had to go through. Some truly horrific things happen, to people and to a pet, but there was still humanity and maybe even hope.
This was kind of the opposite of the first book I read by this author where people were breeding people for meat like cows and the main character there worked in the system. That felt almost like a fable where this felt too real.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was more fleshed out and the story was a little bit longer. I had a hard time understanding or fully grasping what was happening at times, but it was enjoyable at times. Slightly felt like a fever dream.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of The Unworthy!

This is a haunting and beautifully written dystopian novel set in a post-collapse world where women are controlled by a brutal religious order. The story follows an unnamed narrator—an “Unworthy”—living in a convent where pain, punishment, and fear rule. She keeps a secret diary, and when a new girl, Lucía, arrives, everything starts to change.

The book explores dark themes like blind faith, power, shame, and survival. It’s disturbing at times, but deeply emotional and thought-provoking. The writing is lyrical and intense, and the translation by Sarah Moses is excellent.

The advance reader copy did not include content warnings, which I believe are necessary given the intense and graphic nature of the subject matter. Readers should be aware that the book contains scenes of torture, self-harm, and psychological abuse.

The Unworthy is a powerful and unsettling read that lingers long after the final page. It's a testament to Bazterrica's skill as a writer that she can craft such a disturbing yet thought-provoking narrative.

This was unexpected in many ways. Years after life seems to end, there is a group called the Sacred Sisterhood who live safely sequestered away from the world. There is a hierarchy that helps the women remain passive until things start to unravel with the arrival of a new woman. This is all portrayed through the journal of the narrator. There are no chapters because this is completely written by the narrator, which made it very different than most books. I usually would hate this, but the pacing worked so well. At the halfway point things started to make sense and I really enjoyed the ride.

I wouldn't compare this to Tender is the Flesh. Not much about it besides the genre is similar. Both are horror and both explore the horrors with which our world is headed for. The depravity is still there, although in The Unworthy it is more subtle than TITF.

I was very very excited about this book when I saw it was coming out because Tender is the Flesh is one of my all-time favorite books. I did enjoy this one, the journal entry style was fun. She really was able to instill the fear that the FMC went through for survival as well. There was one moment that really just punched me in the gut of emotions and I felt that heartbreak.

I was a little lost getting into it at the beginning trying to understand the covenant, and the world.
It is a short novel, so we don't get to much but what we do get is fantastic. I think i wish there was just more handed out about the state of the world and what's happening.

Book/Story Overall: 2.75/5

As many readers have stated, this too was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. As someone who absolutely loved Tender is the Flesh, I couldn’t wait to see how Bazterrica would approach these themes. But it breaks my heart to say that I was sorely underwhelmed by this read. What I was hoping would be a bold and unique mashup of eco, religious, and cult horror ended up being a repetitive and often slow read with an ending that felt rushed.
Firstly, I’ll admit that the writing in this book is still strong—but I kind of expect that from this author at this point. Frankly, while I like her writing style, I can also acknowledge that there were a lot of moments where the language felt overly flowery. Usually, a lot of readers wouldn’t mind this—some even prefer it—but given that the story itself is lackluster, it becomes another element some readers will find hard to overlook.

My first big letdown in this read was the abrupt way we’re tossed into the story. I’ve read a lot of books where the narrative just begins and we discover things as we go, but here I found it unsuccessful. The book is already short in length, and there’s just not enough worldbuilding, lore, or explanation of function to really hook my interest or inform the reader properly about the setting and surroundings to care about the outcome in the long run.

I still think this book offers a decent example of the long-lasting impact of patriarchal systems. While decent, it wasn’t new. It felt like another contribution to a largely filled space that highlights the ways in which men use and create certain structures to further manipulate and take advantage of women. It also never felt like the author was trying to introduce something new to the conversation, which led a lot of the story to be very predictable.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the ebook & Physical.

So I heard a lot about this book on social media in particular booktok. A lot of the feedback that I heard I have to agree with. This book has a lot of atmosphere that’s very foreboding and dark and mysterious. However, I have to say as someone who enjoys a mix of plot and character that for me this book wasn’t a five star read but more of a 3 1/2 star read. Once you understood the premise, it was easy to follow, but it took more than it should have to get there I think for such a short book overall. That being said, it’s worth the read and I think I would reread this at a different time in the future because I do think I will get something out of this book each time that I read it that is different from the previous time.

I wasn't really sure if I was going to enjoy the book in the beginning, but as I got further into the story I found myself enjoying it a bit more. Some of the trauma felt a little predictable, but Bazterrica's writing style made up for it. I still feel like I was missing some larger theme, but that could also just be me expecting more depth.

A chilling and engaging page-turner from one of the queens of unsettling and thought-provoking horror.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica; not at all what I was expecting, and I didn't really jive with what it actually was.