A new novel from Agustina Bazterrica who brought us the incredible Tender is the Flesh and the dark, humorous and poignant short stories of Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird.

If The Handmaid's Tale and The Road had a little biblio-baby. This book covers religion/cults, the patriarchy and misogyny, the pain of loss and the joy of love, and what we are willing to do to fit in and survive. Agustina delivers a story showcasing the fondness for nostalgia and the torment of trauma. The fear of the future and the joy of novelty in the mondaine. The Unworthy, as with Tender is the Flesh, tries to show us the errors humanity is making in regard to our environment, flora and fauna.

Five stars because I cried for Circe.

For those who have been living in a hole, Bazterrica is the author of the brutal [book:Tender Is the Flesh|49090884], a dystopia where humans are bred as a food source. In this, her second novel (I believe), the author surpasses the brutality of her first novel with one of climatic and planetary devastation, violent religious cults, and one young woman's effort to remember her past and escape the life of an unworthy.

As most of the South American authors I have read, there is a beauty and lyricism in Bazterrica's novel - not simply the descriptions of nature and dragonflies, motherly love and changing skies, but also the cockroaches and the vultures, the contaminated water and the eyeless fish. The savage mutilations of the women caught in the religious order's trap. This is not an easy read - the book is about the survivors of a global catastrophe where millions of people have died, civilization has collapsed, and the oceans have gone dry. It is violent place, with brutal, bloody scenes that will turn many readers' stomachs. But for those who can tolerate the ugliness, there is also beauty and hope in one young woman's story.

My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy. My opinions are my own.

What a crazy read! I really enjoyed Tender is the Flesh and Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, both previous books I read by this author, so when I saw The Unworthy, I was excited to read it. This book seemed like it was written by another author though. It didn’t read anything like their previous books. That is not a criticism, just an observation.

This is an extremely quick read, quite disturbing, more so than Tender is the Flesh. Bazterrica managed to have me both empathize and despise the MC throughout the story, which is not easy to do, let alone in such a short book. The MC goes through such a transformation from beginning to end. A lot of this book (characters, background, setting) is very vague and ambiguous until the end. The slow world building is one of my favorite aspects of this story. There are a lot of questions left unanswered and a lot left to the imagination but nothing that takes away from the story. There can be such a fine line between being too vague and just vague enough, and I feel like Bazterrica nailed it in this book.

Maybe it was the darkness of it all or how creepy and disturbing it was, but this book really worked for me. I found it fascinating, heartbreaking, terrifying and didn’t want to put it down. Bazterrica wrote another story that seemed plausible without it being so obvious in your-face about it and I appreciate that. It allows me, as the reader to imagine the way in which this could potentially happen without being directly told, if that makes sense. I enjoy the way this author writes and her translator does an excellent job (Sarah Moses).

***Thank you NetGalley, Agustina Bazterrica, and Scribner for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

I wanted to like this but I just felt that it fell flat. It went nowhere. It was giving and didn't give. It was vague and for what? Mother give us more. There was so much vagueness that it didn't make sense. What was the purpose? What was the cause? We got served a dinner that we didn't eat.

In a stark world governed by the fight between contamination and purity, where toxic butterflies leave behind burns when they alight upon your skin, a former monastery has become a horror house for new religious fanaticism and sacrifice. The Unworthy excels by exploring desperation and artifice within a repressive community of women.

The world building in The Unworthy is stark, but well executed. Bazterrica subverts medieval motifs, already so dark, for a post-apocalyptic world. In the beginning of the story, the protagonist is just trying to survive, and in doing so, intentionally forgets her past before the Sacred Sisterhood. However, as she connects with a new arrival, she can’t avoid remembering her difficult childhood, those she has lost to a dead world, and what makes life worth living.

This is a short, dark exploration of humanity in the end times. The story is grounded and believable, with a touch of magical realism. A compelling read!

I loved the atmosphere that was set in this book and how it tread the fine line between reality, fantasy, and horror. This was definitely a shorter book that felt much longer and vaster to me, revealing a post-apocalyptic world scarred by climate change. The structure of this book also enhanced the storytelling, the sudden starts and stops pulling us in to the narrator’s mindset, and also her pain. Absolutely an enjoyable read!

I love this author so much! 😭 So good!!! so eerie and insane i couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the plot i can’t say it enough. it was fast and i was confused but it was so worth it

3.5 stars

Very striking! The imagery here is very dark, heavy, and often violently descriptive. It makes for a story that I feel will remain quite memorable, but that I wanted to finish in one day because I didn't want to sit with it.

This chronicles the life of a nameless member of "the unworthy" as she tries to survive in a fascist, abusive convent in a dystopian world. Old language of the old world and doubting the superiors leads to torturous punishments and they're so frequent, the "unworthy" relish in coming up with punishments for the others because it means they're safe. The system is one that the narrator has doubts about as she struggles to remember her life before.

Several points of this book are gross. Several descriptions of cockroaches, decaying bodies, consuming rats, and sadistic punishments. The writing is so vibrant that each new horror actually raised the bar, which is as impressive as it was a huge bummer to read.

It takes quite a while for the introduction of Lucia, but I was never really bored while reading this. I was riveted more by the narrator's story prior to her arrival at the convent, but I think the entire book was well written.

Not quite my style of story, but if you're into horror and dystopian stories, you might also enjoy this. I haven't been able to get my hands on Tender is the Flesh, but if this is a good hint at the type of writing found there, I'm in for a wild ride when I do.

I had high hopes for The Unworthy, but unfortunately, it really fell short for me. While it clearly aims for shock value and a searing dystopian critique, it ultimately feels repetitive, with gratuitous violence and torture taking center stage over actual character development or plot. Once the initial shock wears off, there's really not much there to sustain interest. Even 190 pages felt like a slog. Even the "big reveal" at the end is predictable and lacks impact, making the whole experience feel hollow rather than thought-provoking or sharp.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the advance copy.

This one was so disjointed and perplexing novel that fails to deliver a coherent narrative or meaningful character development. Set in a dystopian world ravaged by climate catastrophe, the story centers on a nameless protagonist confined within the oppressive walls of the Sacred Sisterhood convent. I wanted to love it but I feel the language and religious horror is not for me.

I recently read TENDER IS THE FLESH, and when I saw THE UNWORTHY on NetGalley, I knew I had to try to request it! I was blown away by Agustina's prose in THE UNWORTHY, and pleasantly satisfied by the suspenseful elements in this novel. What I felt I didn't get from TENDER IS THE FLESH, I got from this book. I loved the queer romance element, the protagonist's voice, the setting, and the dynamics between characters. Where TENDER IS THE FLESH felt flatter in its character depictions, THE UNWORTHY felt completely three-dimensional. I am so delighted that I got to read this one pre-pub, and I will recommend it to friends!

Sidenote: GREAT timing on this one! With the surge in popularity of dystopian novels right now, I'm so excited to see the reception of this one!

This read was a 4.5-5 stars for me. This was my first book by Bazterrica and I will be reading Tender Is the Flesh.

The book is from the narrative of a girl/woman’s journal entries. You’re able to gather it’s a post apocalyptic (due to climate change) world and she is in a religious adjacent group that is being ‘protected.’ The story follows this woman’s experience in the dark sisterhood and slowly remembering her past. It’s eerie and a bit gory at times, but I was absolutely hooked by what was going on.

I don’t have much experience in this genre so I cannot speak to how original or if this book stands out with its story/purpose, but I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed the writing, the tone, the looks into the world the narrator knew before the sisterhood.

Our protagonist and narrator has survived the horrors of a brutally dystopian future, only to find herself cloistered away with the Sacred Sisterhood. In this seemingly safe haven, the women of the Sisterhood (the unworthy) exist to serve an unseen god figure known only as "Him" under the watchful eye of the Superior Sister, who never hesitates to deliver brutal punishments to the sisters. The Superior Sister and Him divide the women into various groups, with most unworthy hoping to be named Enlightened. This shared aspiration serves to pit many in the Sisterhood against each other.

A lot is going on in this book. What would you sacrifice to meet your basic needs? What can you force yourself to believe when your life is at stake? Is true Sisterhood possible when there is no safety?

Bazterrica masterfully builds a bleak, foreign, yet familiar world, always withholding enough information so that the reader never feels truly at home in the text. We are a guest, but not a welcome one.

It's a brutal read. If you read Tender Is the Flesh, you're already familiar with the literary gut-punches Bazterrica is so skilled at doling out. She doesn't hold back in this one. In this novel, as in the world Bazterrica creates, there are no satisfying answers, only intriguing questions. If you're frustrated by ambiguity, you'll likely want to pass on this one. I'm sure we'll see comparisons to "I Who Have Never Known Men," and that's certainly accurate, but this is a leaner read with a vicious bite.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC.

The Unworthy is a haunting exploration of a dystopian future where environmental collapse has led to a disintegration of society. The story centers itself on an unnamed woman confined within the Sacred Sisterhood, a secluded, oppressive and abusive religious convent. Through her secret diary entries she recounts daily rituals, punishments and the rigid hierarchy that defines the groups existence. The arrival of a new member disrupts the established order and prompts the narrator to confront previously suppressed memories which bring her to question the orders doctrines. The evocative prose, familiar to Agustina Bazterrica, delves deep into themes of faith, autonomy, and the souls resilience amidst pervasive desolation and extreme conditions. While it effectively mirrored the protagonist's turmoil, the novels fragmented structure and unabashed violence challenged me as a reader. The Unworthy is a compelling book for those who appreciate introspective, bleak and unsettling literature.

I’m on a dystopian kick and this does not disappoint especially as a sophomore follow up to tender is the flesh! The beginning has little context but as the plot develops the book becomes easy to follow. It’s not for everyone but definitely worth it especially if you like I who have never known men.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC. A post-apocalyptic story of survival, friendship, love, greed, misogyny, religious abuse, the list goes on. Bazterrica knows how to write a horror story that could very easily be humankind and earth’s fate in a not-so-distant future.

I loved the poetic dreamy writing, in the form of journal entries, of such violent and bleak events. My only complaint is too many cockroaches (lol) bc those are a fear of mine- which just means the horror was done a little *too* well at times.

I received this ARC from Netgalley. This book broke my heart! Sure it’s as black as my soul.. but it is now a shamble of pieces on the floor and I will live in my feelings for days!! How will I ever recover?? Therapy? Where do I send my bill?

This was definitely a 4 star read.. but for me it was 💯 a 5 star read. I got half way through this book and tried to go to sleep last night and I couldn’t stop thinking about this story. I got up and finished the book. Any book that demands I finish it now NEEDS a 5 star review!

I LOVE horror and horror is subjective. The Narrator is extremely likable and relatable. The POV is written in a journal of sorts and with any material she can use. There are pages missing and sentences scratched out, which I think add to the story. We get glimpses of what came before and some horrific scenes. Although, I knew what was going on in the room, it didn’t make it any less terrifying.

I read reviews that ppl had questions. Did read Tender is the Flesh? If you know, you know.

Justice for Circe!! JUSTICE FOR CIRCE! Listen the way her story was told was perfection. My Shayla ❤️‍🩹

A poetic, meditative horror that gnaws on climate change, human greed, misogyny, cults, and religious abuse.

This is a quick, <200 page read that I devoured in a single day. Even as I felt the mounting, hollow hunger for something more substantial, I remained captive in its strange sisterhood of pain and ecstatic color. Blues, blackened nights, rust red. We do have a plot, but it's secondary to our narrator's character study. This is sometimes to the story's detriment, though her transformation over the course of all she endures is substantial. And she endures a lot: Bazterrica embraces the cult's many on-page terrors with zealous determination. Body horror fans, you're in the right place, and if you like it steeped in surrealism then so much the better.

But despite the prose pros, The Unworthy's attempts to comment on gender violence are sorely lacking. While I think it makes some poignant and occasionally touching points about misogyny and how abusers use catastrophe (those real and imagined) as cover to subjugate and control their victims, the impact ultimately rings...not hollow, exactly. But simplified, incomplete. One version of extreme suffering with minimal cultural nuance is presented as if all women endure the same cruelties at the same hands in the same way. A bit Gender Studies 101.

The star rating system fails me here because I can't easily convey that I both adored The Unworthy's prose and conceit and was simultaneously unsatisfied by the larger themes with a simple 3/5. If the description or my review intrigue you, give it a read. I think you'll come away with worthwhile conversation starters, even if the book itself bit off more than it can chew. So to speak.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Thank you, Scribner and NetGalley!

Stunning from the first sentence to the last. This is a deliciously dark and harrowing tale of finding love and hope even in the most bleak situations. Where Tender Is the Flesh made me lose hope in humanity, this book, strangely, made me feel more hopeful that we still have a chance. Its commentary is not quite as sharply focused as Tender Is the Flesh, but I don't think that's actually a weakness, just a difference. I loved every moment of this, and came close to crying - and I don't cry at books! Beautifully written and translated, this story slowly unravels itself in lush horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Scribner for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

A woman in a dangerously violent convent tells her story through diary entries as the near future dystopian world outside is crumbling due to natural and man made disasters. Very much stream of consciousness and reliant on the vibes, but the vibes are certainly there. Left me with some extremely brutal imagery - so many cockroach scenes that genuinely made me sick.