Oh where to start!
So much outside of the norm - postapocalyptic down to the new words for Christianity, the prose formatting, women seething with jealousy and judgement. A constant competition of sadism, selection process to elevate women, isolation and total disregard for humanity.

After enjoying Bazterrica's 'Tender is the Flesh', I was excited to dive into this novel, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The character development was lacking, and I never felt like I had a deep understanding of the main character or her world, despite the details provided. Additionally, on a personal note, I have an intense phobia of roaches, and the vivid, disturbing descriptions of them throughout the story really detracted from my experience.

While I'm not entirely sure I can recommend this story due to what I previously mentioned and also the occasionally confusing writing style, the majority of readers have given it high ratings, so it's worth checking out if the synopsis appeals to you.

In The Unworthy, Bazterrica’s prose remains sharp and unflinching, capturing the bleak and oppressive atmosphere of a world where humanity has been reshaped by unimaginable horrors. The story is both chilling and disturbingly introspective, it dives further into the characters’ struggles and their quest for meaning in a world where cruelty has become the norm.

What makes The Unworthy so compelling is its ability to provoke uncomfortable questions about identity, worth, and the lines between human and inhuman. Bazterrica’s exploration of these dark themes feels even more intense in the sequel.

Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendation: Perfect for readers who appreciate deeply unsettling, thought-provoking fiction with themes of identity, morality, and human dehumanization.

I’m very curious to see what the response to this book is when it releases in March. I’m not sure of what my own thoughts are. It was meandering for a significant portion of it, but with grotesque and somewhat captivating imagery.

In parts I found the writing beautiful, others repetitive and meaningless.

I don’t think the character development is particularly strong and I feel like we hardly know the main character and the world that she inhabits, despite the details we’re given.

I didn’t enjoy the novel very much, but it felt wrong giving it 1 star, since I believe there is so much in theory that is good, but falls flat on execution. I wish this same story had been told in a completely different manner.

A huge step down from Tender Is the Flesh, but I will probably continue to give Bazterrica more chances despite not enjoying both of her two follow-ups so far.

This book throws you into a vivid and grotesque post-apocalyptic world shaped by climate disaster and human desperation. Written in a found-diary style, the narrator’s fragmented memories and unreliable perspective add a raw, emotional layer to her life within the harsh and controlling Sacred Sisterhood.

The worldbuilding is both a highlight and a downside—it’s hauntingly detailed and immersive, but sometimes it overshadows the plot. There’s not much explanation for why the world fell apart.

I was excited to review the Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica as I enjoyed her work Tender is the Flesh. The Unworthy is a novella under 200 pages that focuses on a climate crisis and religious horror. The novella is written diary style, where each entry is part of the MC's diary. There are no organized chapters or marked timelines so its unsure of how much time is passing from when the MC was part of the contaminated earth vs. when she was in the monastery. It would have been interesting to learn more about the background of the Water Wars and how the MC got to the monastery before being dropped into the middle of the story. 3.5*

Tender is the Flesh got me back into reading in December 2023. As much as I love her dystopian stories, this one felt a bit short for me. The religious aspect of the whole thing wasn’t my favorite but overall I did enjoy the book. The whole thing is like a fever dream and I wanted more explanation as to why the world fell apart.

I like that the woman is a bit of an unreliable narrator. The way she only sees a portion of what’s happening while fearing for the future. Her recollection of memories really brought it nicely together. But at the end I felt like I need more from her story. Having gone through all she did to survive, the ending left me wanting more. The unsureness of it all made it suspenseful. Overall I love her writing and style for description. That’s what kept me intrigued in this story. I think it’s fitting that I end 2024 reading this book. It gave me the sense that 2025 will also be a good reading year.

The Queen @agustinabazterrica does it again. Thank you so much @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC of The Unworthy. I wanted to get my hands on it so, so badly and it didn’t not disappoint.
This book was a wild ride. I won’t give too much away but I will say that if you are interested in eco feminism, the apocalypse, body horror, religious cults and propaganda, the dark side of humans and the horrors that we are capable of, then this book is for you. Mixed in with all of that you will even find a bizzarre love story. Parts of this book felt like a gut punch and left me feeling deeply sad, the way only the best of writes can do. I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy of this book when it comes out.

This was a quick read - under 200 pages.

Pub date - 3/4/25

We have a sort of post-apocalyptic/Handmaids Tale situation.

This book completely blew me away. We are talking a sort of cult with a new order, which you happily obey because the alternative is death. Either by the cult or the outside... It's very heavily carried by the world building and written thoughts of our MC. Best to go in blind, reading the content warnings as it can be unhinged and raw at times. But I agree that it's a much needed conversation on how close we are to "climate homelessness" and the realities of the human condition.

Editing: on LOC1748 “her firsts were closed,”should read “her fists* were closed”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC for my honest opinion. I thought this was a great story. Bazterrica’s prose flows so well in my brain that it’s like a film playing on the projector behind my eyes. I love the setting and thought that the post apocalyptic resurgence of brutalist forms of torture and religion worked exquisitely. Overall I think this book will be a hit among the horror lit community. Well done!

This book feels like an intense fever dream, through a horrifying world that becomes more real over the course of the book. The main selling point to this book is the vivid imagery, which is definitely not for anyone with a weak stomach. The book is entirely first person, following a nun living inside a twisted convent. She is restricted in where she can go, what she can do, and kept under control by threat of harsh punishment. When a stranger enters the convent, she is forced to confront both present and past and must figure out what she wants.

The only thing that this book suffers from is the length. I feel like a lot of time is spent fleshing out this world, but not a lot is spent on the plot. This is more personal preference as neither are bad, but I felt that the plot was weak in comparison.

However, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's into experimental horror, with unreliable narration and interesting worldbuilding. It's worth the read, but please check the trigger warnings before picking it up.

Thank you for the ARC!

I loved “Tender is the Flesh” and had such high hopes for this book going in, but I am sad to say I didn’t care for it.

In her prior works, the author had a clear societal critique - a particular facet of daily life she was commenting on as a whole. This novel, however, seemed more to be motivated by an anger at the world.

Global warming, religious practices, wealth, misogyny, the rise of technology - these are all discussion worthy topics. Throwing them all into one dystopian blender, within an inconsistently built post-apocalyptic world, doesn’t allow any of the topics to be fully fleshed out in the way a reader would expect.

After climate change causes unknown catastrophic events, our unnamed narrator is writing her history in secret on any scrap of paper she can find. Living in a walled off compound with a secular group called the Sacred Sisterhood, the protagonist tries to remember her past while surviving in the brutal cult.
This was hard to read at times, and I wasn’t sure if I even liked it until several days after I finished it. There’s not a lot of back story, the reader is dumped into the middle of the plot we have to figure it out from there, but ultimately I did enjoy this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Unworthy in exchange for my honest opinion.

One of the things Agustina Bazterrica does really well is take a horrifying piece of reality and spin it into a horror novel. But what Agustina does FLAWLESSLY is create chilling narratives that make you wonder if what is happening in her novels is actually closer to reality (or a future reality) than it is to fiction.

The Unworthy explores so many components of religious trauma and abuse that are not far from the realities of what happens in many religious cults. Some of the things the people of this cult believe are actually the same things that Catholics and Christians themselves believe, which makes this short story all the more unsettling.

While this novel fell short of Tender is the Flesh and Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, I could see this being a win for anyone who has an interest in reading stories about religious abuse and dystopia.

4.5 stars rounded to 5.

Thank you to Scribner for the ARC.
Pub Date: March 4, 2025

THE UNWORTHY is dark - it is desolate and heart wrenching. Bazterrica places us in an apocalyptic world, ravaged by climate crisis. Our unnamed narrator tells her story through a memoir/journal style and Bazterrica cleverly has sentences pause midway when the narrator is interrupted and words that are forbidden or seem, to the narrator, incorrect are crossed out.

And yet, for how dark THE UNWORTHY is, Bazterrica's words are haunting and beautiful. But despite this beauty, THE UNWORTHY is still absolutely brutal and resolved in its horror. At times, the cruelty and horror can seem unnecessary, but as I sit with THE UNWORTHY, maybe that was the point - the narrator can't escape the pointless horror that she is subject to at the House of Sacred Sisterhood nor if she is in the outside world.

Religious horror wrapped in an extremely grim dystopian package. Not my favorite from this author personally, but the writing is amazing. It really packs a punch, and I will definitely be recommending this.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for this e-arc. All opinions are my own.

To start off with wow. This book is somewhat hallucinogenic, ominous and just has a dread that permeates the pages as you read. The unworthy centers around an unnamed sister who is in a extreme convent amidst an environmental armageddon and is writing what she sees and remembers from her time before arriving there. It is heart wrenching and the way it is all revealed slowly is masterful as she is forced to face her emotions and what is happening inside the convent.

This book is short, but I believe it is super impactful. To be honest I think the reason I like this book so much is because it reminds me of "I Who Have Never Known Men". There are no real answers and we get bits of information as we go but overall there's a mystery over the big picture things. I highly recommend reading this book.

I was very impressed with The Unworthy! I have not yet read Tender is the Flesh despite having heard incredible things about it, so this is my first experience with Agustina Bazterrica’s writing, and it did not disappoint. The writing and descriptions were so dark, moody, and downright terrifying at times, and I really enjoyed how much thoughtfulness went toward building the setting and the world that our protagonist lives in. Especially after Lucia arrives, we learn more about the protagonist’s background before entering the Sacred Sisterhood and the gruesome dystopia outside. This was a fantastic read, and I really enjoyed the themes of religious oppression/suffocation, sisterhood, climate change, and violence. I’m already looking forward to the release date so I can read it again and annotate a physical copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the arc!

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica ended up being an extremely impactful read for me, especially with it being under 200 pages. This is the 3rd work by this author I have read and she truly has a wonderful gift of creating a dystopian world that feels grim, dark and real. I felt that I was at the sisterhood with the main character at all times and felt that desperation and manipulation she did as the plot goes forward. Thank you so much to the publisher and author for this arc copy.

Religious extremism meets environmental apocalypse in The Unworthy, where Bazterrica continues her exploration of how quickly humanity devours itself. Inside a mysterious convent, an unnamed woman documents her experiences among the "unworthy" using whatever materials she can find - including her own blood. While less viscerally shocking than Tender is the Flesh's literal cannibalism, this tale of a brutal religious hierarchy creates its own kind of horror as it examines how power structures consume the powerless. Not as strong as her previous work, but Bazterrica's unflinching style still provokes profound discomfort.