The Unworthy is a strange read that feels extremely reductive. We're dropped into the middle of a dystopian world, offering no immediate context and only slight tidbits throughout that make the process of figuring out what is going on bizarre, The story is moved forward solely through increasingly horrific depictions of whippings and torture, as if your investment is hooked simply on "oh God, how could it get worse???"

The setting of a convent isolated from the after effects of a climate crisis and disease creates a situation where the plot feels slow and repetitive, since there is only one place to be - I wish the world was a bit larger. And even in this setting, I wish I was told more so I could be invested in the characters, instead of constantly asking "wait, why is this happening? What is going on? Why should I care about this?"

It was more like this story was written with the intent of being cutting edge and aloof instead of the plot and characters creating that feeling naturally. It was like the author was trying to convince me of how edgy it was instead of it actually being edgy. That broke the 4th wall for me, like the author was over my shoulder waiting to see my reaction. I definitely raises interesting questions about women and religion, but everything else was so distracting that this one was a no for me.

I may need to revisit this at some point, but as it stands I couldn’t finish this book. I loved Tender Is the Flesh and read her book of short stories and enjoyed many of them, but this didn’t grab me in even remotely the same way.

This was too difficult for me to form an understanding of the place and circumstances. I made it a quarter through but felt very lost and not at all invested. DNF

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

If this book was meant to sway me from religion and the social order that comes with, it did the opposite. I now actually worship Agustina Bazterrica. This is a translated religious horror with EXTREME body horror set in a post apocalyptic monastery - home to the sacred sisterhood. You know the face you make when you’re white and listening to a really good beat? That’s the face I was making after every single sentence. BARS EVERY PARAGRAPH. this was just as beautiful as it was revolting. My only wish is that it were longer.

I’m starting to realize that I really enjoy (even if stressful) books with a dystopian climate crisis/post-apocalyptic earth and this was no different.

This was sad, brutal, dark (but also hopeful) and made me feel so many things. I finished this over a week ago and I’m still processing how I feel haha.

I was unsure at first how I was going to feel but once the flashbacks started giving more context, I was sold. The religious aspects were really interesting to me, and I thought provided a fascinating setting in a dystopian society.
Thank you so much to Scribner and NetGalley for an advance copy!

CWs:
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault
Minor: Pregnancy, War, Self harm

Agustina Bazterrica’s The Unworthy is for the girls, the gays, and those that live in daily fear of pending ecological collapse. The Unworthy is written in a journal format from the perspective of a lower level member of a primarily female religious cult. The women of the cult engage in brutal activities daily, including sacrifices and self flagellation, in attempts to ascend to higher ranks within.

The prose is simple, but poetic, which lends itself well to the bleak, dystopian landscape. While I would’ve loved for the story to be longer (like the history of how the cult came to be?)I'll settle for every delicious crumb Bazterrica is willing to throw at her audience.

The concept of who is worthy of empathy, food, shelter, etc. is interrogated throughout the text, though never answered, and left for the reader to philosophize about, which feels eerily timely for me, as a resident of the (un)United States. My only complaint was how neat the ending felt, compared to the ambiguity of the rest of the story.

Ohhhh yesss! This was awesome, apocalypse nuns and scary cults! So good! Thank you NetGalley and publisher for arc of this book! Loved 🤩

This one nailed the dystopian, culty, weird vibes and the discomfort and I think Bazterrica mostly accomplished what she was going for. I think my expectations were a bit too high after Tender and I wanted a final something to pull it all together. While it wasn’t my favorite, I still enjoyed it and I’ll continue to read anything Bazterrica writes.

Rating 2 stars based on my enjoyment and ability to connect to the story. It is quite possible I could have had a better time with this at a different time, but it has been one thing after another this week and my concentration feels non-existent.

I always appreciate this author’s ability to write the weird and grotesque in such a beautiful way. This definitely had some gruesome imagery and scenes but to be honest it’s not as bad as some of the reviews make it seem.

I like the intent behind this, the author said it was inspired by her time in Catholic schools as a child. As someone who shares that experience, I appreciate what she did here. I just kept trying and trying to connect and get lost in the story, but never did.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Told in an epistolary/journal style, we follow one woman's journey to and life inside an unusual convent with a class system set in a post apocalyptic world. I love Agustina's work and this is yet another great novel. It's gory and yet beautiful all at once. Thank you to Scribner for the advanced copy.

3.5

One this about me is that i LOVE weird, ambiguous, fever dream books and this book is that girl (if you ignore the ending lol).

We follow the secret journal entries of an unnamed narrator in an extremely religious cult/apocalyptic situation.

This was bleak and confusing. Definitely don’t read this if you need your plots to make sense. Like i said, i love books that feel like a fever dream and this is definitely that. It’s journal entries so you’re in the mind of the narrator who’s telling her current day situation in a cult but also her past and its messy (in a good way) and not necessarily in chronological order.

My only real complaint is that I actually wish the ending was either way weirder or way more ambiguous. I feel like it was pretty predictable and not unique from most other cult stories (in my experience) which is a little disappointing. Like if you’re going to have a book as strange as this, the ending needs to be just as weird and i felt like it was just way too easy and made too much sense for how ambiguous the rest of the story was. Yes there was hints to what was going on throughout the story but I still would have preferred to let the reader make their own conclusions than basically outright explain what was happening.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica is a deeply unsettling and powerful novel that explores control, survival, and the ways in which oppressive systems strip people of their humanity. The story is brutal in its honesty, immersing the reader in a dystopian world where power is wielded through fear and ritual. The protagonist’s perspective is fragmented and raw, pulling you into the suffocating reality of her existence and making every moment feel urgent.

Bazterrica’s writing is both poetic and unflinching, balancing beauty with horror in a way that makes the story impossible to look away from. The novel does not hold the reader’s hand, instead trusting them to piece together its world through glimpses of violence, faith, and resilience. The structure adds to its intensity, making the reading experience feel immediate and personal. It does not offer easy resolutions but instead leaves you with something deeper.

The commentary on our climate crisis and treatment of women also did not go unnoticed and I think is one of the things I valued most about this book.

Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica is a haunting, dystopian novel that will make you question everything about humanity, morality, and the value of life itself. Set in a world where human beings are reduced to mere objects for consumption, the story follows Ana, a woman who becomes entangled in a system that commodifies people, reducing their existence to nothing more than a “product.”

This is one of those books that sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading. The writing is stunningly eerie—Bazterrica’s world-building is both unsettling and thought-provoking. It forces you to examine the darkest corners of human nature and the ways in which society can dehumanize those who are considered "lesser."

Ana’s journey is tragic and beautifully layered. As she begins to question her role in a world that uses human beings as mere commodities, we witness her internal struggle. I found myself torn between feeling sympathy for Ana while also grappling with the disturbing world she’s trapped in. The idea of unworthiness is explored so deeply—what makes someone "worthy" of life? And who gets to decide?

The real heart of the book is its exploration of power and vulnerability, showing how easily society can erase empathy when the right systems are in place. It's not just a story about survival, but about self-awareness and resistance. One of the most chilling moments (without giving too much away) comes when Ana confronts the brutal reality of her situation and tries to reclaim a sense of agency. It's unsettling, thought-provoking, and deeply emotional. If you love dystopian fiction with a powerful social commentary and aren't afraid of a little discomfort, I definitely recommend this one. Just be prepared for the intense psychological journey it takes you on.

Tender is the Flesh launched Bazterrica to an auto read author for me so I was ecstatic when The Unworthy dropped. I grabbed an audio version from Libro.fm and dove in head first.

As expected, Bazterrica's imagination creates a dark and cruel world that has familiarities to our own, yet is set in some distant future that we can't quite grasp. The sky drops acid rain, the animals are nearly extinct, and food is limited to bugs and dirty water. We learn of flooding and famines and droughts. Natural catastrophes that intensified and overtook the earth and human-made catastrophes like AI that took over in another whole way.

Our narrator is in the Sacred Sisterhood - a convent, but decidedly not. The Sisters are cruel and viscous, meting out punishments and death sentences at whim. The women comprised of the Sacred Sisterhood are all malnourished, sick, and entirely brainwashed. Given new names and identities, they are stripped of their former selves and gods and must think with the collective.

Our narrator shares her story through a somewhat disjointed method of letters. Writing is forbidden but she's found a way to put pen (or coal or blood or dye) to paper or parchment or fabric, and share her history. I loved the snippets of how this world came to be and of the relationships that prevailed even in the darkest of times.

While imaginative and spectacularly written, this book was definitely no Tender is the Flesh. There was violence and gore and rape - but it felt more for shock value than to further the story all that much. The audio was well done and highly entertaining (and also bingeworthy and short).

If you go in wanting Bazterrica from a few years ago, this isn't quite it. But if you go in for a wholly new experience, you'll be glad you did.

Thank you to Libro.fm and Scribner for the copy.

I really tried with this one and made it 50% in. I found it to be repetitive and the plot barely moved forward at all. I just did it enjoy this one as much as I had hoped to.

This one went over my head. I really liked Tender is the Flesh and even though that was horror and crazy in every way i found it riveting. Somehow this book just wasn’t. I think the concepts were a bit too far out there for me.

Tender is the Flesh is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was thrilled to receive a copy of The Unworthy for review. Another five star read for me! The Unworthy is sapphic, cultish, body horror (spurred by the climate crisis) and I loved every second of it. Dark, unrelenting, and destructive. I loved the stylistic choices the narrator takes on as she moves through different parts of her life and discovers more about herself, remembers her past, and reckons with the Sacred Sisterhood.

agustina bazterrica's books are thrilling and dark and horrifying. i love the big ideas they're about, although i always wish they were a bit more complex.

I did not like this very much. I feel like I want to further collect my thoughts on this book because I really wanted to love it.

I am very indifferent, which I am so sad about because I enjoyed Tender is the Flesh so much, therefore I was sooo excited to get around to this. I feel like the pacing was off and I had a very hard time pushing through. It's very short but it took me 4 days to read, which is longer than what a 400-500 page novel would take me.

It is not bad and I would recommend to anyone who likes dystopian horror. Dystopian is already not my genre of preference and the pacing here made it difficult to get into. Nothing really happens until the last 20-25% and even then it was quite unsatisfying. I am a lit fic reader and ~no plot just vibes~ is totally my style, but not this one. I did not get enough of a character journey IMO. It simply wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this e-arc.

Hypnotic. Violent. Heartbreaking. Exhilarating.

I'm three for three now with loving Bazterrica's books, yet this one might be my favorite. It follows the story of a fanatic, post-apocalyptic religious sect and the women dehumanized within it. Think Harrow the Ninth rolled up with The Road. I'm obsessed with it, and that fact might be something I need to unpack within myself. *insert grimace-face emoji here*

I was gripped, transfixed from the first page and was gripping the edge of my desk by the last. Bazterrica's writing is always so visual and affecting, but she really kept the bar high for this entire novel. I want to re-read this one already. There is so much packed into this short and damn-near-perfect book, that a re-read would only heighten the work for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.