I’ll start off by saying I LOVE Agustina Bazterrica—“Tender is the Flesh” and “Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird” are some of my favorite reads, and her version of dystopian horror holds a special place in my cold, dark heart.

Weirdly though, I was a little thrown off by “The Unworthy”. The vibes are dark, but not what I was expecting. The writing style doesn’t scream Bazterrica to me, so much so that I had to check whether she used a different translator for this book (she didn’t). It kind of distracted me from the story, and I feel like I might enjoy it more if I approached a second read without expectations for it to be completely on brand with her other writing.

My not-so-favorite part: The backstory for the apocalypse.
There was so much left unexplored. You know there was a climate crisis, but it almost doesn’t feel crucial to the story—like you could use any number of reasons for why these women are isolated and don’t leave their religious cult and convent. Maybe that’s the nature of a sub-200 page novel, but it felt underdeveloped to me.

My favorite part: The characters.
They are brilliant. They are devious. They are cruel (oh, the CRUELTY). But even with violent competition and sabotage dominating their world, companionship and love still somehow manage to survive. You’re awarded these beautiful glimpses into the narrator’s past—precious moments in time spent with her mother before the planet completely fell apart—and the stranger brings with her fragments of hope for the narrator’s future.

Definitely read this. Just be warned you may not get the same flavor of fleshy, body gore as you did with the processing of special meat or the attempt to be perfectly circular.

thank you netgalley & the publisher for gifting me this advanced reader copy!

this book was so interesting, and unique. the premise and cover art really drew me in and it definitely was an experience

I feel like tender is the flesh is such a beloved and hyped up horror book and it’ll be so interesting to see how audiences react to this one.

the story centers around our mysterious unnamed main character living in a non traditional convent while trying to survive in an apocalyptic world.

the premise of this book is so cool and so creative! I for one love religious, and apocalypse horror. Especially when combined. It took me about 30% of the book to not be confused and to finally understand what was happening in the book. It’s a non linear, and at times felt very scatter brained. But i definitely think that was on purpose!

This isn’t a perfect book by any means but i was pretty entertained once I figured out what was going on! There’s some horrific self mutilation and horrors in this story. Everything about this was just so unique and genuinely like nothing I’ve read before.

I’m excited to get my copy, upon its release and for everyone to read it!

I enjoyed this book! It’s not the kind of book I typically read, but I heard great things about the author and wasn’t disappointed. There were several points when reading where I had to stop and think about what was going on in terms, especially at the end. I really enjoyed the prose, it flows off the page. The pacing felt erratic, but it worked with the plot and the style of narration. It has a lot of dark and tense moments. Overall a solid, medium-length read.

I received an ARC through NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Unworthy is a dystopian horror novel that follows a woman in a fanatical religious cult. She is narrating her experience as best she can on hidden bits of paper written in snatches of time. If her words were to be found it would surely be nothing but misery and punishment to follow and yet she is unable to stop herself from writing it all down. There are holes in her memory, things she can't quite remember about who she once was outside before The Sacred Sisterhood. The world is desolate and plagued with contagion but if one has faith they will have refuge.

I was thrilled to see another English translation by Agustina Bazterrica. As a big fan of Tender is the Flesh I was very eager to get my hands on another story by her. Unreliable narrators and religious fanaticism are two of my favorite things in fiction and this book has both. I really enjoyed the writing, the sort of hastily done pieces of narration where our narrator only has so much time or is interrupted. This story doesn't shy away from the gruesome. It's certainly a sort of skin crawling experience to read about the torture and violence these women exact on each other in the name of being faithful and dutiful. It seems untenable the things they all do in the hopes of becoming more than an Unworthy and ascend to being Enlightened.

I always enjoy a story that has so much shrouded in mystery and leaves you as a reader trying to figure it all out through narrow glimpses. What happened to the world? What do all these states of being chosen mean? There's just endless questions and nothing to do except read on in the hopes of learning the answers. There are a lot of religious overtones as one might expect but there are lots of sharp barbs about climate change, bodily autonomy, and indoctrination buried in the story to examine. I thought the novel was beautifully translated and I'm always impressed by how much this author takes me by surprise.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy

I really just couldn’t get into this book. It was slow and nothing really happened. There might have been some stuff sprinkled here and there but overall I was bored.

I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you, NetGallery for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Part "The Road" and part "Midsummer" colored in the tones of your average cult fiction, The Unworthy is mostly well written but also like "The Road" doesn't fill in the picture as much as it gives strobe lit glimpses that you follow to a conclusion.
The narrator does feel genuine, but not fully fleshed out, like a teen writing in their diary you get less of who they are and more of what they portray.
Overall a good recomend if your looking for a dystopian story that is less about a journey and more an existence in a moment

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica follows a woman in a mysterious religious convent with different tiers of members. This has her journal entries of her experience there.

I don’t what to say too much about the plot because I think it’s best to go in blind but this does deal a lot with religion/cults so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed this book. I think the idea of this being journal entries was very smart and made me connect more with the main character. The way this author is able to craft this world in such a short amount of pages is very impressive.

I do wish that this would have been a little bit of a longer book. I really would have loved about fifty more pages to explore more about the convent and its inner workings.

That being said, this really cemented this author as a favorite for me. The way that she makes you see the world in a different way is really fantastic and I can’t wait to read more from her!

Not going to lie after I finished this book I totally disassociated for a good 5 minutes which I have found to be the exact same thing that happened when I finished Tender Is The Flesh. The Unworthy is an environmental dystopian horror that follows a woman who is part of a religious cult group who take part in horrifying and violent sacrifices for a chance to be the next Enlightened. This was heartbreaking and tragic but also the madness is so intoxicating you won’t want to put it down. This author is now an official instant buy for me. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGally for the opportunity to read this early.

I've been in a dystopian mood as of late so this was a fun (if harrowing) read. I adored Tender Is the Flesh, and I think Bazterrica just does dystopia SO well. Haunting and compelling stuff.

A compelling, if horrifying, short read. Interesting to read Bazterrica's new novel shortly after I happened to read John Wyndham's The Chrysalids--another post-apocalyptic tale set in a tightly controlled cult of survivors. Wyndham's 1960's take refers to nuclear war as the final crisis leading to collapse, but Bazterrica focuses on the climate crises that will inevitably follow from our contemporary actions.

More hinting at the climate catastrophe and resultant breakdown of society than really delving into it, this book chooses to focus mostly quite narrowly on our narrator and her experience of violence in the Sacred Sisterhood. The convent has become a relative refuge for survivors, but that balance will shift the moment any hope of restoration exists outside it's walls. Suddenly anything might be better than staying...if the world really is restoring itself. The act of surviving prevents one from actually living sometimes.

Probably more like 3.5 stars for me.

Written, this time, in diary style by an unnamed narrator set in a convent in a dystopian world, the suffering these women were going through in the name of safety was heartbreaking. Under the thumb of a single unseen man and an unforgiving Sister Superior, continuously striving to become one of The Enlightened, this book blended religion, cult, and semi supernatural elements flawlessly. This dark, claustrophobic, and heartwrenching story full of sacrifice pulled me in and kept me totally invested the entire way through.

To start off my review I will say this is the first book by Bazterrica I have ever read and it was fantastic! This story takes place in a dystopian future where the world is dying and our main character finds herself a member of a covenant, that believes their highest members are keeping them alive and safe in this broken world. Bazterrica wrote this story in a way that was both thrilling and terrifying, I could not stop reading, yet I wanted to close my eyes so badly at certain parts. Her writing is captivating, yet strangely haunting. This was a fantastic dystopian horror that shined light on the horrific realities of what religious fanaticism looks like. This book made me consider our world today, and look at the parallels between reality and the fictional world that Bazterrica brought to life. This was truly an unforgettable read that I will be thinking about for a long time!

This is going to stay with me forever. This is haunting and fascinating and I wish I could reread this for the first time again and again.

Let me start off by telling you the pure excitement when I saw this book was coming out! I have read multiple books by this author, and the writing is amazing. I was not at surprised that this book was also amazing. I would highly recommend reading this book, especially if you enjoyed any other book from this author. This authors writing will keep you up at night, for hours, just thinking about it after reading this.

I'm torn. On one hand, I was completely enthralled by Bazterrica's writing (and, I mustn't forget, the translation by Sarah Moses). But unfortunately, the story wasn't what I hoped, and it didn't come close to what I expected after the mastery that was Tender is the Flesh. The primary difference, for me, was that Tender was up front about why we found the characters where we did - in a world where an pandemic had made animal protein inedible, so humans pivoted to breeding and raising other humans for meat. Macabre, but so instantly gripping. The Unworthy, however, took too long to reveal where, why, and how the characters were being so horribly tortured and subjected to misery. I don't need everything written in bold letters - I can figure things out - but this wasn't done well at all.

A huge thank you to Agustina Bazterrica and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

From the very beginning, I was utterly entranced by this eerie, suffocating world the unnamed narrator finds herself in. The helplessness she felt as she stole away her few precious moments to document her experiences, especially with the memories of her life before the convent eluding her, was sooo nerve-wracking to read. The crossed out words and phrases were especially powerful, as she struggled to face the reality of her experiences before she became entrenched in the cult. Lucia's entrance into her life, and the tragic relationship between them, was definitely a highlight for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone that's thought about the impending horrors of climate collapse, even for a moment. This very much is a book about that; even more importantly, it's about what life looks like after, and what it means to try and rebuild.

The Unworthy by Augustina Bazterrica is a haunting, thought-provoking triumph that cements her as a master of unsettling fiction. Like Tender is the Flesh, Bazterrica’s ability to push boundaries with chilling social commentary is on full display, but The Unworthy takes it a step further with a story that is both deeply disturbing and emotionally gripping. Her sharp, evocative prose draws you into a dark, dystopian world where human value is questioned in the most brutal ways. The novel’s exploration of morality, exploitation, and identity is both haunting and thought-provoking, offering a gripping narrative that will leave readers questioning everything. The Unworthy is an unflinching masterpiece, and for fans of Bazterrica’s previous work, it’s an essential read that proves her storytelling prowess continues to evolve in the most remarkable ways.

This was my first Augustina Bazterrica novel and I am a fan! This shit was dark, in the best of horror fan ways!! It’s very in your face from the first paragraph and has no room for chill. I was on the edge of my seat & tense from start to finish. The plot was one I hadn’t come across yet, it is character driven which worked so well with the way it was written. I was able to visualize everything, which in some cases made me visibly uncomfortable and my family were raising eyebrows at me. I felt for the characters; some I rooted for and others I wanted to see their demise. I will without a doubt be reading more from this author and recommending The Unworthy to any horror fans.

I had high hopes for this book since it is written by the same author that wrote Tender is the Flesh, which happens to be one of my favorite books. Because of the high expectations, I was really let down by this one. It was not living up to the same level as her other book. I wouldn't have known of this author if it hadn't been for Tender is the Flesh. It is hard not to compare the two. While this story was overall interesting, it does take a while to get into. The beginning is a bit confusing. It also drew a lot of similarities to The Handmaids Tale, but with a lot more religious aspects to it- which, I admit, is not my favorite sub genre. However, I really wanted to read this because of the author. I am giving this book 2 stars. Thank you for the opportunity to ready it!!!

I have mixed thoughts! Definitely dark, eerie, and dystopian, this novel mixes elements of extreme climate change and religious cults to deliver a plot surrounding women living in a religious convent trying to survive. I feel that the most interesting parts of the novel to me were the flashbacks to the character’s life before the convent, that was when I felt truly gripped and excited to keep reading. I also think this novel delivers a feeling of desperation, the characters know something is wrong with their situation but are not left with many other avenues to do something about it. Overall, between climate change and religious fanaticism I feel like each theme is kind of done halfway, and I was not fully invested in the conflict on either side. Overall, if you’re looking for unsettling vibes and deep despair about the potential future, this one is for you.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review