𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★.5
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: March 04, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

You can’t change my mind otherwise, Agustina Bazterrica is a favorite of mine. I devour her writing up. When I saw Agustina was coming out with The Unworthy I knew I HAD to read this and already knew I was going to love it. The backdrop, the setting of this book was perfect for the storyline, the feeling and vibes you feel throughout this book was spot on, it was a heavy feeling as well. We see horror, destruction, death, pain etc, things I expect to see and feel in our authors writings. It really sets the mood for the read. You can vividly SEE the things within this book with the writing, it’s so impeccable. I’m not diving far into this book just giving my quick look inward for you all but stating that if you loved Tender Is the Flesh, please dive into this one, you won’t be disappointed. I will recommend this to the select few of my friends who would love this type of read…I know that they’ll love it!

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Scribner.

I loved Tender Is the Flesh, but The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica left me feeling confused and disappointed. I struggle to connect with books that drop readers into the story without providing much context, and unfortunately, this was one of them.

The premise had so much potential—a dystopian, post-climate crisis world with elements like the House of the Sacred Sisterhood could have been fascinating. However, the lack of context made it difficult to immerse myself in the story. Despite being a short book, it felt repetitive and, frankly, tired.

This wasn’t a ~no plot, just vibes~ book—there was clearly an attempt at a plot. But it wasn’t executed well, as nothing significant happened until the very end. And even then, the ending felt completely unsatisfying.

While I appreciated the initial promise, this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the arc! <3

I had high hopes for this after Tender is the Flesh but it really didn’t work for me. The whole story felt repetitive. It was just constant descriptions of torture that didn’t seem to go anywhere. I found myself getting bored.

In the dystopian hellscape of what is left of the Earth, a former convent now hosts a Sacred Sisterhood where its members trade access for food and shelter for violence against their bodies and the words of an unseeable holy man and a holy language all their own. Agustina Bazterrica's The Unworthy is one woman's secretive diary of her time in the convent and how she came to be there.

The structure of the convent is a caste system with servants as the expendable base and then different levels of women overseen by a sadistic and militaristic Superior Sister. The unworthy can be beaten, whipped, forced to clean rooms with their tongues or other creative and abhorrent punishments to show their devotion. Our narrator maintains her sanity by secretly writing at night using what every sort of medium possible, be it pilfered monk ink, berry juice or her own blood. Each night she records her days and as the narrative unfolds, also shares her past.

Earth had been rocked by catastrophe, continents flooded while others become barren deserts. Technologies have failed, diseases widespread and survivors are left to scavenge, forage or kill one another. The coven appears a refuge, but only women are able to enter. What makes one survive? Faith? The company of others? Love? The ability to read and dream of what was before and could be again?

Recommended to readers of possible dystopian futures, the extremes of human emotions or personal narratives of survival.

Tender is the Flesh is one of my favorite books from the last decade and has stayed with me since finishing it so I'm probably biased as hell. This wasn't it. I was very disappointed with it and couldn't really get into it. Reminded me a bit of The Obscene Bird of Night as well so it fell down a bit more too.

A broken world, fading with time, leaves ashes of life that seek to survive. Those ashes drag themselves to a place where they promise salvation but it is only one more nightmare, a lie that its creators cling to. They trap and torture bodies, impose and foster pain until the lost world is only a memory.

The Unworthy is a story that overflows with the crudeness of a cult. It reveals fear and fanaticism to maintain a divine power that only exists in the chaotic minds of survivors. Women who escaped the corruption of nature to enter a new life of salvation. However, that salvation is covered in pain, spilt blood, broken teeth, burned flesh and lost hope. With that terrifying tone that clings to the marrow, the author manages to unravel a frenetic story of beliefs and hypocrisy, abuse and coercion. In this story there is a beautiful prose that nourishes the rawest part of the human being, of the cult towards something superior. With simplicity, Agustina Bazterrica creates something fascinating and painful to read.

I have reservations about some plot issues that I would have liked to see explored a little more. I feel that they would have enriched the story even more. As well, there were flat moments that failed to connect with me, others felt like a reality check. It is a fascinating story, all things considered.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

hi, *deep breath* wow what did i just read???? oh right a COMPLETE masterpiece.

umm Augustina is hands down one of my absolute favorite authors, i don't understand how this work exists....

ok let me just start off by saying the first 40% i was confused, trying to understand the world, trying to figure out this language, and the hierarchy. but then you get to a point where you are so immersed, and you understand and then you don't want to understand anymore. you don't want to be in this world or know what is happening. what an incredible piece of literature...not for the weak by any means.

the translation was done sooo phenomenally i just need to give a standing ovation. this is a story i will not forget about lightly, but something i will come back to often as i do with all of her translated work.

thank you so much to netgalley, augustina, and scribner for the opportunity to read this early!!

between the brutality and torture within the coven is a love letter to the natural world. it was slow at first, difficult for me to piece together the world building at times given the chaos of the stream of consciousness, but undeniably poetic. oh how I wish I could speak Spanish because I know Agustina was cooking in these passages but the English language can’t directly translate its beauty 🥲 such gorgeous writing describing the divinity of earth and *women* ♡ And the devastation with Circe. The heartbreak I felt in how the narrator spoke of her companion had me sobbing. Excited to read more from this author! Many thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Unworthy is much more subtle than Tender Is the Flesh, but grotesque in its own right. Bazterrica does gross well, and that’s why I like her:
* Eating rats? Gross!
* Cult followers with their eyes sewn shut? Gross!
* Using blood as ink? Gross!
* Crickets? Gross! And cockroaches too? Also gross!

tldr; it was gross and I liked it.

Just like Tender is the Flesh, this book was absolutely disgusting and made my skin crawl, but it was absolutely stunning. This author has such a poetic and lyrical way with words that lends itself to the grotesque nature of her books. Will always be reading from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC!

ugh I LOVED THIS!! agustina has become an instant-buy author for me. following her other works was a challenge, but she did not disappoint. i love love love how she isn't afraid of the dark and the weird, especially related to women's lives. an incredible literary horror, although it that may not be for everyone, as most books are not. but if you're into the bleak, women vs. the void type of books, i think you would love this.

I found this book to be confusing but also very good. This book is essentially about a world where the climate and planet has died off and there is this Sisterhood that is honestly a cult wherein females live and sacrifice many parts of themselves for this god of theirs.

I usually love horror but this was…really hard for me to read. I’m unsure if it’s because it was such specific woman on woman crime in the name of religious devotion or what. I was so excited about this but I couldn’t finish.

Wow, this was sooooo intense and disturbing, ya know? It drops you right into this creepy, apocalyptic convent where the vibes are super dark and everyone's either suffering or scheming. The narrator is, like, totally unreliable and a little off, but honestly, who wouldn’t be in a place like that? The whole "diary written in dirt and blood" thing was giving major gothic horror energy.

The atmosphere was so eerie and oppressive. You can feel the bleakness of the world outside and the terrifying control of the Superior Sister inside. But like, it was also frustrating? There’s all this mystery and barely any answers, and by the end, I was like, "Wait, that’s it?" The pacing was slow too. I kept waiting for things to happen, and while there were moments of shocking brutality, it didn’t fully click for me.

Also, the themes of faith, survival, and manipulation were hella heavy. It definitely made me think, but I wish it went deeper into the world-building and characters. Like, give me more context, pls! So yeah, 3.5 stars rounded up—it’s one of those books you can’t stop reading, but you’re not sure you actually enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. 💕

After escaping from 4 men who nearly kill her, a woman finds her way to a convent and joins the ranks of the sisterhood. THE UNWORTHY tells this woman’s story through diary entries (some written in her own blood), and we are given glimpses of the convent’s hierarchy as we learn the outside world has come to an end due to environmental disaster and mankind literally turning from God and worshipping artificial intelligence.

Bazterrica’s second English-translated novel might not be for everyone, but those looking for a different type of end times story may enjoy it, and don’t let the cover art fool you: this story deals with nuns, but it’s not “Nunsploitation.” This is a dark, strange, and unusual literary horror novel that will leave you contemplating where we may be headed.

Hauntingly lovely. I really enjoyed the sense of not fully understanding what was going on, due to the reluctance of the narrator to be too explicit in her descriptions on the pages of her illicit journal. The story unfolded in a tantalizingly measured way, repeatedly referencing past, yet unexplained events and people, all the while steeped in an atmosphere of urgency and earnestness.

I am truly the target audience for this book. From religious horror, to LGBTQ+ representation in navigating autonomy and identity, to the backdrop of an ecological disaster, this has everything I craved.

I loved the use of found-diary storytelling because you can see the narrator fighting herself in her own record of her experiences. It’s gives an additional layer of character development that I absolutely loved and deeply appreciated. I thought it was expertly balanced in its weighty plot-driven narrative, punctuated with flashbacks of her life story and how she arrived at the Sacred Sisterhood.

I am the type of reader that wants to understand why characters make the decisions they do, and, in that vein, readers should understand that The Unworthy is a (truly superior) literary horror. You get the mundane daily fabric of her life, mixed in with horrific descriptions of blood atonement. The contrast serves as a prime example of how ordinary this vulgar treatment is to the sisterhood.

I loved this book. Of the 118 books I’ve read this year, this easily cracks the Top 10. I’m obsessed and plan to recommend it to ALL of my horror and LitFic lovers.

Haunting, raw, heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down.

Bazterrica is sure to make her latest English translation a smash hit. The Unworthy touches on what it means to be human, to be alive. Visceral reminders of our bodies, what they can do, what they feel, are paired with deep emotional reckonings with death and love. Our hearts, our souls, our minds, whatever the driving force of our lives is, is trapped within the corporal form attached to this Earth. What we do with the Earth affects our bodies, our bodies affect the soul. Rarely do we see modern dystopian literature lace together these unwavering facts of Life so beautifully and effectively.

The Unworthy was a gripping and dark read. It was a very tough hang, but one that I couldn’t help but keep returning to regardless.

First of all, I have to say: if someone sewed live cockroaches into my pillowcase so they get free while I'm sleeping, that would be the last thing they do.

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I loved Tender Is the Flesh, so I was excited to see this is coming up in 2025 and was very happy to get the ARC. I don't know how to feel about it now that I've read it, though... I can confidently say it won't be for everyone but if it works, it works. It didn't work for me 100%, mainly because I'm not a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, fragmented narratives, and extremely vague worldbuilding. Still, I couldn't stop reading.

This is set in a world ravaged by climate disaster, so it's post-apocalyptic. In this world, there's a convent that takes in stray women, and if they're not sick, they get to join the ranks and potentially rise through them. There's a hierarchy, and it's a truly awful, bleak place that thrives on torture and pain, but it's better than being out there. That's the setting.

We only have one POV and it's one of the "unworthy." We follow her daily life as she navigates the dynamics of the convent, which have changed all the women into cruel, unempathetic animals, and tries to recover memories of her life before the convent. One day, she finds a woman in the woods who changes everything when she's taken in.

Most of the book is confusing, uncomfortable to read, and just... strange. The last 20 to 30% was my favorite and the ending worked for me. As I said, it's very stream-of-consciousness and vague, but if you ride the wave, it's an interesting reading experience. The horror is quite gross, Bazterrica is very good at that, and there are themes below the surface, it's just a bit difficult to parse them out. It's one of those stories where a lot of things are up for your interpretation.

Right now, I'm not sure if I loved this or not, but I didn't hate it and I'd say that if you liked Tender Is the Flesh, this is worth checking out.