This was a wonderfully done novel and was hooked from the first page and had that horror element that I was looking for. The characters had that element that worked in the supernatural element that I was hoping for, and worked with the previous book from Agustina Bazterrica.

In this haunting post-apocalyptic narrative, Agustina Bazterrica crafts an unforgettable tale that masterfully blends psychological horror with profound commentary on human nature. Through the eyes of an unnamed narrator chronicling her experiences at The House of Sacred Sisters, readers are drawn into a world where reality itself becomes questionable.

The novel's unique structure, told through journal entries written in whatever medium the narrator can find—blood, ink, or crushed berries—immediately establishes both its experimental nature and its urgency. These fragments, some left tantalizingly unfinished, create a claustrophobic window into a world we can only partially glimpse. The narrator's unreliability, amplified by the knowledge of contaminated water affecting the population's mental state, forces readers to question every revelation and memory presented.

Bazterrica's decision to alternate between past and present timelines proves extraordinarily effective. This non-linear approach creates a compelling mystery that keeps readers engaged while gradually revealing the circumstances that led our narrator to the house. The parallel narratives work in concert to build tension and horror, each timeline informing and deepening the other.
The author's command of literary devices is exceptional. Through careful use of symbolism and repetition, Bazterrica creates a rich tapestry of meaning that extends beyond the immediate horror of the situation.

Perhaps most impressive is how the novel serves as a perfect parallel to contemporary society, particularly in its exploration of false idolization and institutional power. Through the microcosm of The House of Sacred sisters, Bazterrica examines how systems of belief and authority can be corrupted and weaponized against the vulnerable. While the novel certainly delivers intense body horror, these elements never feel gratuitous. Instead, they serve the larger narrative purpose of examining the human condition under extreme circumstances. The physical horror becomes a vessel for exploring deeper psychological and societal terrors.

"The Unworthy" is a masterwork of literary horror that will linger in readers' minds long after the final page. Through its unreliable narrator, experimental structure, and powerful symbolic language, it delivers both an engaging narrative and a scathing critique of societal structures. This book is highly recommended for readers who appreciate intelligent horror that challenges both literary and social conventions, though they should be prepared for intense and disturbing content.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing this copy.

This was my first book from this author, whose previous novel Tender is the Flesh blew up online. I have a real penchant for novels about nuns but this took me by surprise by not being the typical. Everything is ambiguous in this post apocalyptic setting. And I didn’t really enjoy the flashbacks. Some parts were so ambiguous that it took me flipping back to reread to see if I really got it.

I'm sorry but I hated this.

This book had so much potential. Climate change has killed Earth and we follow a character's diary entries as she lives in a convent at the end of the world. This convent follows a new religion that mutilates and tortures those within it.

The book had very poor world-building and an astonishing lack of character focus. It's just literary torture porn with a religious tint. It got boring after 20 pages.

My issues:
- It tried too hard to be edgy and literary. (Though I must say, it's got nice writing and I like that it was experimental.)
- Very little exposition. You learn from the world as you go, but the narrator speaks in riddles and enigmas so you learn very little. If I don't understand shit, I don't give a shit.
- So many characters show up once every many pages with little info and honestly ?? Am I supposed to remember them? Care? Only Lucía gets proper attention and that's around the 60% mark, too little too late.
- I see most of the 1-star reviews are about the ending. Look, nothing happens in this book. And then it ends the way it ends, and maybe it's a bit unsatisfying we don't get more, but it was definitely the book's highlight for me.

This story was unfortunately a mixed bag for me. I loved the darkness of Tender is the Flesh, but the subject matter of this latest book didn't hold my interest as much. I appreciated the unique and disturbing style of writing that the author always brings which is why I give 4 stars, but I don't think I was the best audience for this book.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this highly anticipated novel!

*I was so close to giving this 3 stars because there's an extremely high possibility that I'm not smart enough for this book, so please take this entire review with a grain of salt.*

After reading Tender Is The Flesh and thinking it was an absolute work of genius, I was chomping at the bit to see what Bazterrica did with catastrophic climate change as the backdrop. The answer turned out to be not much.

The reason I think this book may be smarter than me is because while world ending climate change happened in the far, far back of this story, the main focus is a relious type cult. As somebody who has little to no knowledge on either of those topics and the story being told from the perspective of somebody at the bottom of this ladder of power, the bulk of this story made absolutely no sense to me. I went into this asking myself, "why?," and left asking myself, "why?," tenfold. The main character is telling us this story through the journal she has been keeping in secret. She has very little memory of her time before entering this cult (the most interesting part of this story by far; the parts with all the end of the world business) and she seems to not have much knowledge regarding the meaning and inner workings of this cult. I was so frustrated by the lack of information I could cry, which made this fairly short book a slog to get through, and by the end, I felt like my time was wasted.

Well, I officially have read my second favorite book of all time and I will be thinking about it FOREVER!
Las indignas (The Unworthy) is set in a post apocalyptic world where we encounter an unnamed narrator who is inconspicuously writing about her experiences while living in La Casa de la Hermandad Sagrada (The House of Sacred Sisters). Throughout the novel we go backward in time, alternating between past and present timelines to show the progression of how our narrator ended up there. Amidst heinous torture, we unravel the secrets of La Casa de la Hermandad, while simultaneously discovering the aftershocks of a crumbling world.

Once again, with stellar prose, Agustina delivers a gut punch to the kidneys using literary horror devices as the plot unravels. The past and present timeline switch made it so engaging to read, and kept me captivated with what happened to our unnamed narrator prior to getting to the Casa Sagrada, and the horrors she discovered while being there.
Bazterrica uses a variety of symbols and repetition in such a powerful way throughout the novel.
She also expertly included metaphysical aspects that were then juxtaposed with heart wrenching, vividly real events that bring you back to the present in such a visceral way.
If you are looking for intense body horror with a message that focuses on the human condition, this is for you.

Thank you Agustina Bazterrica, Scribner Publicity/Simon and Schuster, and Netgalley for this incredible ARC in exchange for a review.

I read Tender Is the Flesh a few years back and really liked it for its weirdness and new take on horror. For that reason, I picked up The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica expecting a book that was just as good. And I was not let down. This was excellently crafted and perfectly written. The style reminded me a lot of The Handmaids Tale. The main character felt real because of her flaws and desires, and the air of strangeness that followed the narrative was something that I really enjoyed. I will continue to look out for the translated novels by this author.

OMGGGGGG holy... Agustina does it again. I didn't think I could love something as much as I loved Tender is the Flesh, yet here I am - loving The Unworthy.

It's the way Agustina makes me so uncomfortable and unable to reside within my own skin that just does it for me. She rips out my deepest, most depraved inane human instincts that you hope can remain buried, but nope. There they are.

She is a master of tension and gasp-out-loud horror.

Oh my god this was the best book I’ve read in a long time. This book was horrific and unstoppable. A post-apocalyptic, subverted religious cult, grotesque imagery, and queerness. Literally couldn’t put this down. I did not love the narrative pieces from before our narrator came to the coven but I appreciated their purpose. Of course I wished for a better ending but it was true to the story and this is definitely not a happy ending kind of book.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

I loved every page of this novel. The writing is rich and beautiful. It felt hypnotic. I was so sucked into this story. The mixture of genres really worked for me. I'd call this a post apocalyptic religious horror. I loved the way religious beliefs and practices are toyed with and manipulated. The pacing was perfectly done. I loved everything about it.

This author wrote an absolutely-amazing-and-I-love-it-but-it’s-definitely-not-for-everyone book about legalized cannibalism. So you can bet I jumped at the chance to read this ARC from NetGalley during Spooky Szn.

It’s got tropes I love: mysterious apocalypse situation in the outside world, weird religious-cult things happening in the inside world. It’s short, it’s good… but it’s one of those Vague Books. The kind where you have to piece together what’s happening and a lot of questions aren’t answered. It also doesn’t really go anywhere unexpected… nothing here that you wouldn’t expect to read in a book like this.

So yeah, it’s good, just not the OMGAMAZING book that first one was. Rounding up in the end because it’s not like it’s bad. It’s short and the vibes are strong. It’s just not as groundbreaking as, say, a book about institutionalized cannibalism.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!


Pub date: 4th of March 2025
Rating: 3.5/5


As someone who fell in love with Tender Is The Flesh, I was super excited when I received a copy of Bazterrica's latest work, The Unworthy.

I went in basically knowing it had two elements that made me foam at the mouth: religious imageries/cults and an apocalyptic setting. I was also rather intrigued by the short length of this novel(la?) and wondered if it would still pack the same punch at merely 200 pages.

Let's get one thing out of the way: this was disturbing. And I don't mean the scared disturbing, but rather the vile inducing, i-need-a-shower disturbing. The author has such a unique talent for inducing dread in readers, making them prisoners of the worlds she creates.

The reason I'm stuck between giving this a 3.5 or a 4 stars is hard to put into words. I liked the story. Perhaps it was a bit too lyrical for my personal taste, but it's hard to disregard Bazterrica's prose. Her penmanship is remarkable, just as it was in Tender Is The Flesh. And whilst I could understand the use of a dramatic prose to enhance the haze and fever this book engulfs the reader in, I found that I often had to stop myself from skimming the Baudelaire-esque descriptions of the grotesque in order to recenter myself and get a better understanding of the story. Nevertheless I was mostly okay with the prose, as I understood its purpose was setting the atmosphere.

What I did struggle with quite a bit, and that, post finishing the book, was the general vagueness of everything. Objectively, I can, again, understand that the lack of fundamental understanding, both of the apocalypse and the religious order, adds to the feelings of isolation and claustrophobia the reader might encounter. However I found myself wishing I had gotten a better understanding of what truly went down behind closed doors and of the other characters. Most of them were left too opaque for my liking and perhaps if another 50 or 100 pages were added, I'd had felt more satiated or perhaps less wary from those villains I ended up knowing so little about.

This book is not for everyone: it is gross, disturbing and not easy to read. But for those who can stomach Agustina Bazterrica's messed up worlds, get ready to immerse yourself in bleakness that could make Russian Lit seem joyous.

Well this was equally disturbing and horrifying. I enjoyed the way the author combined a dystopian hellscape and a religious cult, but unfortunately I just felt it needed more depth. I have mixed emotions. The brutality was off the charts and for that I was grateful the book was short. I wish it spent more time on different aspects of the story that could have been explored deeper.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, having read Tender is the Flesh I wanted to see how the author transitioned into a story that held religious concepts. I thought this was done wonderfully with how the timeline was crafted and the world was built. I will warn this book has no chapters which can be intimidating. For those who didn't like Tender is the Flesh I wouldn't shy away from this one, I liked this better between the two.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica is a gripping and unsettling exploration of power, violence, and societal decay. As a reader, I was both disturbed and mesmerized by the chilling dystopian world Bazterrica creates, where the lines between humanity and cruelty blur. The novel's haunting themes and stark prose left me questioning the cost of survival in a dehumanized society long after finishing it.

Perfect for fans of the books: Jawbone, I Who Have Never Known Man, The Handmaid's Tale, Boys in the Valley, The Trials of Anna Thalberg, and Carnality

I read “Tender is the Flesh” at the recommendation of a friend without knowing anything about its plot and I really enjoyed it. It was disturbing - but I liked it. I was stoked to see a new novel by Agustina Bazterrica.

This one was written with a specific point of view but still had Bazterrica's voice throughout. The crossed out passages and abrupt entries were different and fun along with the style of storytelling. Just when it needed to the story expanded and we started to learn more about our narrator. It was graphic but still emotional in a way that was unexpected.

I really liked this one.

This is just the right kind of horror for me. You are immediately dropped into this story and almost left to feel your way in the dark alongside the main character. All you know is that she has been a naughty ‘unworthy’ and may have baked cockroaches into someone’s food. And that first chapter alone cemented the tone of this novella.

In a world full of environmental disasters and technological decline a small group of young women, dress plainly and worship Him, someone they believe can save them from the disasters outside of their grounds. Surrounded by (woods) where one day our main character meets a runaway named Lucia who climbed the wall and changed everything. She begins to slowly undermine the Superior Sister and draw our Main Character into finally breaking free.

If you like the psychology of cults and brainwashing, religious settings and Sapphic romance, this book combines them all!

bazterrica is a master of the craft, a master of storytelling, and the queen of dystopia. everything she writes is like a slow descent into madness— for the readers, not the characters, who are already far gone. another gut punch of a novel from MOTHER!!!

I absolutely loved this book. I read it in a day. One of the best cult books I've ever read. Written so beautful and grotesque. A short premise without giving too much away. Therr lies a cult in the deep woods who worship a god which is not named. There are many fractions of this cult. Each experience different methods of torture and enlightment. What transpires from there you will have to read.