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.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars)

Agustina Bazterrica's The Unworthy is a disturbing, provocative follow-up to Tender is the Flesh. With the same darker subject matter, though, this one was an even more difficult read for me due to the graphic, graphic description that gave haunting images inside my mind.

From the beginning, Bazterrica leads the reader along a road which is discomforting and somber. In Tender is the Flesh, the emphasis had been on a system of human consumption that is industrialized, but in The Unworthy, the emphasis is placed on a more individual and deeply philosophical examination of what it is to be worth something—or not worthy—in a world that has no sense of compassion. The mood is somber, and Bazterrica's prose makes one confront the queasiness of these ideas.

This book was slightly tougher to read than the first, and not so much because of the subject, but because the graphic details made it harder for me to turn the pages. The visceral descriptions—especially the physical and mental agony the characters endure—are a lot more detailed here. Bazterrica really evokes a vision that I just can't shake, one where the appalling images linger for much longer than I wish they would. This was definitely a book that I had to come away from and ponder between reading sessions. Despite the brutality of the content, I liked the way that the narrative pushed boundaries and explored the depths of human depravity.

The idea of what it is to be "unworthy" was placed before me, forcing me to think about social constructs and the human condition in a way I never had before. But with the graphic descriptions, I found myself struggling with the brutality of the story, having to put it down sometimes to catch my breath before I could continue reading it. But in spite of its harder-to-read moments, I couldn't help but acknowledge the brilliance of Bazterrica's work. It's a novel that doesn't allow you to feel any less uneasy for it, but that's what ultimately made it stand out. I appreciate the experience because, while it was tough, it really forced me to think critically about the things it raised.

In short, The Unworthy is a dark and disturbing read that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. It's not an easy read, but if you're willing to take on the challenge of difficult material and graphic descriptions, you'll find it to be an investment of time well spent. Bazterrica has once again proven herself capable of creating dark and uncomfortable worlds impossible to shake.

Damnit.

I had to sit with this one for a little bit, but I fear Agustina Bazterrica has done it yet again with her translated horror magic. Well I don’t fear, I congratulate, I suppose. I am so thankful to the team at Scribner for sending me a finished copy right before pub day (March 4th) I couldn’t put it down and will definitely be spreading the word on this beautifully written, sapphic, dystopian, trauma bonding horror.

In a very distant future our main character has found herself to be apart of The Unworthy - a sect of lowly participants under the guidance of the Sacred Sisterhood. This convent of sorts doesn’t follow the teachings of the erroneous God and the false mother, rather the Unworthy live in fear of flagellations and sacrifices from the foreboding Superior Sister, but they’ll take anything that’s not beyond the walls of the Sisterhood, for out there in the vast nothingness is a lawless world full of climate disasters, murderous adults, and pure starvation.

Our FMC, is logging all that she remembers of her previous life, to keep her story going, and continues to log the narrative as a wanderer finds her way into the convent’s territory. Lucia as she’s soon renamed catches the eye of fellow unworthy members, and other members of the sisterhood with leering suspicion of witchcraft as she evades the whippings and trials the average member.

Our FMC is soon whisked away by Lucia’s kindness and grace and longs to take her from this hell before the sisterhood can damn her even further.

The Unworthy had me feeling every range of emotion, and shit the tears fell. Such a good tale. Cannot wait for my re-read of this!

Bazterrica has been on my radar since Tender in the Flesh so I was definitely excited to check out her latest. This is a dark, evocative book where we’re never given all the answers. I tend to vibe well with books that are left up for interpretation but I do recognize many readers seek a more cohesive plot.

In The Unworthy we’re thrown into this world where the Earth has been entirely devastated. Our nameless narrator has taken refuge at the Sacred Sisterhood which is kind of like a convent run by a psychotic woman and a man referred to only as He. The women aren’t even allowed to see the man’s face and spend much of their time being tortured or milled for minor indiscretions. Our narrator has very few memories of “before” but is one of the only members who can read and write. As she does begin to remember her tale is a compelling one. The Sisterhood is divided into factions which often seem superior to another but are all terrible existences.

Bazterrica does a lot in this short space. Her descriptions of the ravaged Earth were one of the most terrifying parts of the book. The prose is beautiful and while readers are given many of the puzzle pieces, it’s a book that will leave some wanting more understanding. I really enjoyed it. I like weird books that are subjective and this hit that note for me. I’d recommend this to my more literary dystopian fiction crowd.