Thank you Scribner Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Unworthy in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Scribner Books
Published: March 4, 2025
Summary:
The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.
From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.
But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?
A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by Agustina Bazterrica. I’ve been meaning to read Tender is the Flesh but haven’t gotten around to it. But when this book was pitched, I was oddly curious…
This was a strange read…and one that I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. I don’t tend to gravitate towards dystopian reads, but I was drawn to the fact that was set in a convent. What follows is stranger and more bizarre than I could have envisioned and yet I couldn’t walk away. It’s definitely got cult vibes and I often felt that things were hinted at but oftentimes we were kept in the dark.
Will I try this author again? Perhaps but maybe I’ll do a little more digging into the book before picking it up.
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