I could not bring myself to read anymore! I enjoyed Tender Is The Flesh, however this book felt empty of any real plot. The writing was eerie but it just didn’t lead to anything. I was bored and didn’t care about anything happening. There was just no plot!!

I loved it, this was right up my street. Dark and bleak, I enjoyed how it didn't feel the need to over explain the world the author created. I'll definitely be checking out her previous work.

The imagery was cursed and excitingly weird, and I thought that the ending was string in that in all came down to man's baseness and hunger rather than any supernatural rebirth - just the same old people using fear and power for their own ends.

4.75⭐️

I devoured this book. It was absolutely as horrifying and strange as I hoped it would be!

The indoctrination and religious manipulation aspects were so well-written and so disturbing - creating a horrifying and bleak atmosphere that worked so well for the book. The violence within the Sacred Sisterhood and the constant fear and paranoia felt by everyone within captured the sense of isolation and hopelessness perfectly. I think it was the ideal setting for this sort of story.

The entire world that Bazterrica has created of a dystopian wasteland suffering a climate crisis was fascinating, and I enjoyed getting insights into how the world functions, both inside and outside of the Sacred Sisterhood. The world-building, especially within the religion, was amazing and really unique and I loved reading about the narrator's changing feelings about the world she lives in and her place within it.

The sapphic rep was really great as well! I was a little sad that the love interest/catalyst for the book's main events (Lucía) wasn't introduced until so late, but with such a short book and so much world-building to do I understand why that was the case. Once Lucía does arrive, however, the narrator's newfound desire to survive and her questioning of everything she had previously accepted was great and I definitely felt like the book was at its most engaging and impactful once Lucía was involved.

This was just a well-written story set in a desolate world about what inspires people to keep going even when faced with impossible odds, all told in a creepy, bleak, and powerful way.

The only reason I can't give it 5 stars is that I don't think it quite had the same shocking and gut-wrenching impact of Tender is the Flesh. I know it might not be completely fair to compare the two but I feel like the commentary and messages were conveyed more powerfully in Tender is the Flesh. Even though I loved this and am ecstatic that Bazterrica has written sapphic characters (I very much hope that she continues to do so in the future!), for me Tender is the Flesh was just a little stronger in its themes and overall impact.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pushkin Press, and Agustina Bazterrica for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for an honest review.

If you thought you heard a tinny scream in the distance a few days ago - you did. It was my squeal of utter pleasure after Pushkin Press approved my ARC request on Netgalley. I had been doing (impatient) dances of joy ever since I saw that the translation of a new Agustina Bazterrica was forthcoming, and it did not disappoint. The novel is as merciless as Tender Is the Flesh, offering a terrifying vision of a post-apocalyptic future that only Bazterrica could create. The bleakness in The Unworthy is cumulative, so I won't give away any details, but the less you know, the harder the blow when you start to understand the relentlessness of the horror in the world of The Unworthy. The novel could easily be read and dismissed as a post-apocalyptic cli-fi or whatever other genre fiction, but that is where Bazterrica's genius lies: she describes the horrors that are just around the corner and asks us to think about what is being done in our name and how we came to live in (a slippery step away from?) the worst of all possible worlds.

Having recently devoured Tender is the Flesh, I was desperate to get my hands on this new novel, and it absolutely didn't disappoint. Dark, seductive, and truly haunting.