The Unworthy
Ratings12
Average rating3
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.
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The vibe here is “what If Jean Rollin had directed an adaptation of A Canticle For Leibovitz?”, which to be fair is a brilliant idea, but the execution is a bit too ploddy and uninteresting for me. It's a short book, but nonetheless it feels a bit like walking through treacle and became an endurance test to finish. Great as a way to exemplify the limited and constrained lives of these women, not so much fun to read. I really loved Tender Is The Flesh, but this one missed the mark for me.
There really isn't a ton to say about this one. The reader essentially gets thrown directly into a dystopian religious convent. Everyone is ordered by class like a goth Handmaid's Tale. Bazterrica treats us with beautiful and sometimes scary imagery instead of a heavy plot.
To be honest, this book did get confusing at times but it was very enjoyable.
This book was a bit of a disappointment for me after how good Tender is the Flesh was.
I liked the idea of the book but found the narrative hard to get into. It felt like the author wanted to write this in a way that would intentionally confuse readers and make this book into a psychological bender. Instead, the narrative is jolting and not enough information on what, where, and with who is provided. It took me far into the book before I realized one character was a cat.
I liked the wording throughout the book as it was expressive and the right amount of flowery. It was enjoyable to read. I just wish the plot felt the same way. The plot was messy and spent too much time in the beginning slowly explaining the setting. When the story starts to move forward the focus is on the relationship and changes between the two women. The very end is when the convent and religion is somewhat explained in an unsatisfying way. It’s a quick blip then the book is over.
The book was not what I was expecting and did not deliver much.
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