The Unworthy by Augustina Bazterrica is a haunting look into a dystopian world. The chilling premise and made for an intriguing read, and I found myself captivated by its exploration of power, dehumanization, and survival..

However, I felt there was a lack of detail when it came to the world-building. This, although interesting, left me wanting more context about how the world got to this point and why certain “unworthy” individuals seemed to retain certain abilities or privileges,. These unanswered questions felt like missed opportunities to deepen the story’s impact.

That said, The Unworthy is still a worthwhile short read, especially for fans of dystopian fiction. If you're looking for a quick, unsettling read, this one is definitely worth picking up.

If this is our future, boy is it bleak. Agustina Bazterrica has this inane ability to capture a truly horrifying and perhaps not all that far fetched future and immerse you in it. Truly her books sit with me, for YEARS after reading them. This one is no different. Bazterrica addresses the climate crisis alongside ideological extremism- in a truly horrifying format. Reading our narrators notes as she fumbles through and survives on a plate that has essentially died is haunting. It’s also interesting to see how her world is so small and things are so bleak, but yet she is still plagued by the mundane. This book was confusing and ambivalent, it was the musing of a woman who flowed in and out of clarity. These kinds of books are always the most terrifying- so I feel as it’s safe to add The Unworthy to the list of terrifying futures I hope that we never see as a society.

The Unworthy feels like a mash up of other, better books. The tone of Lapvona’s spiritual dirge. The weird post apocalyptic hierarchies of The Dolloriad. Even the heavy metal Catholism of Warhammer 40,000 (not exactly a great literary reference), with its ranked nuns - the Unworthy, The Enlightened, the Diaphanous Spirits, the Minor Saints and more, all with their own mutilations and set of powers, feel more like character classes in a grimdark video game than genuine world building.

The book itself could have been great despite this, and there's a few moments outside of the main plot with the tarantula kids and circe that feel like excerpts from something better, but the main plot is a plodding miserable dirge that goes nowhere and then purposefully deflates anu tension that's been building in the third act with a No Country For Old Men esque off screen death.

My utmost thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley UK for an advanced copy of "The Unworthy" in exchange for an honest review.

While Agustina Bazterrica's "Tender is the Flesh" was horrifying, I fear she has somehow outdone herself with "The Unworthy", her newest dystopian horror release to be translated into English. I shed very real, ugly tears midway through this book. I don't know if it's because of the young female narrator or what, but this novel hit me way harder than "Tender is the Flesh".

Set in a more distant future than the dystopic world of "Tender is the Flesh", "The Unworthy" is about a young girl living in an oppressive convent where girls "chosen by God" are either mutilated to become his vessels or ascend to become "Enlightened" which involves an unknown fate to our narrator. As a new girl enters their order, our main character starts remembering her life before the convent and the world outside that has fallen to barbarism and ecological collapse.

There's a lot of death, torture, sexual violence, and animal cruelty in this book. Bazterrica doesn't shy away from painting in vivid colour what the future will look like if we keep relying on AI, fossil fuels, and hypercapitalism to sustain ourselves. I think I shed tears because of how hopeless and lost the main character feels in the face of all this global ruin and the merciless nature of a planet not able to sustain itself anymore. Yes, the novel does end with a sliver of light, but the fate of many named characters in this novel is... grim. This work reminds us that alienation, isolationism, and conservatism will not solve our very imminent socioeconomic problems if civilization falls apart.

I'll be thinking about this one for a while. I implore you to read "The Unworthy" and look at the potential future horrors of climate change and fascism in the face, as depicted. Brilliant work.

It was fine I guess? My expectation was a bit more plot to be perfectly honest, whereas this book turned out to be more of a slice of life. Granted, the life in question is in some post-apocalyptic cult in the middle of nowhere in the destroyed world, with all expected weirdness sometimes dialled up to 11. We barely know any of the characters who appear throughout the book, and in the end it just made it really hard to empathise with the protagonist.

However, I freely admit that when this book's language and style was beautiful, it was amazingly, hauntingly beautiful. With translated works it's often hard to tell how much of it is the author's success and how much is due to the translation. I usually think it's a bit of both, which was probably the case with this book as well. In the end my problem with it was more of "it's not you it's me" kind, because weird fiction just isn't quite my style. But I have no doubt that it would be well received by many others who are more favourably disposed towards the genre.

Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5, rounded up to a generous 2, as I almost DNF’d but wanted to give the book a fair chance.

Thank you to the publisher Pushkin Press for providing me with an arc copy via NetGalley. This book may be more enjoyable in its original Spanish, as much of the impact was lost on me due to the translation and formatting. The writing felt disjointed, and I struggled to connect with the prose.

The Unworthy follows an FMC living in a harsh, dystopian society. Unfortunately, the author provides little character development or even names for supporting characters, making it hard to invest in the story.

The world of the book feels intentionally fragmented and disorienting, mirroring the FMC’s alienation and moral conflict. However, this choice made it difficult to follow as a reader. The religious and mythological undertones were intriguing, but they couldn’t outweigh the issues with the rest of the story. Though it was a short read, getting to the end felt painful. I almost DNF’d at 59%, but I felt obligated to finish. This is not a book I would pick up again.

Agustina Bazterrica writes in a way that i find so thought provoking and I love it. This is set in a post apocalyptic world where the land is dying. We follow a young women risking her life by keeping a diary while living at the Sacred Sister House. Here the women are divided up into servants (the lowest of the low), the Unworthy, the Enlighted & Chosen ones and the Superior sister that runs it. All is not as it seems and evil things are going on but with not many memories from a time before and the world outside a bleak & hopeless place to be these women live trying to keep there head down. As we read more from the young women's diary we learn that not all is as it seems. Her memories come back to her slowly and with the arrival of a new Unworthy some of the women start to plan their escape.

All I will say is learning about this world was absolutely brutal and so fascinating I could not put the book down. It is bleak, and hopeless and thought provoking and well worth the read.

I am a big fan of Tender is the Flesh, and I will defend that book against many accusations of derivativeness, heavy-handedness and lack of nuance. I was very excited to get an ARC of Bazterrica's new long-form piece. Sadly, I ended up thinking that the sort of issues many readers had with Tender are actually acutely present in The Unworthy.

Full of instantly striking but ultimately quite boring imagery, The Unworthy described a post climate disaster world (don't they all nowadays). We follow the inner lives of a former convent, now home to a misogynistic cult run by a Godlike He, the only man in the vicinity (any men approaching the oasis of safety that is the convent get killed). The inner life of the all-female cult is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale (or Protestant Black Legend type takes on what a Catholic nunnery might be like). It is repressive, stifling and full of lesbian love that will save us all from tyranny. Yawn.

It really reminded me of Paul Verhoeven awful (and about as French as a cat artist in a beret riding a croissant and blasting je ne regrette rien) take on Benedetta Carlini's story (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedetta_Carlini). The Unworthy felt inspired by this dreadful movie, whereas I think a more historically faithful retelling of the real Benedetta's story would have made for a much more fresh, innovative and engaging story.

Tender is the Flesh cleverly played with the conventions and expectations of its very specifically defined genre (20th century dystopia, from We to Fahrenheit 451), whereas The Unworthy blindly follows the beats of a familiar story without offering anything exciting or creative.

Very culty, very dystopian, very quick. Loved it! First intro to Agustina and I've got Tender is the Flesh lined up.

Tender Is the Flesh was fantastic, but I did not like this book at all.

The Unworthy is a strange read, yet one that feels like it's been done many times before. Bazterrica drops us into the middle of a bizarre dystopian world, offering no immediate context and only slight tidbits throughout, and tries to propel the story with little more than increasingly horrific depictions of whippings and torture.

We find out that this is set in a convent, the House of the Sacred Sisterhood, after the climate crisis has brought about some vague devastation and infections in the outside world. Though short, the book is slow and repetitive, moving from prayer to punishment and back again. World-building, character development and an actual story are notably missing from the book.

I have said this before, but I really dislike being kept in the dark this much. I find it extremely boring when I don't understand what is happening or why I should care.

It felt like The Unworthy was an attempt to be mysterious and edgy. Almost nothing happens until the end of the book and even that was unsatisfying. If it was intended to provoke thought about women and religion, it missed the mark for me.

I Who Have Never Known Men is another short, mysterious dystopia about women and I would recommend it over this one in a heartbeat.

3.5/5
What a weird but at the same time not weird book this is!
First of all I’m so grateful to have read it months before its publishing date. I had a good time reading this but this for sure has been a rollercoaster of higher and lower rating. But it really needs to sit with you in order to get better.
The concept is immaculate, I felt so uneasy the whole time. The characters all felt fleshed out even tho they didn’t have that much screen time, but I felt like I know the quintessential personality type of everyone. I thought the flashbacks were okay, but I was more happy when the story came back to the present time since that is what I cared about more, but I understand why the flashbacks were necessary. The writing style is clear and descriptive but not in a way that makes me want to tear my eyes out during gruesome scenes. It’s a great book for horror/dystopian enthusiasts or for everyone who is looking for a essay topic.

This was an incredible read, I don't read much, if any, horror but i would love to read more from this author. I loved the post-apocalyptic climate-disaster setting, it was brutal and terrifying. Overall the book had such a dark atmosphere.

I found the story completely different than Tender is the Flesh but the unsettled feeling I had while reading it was so similar. It is a complex story told with such a minimal style that the parts that are left out are somehow just as terrifying as what we are told explicitly. The feeling of tension that was created right from the first page did not stop until it was over.

I recommend this if you are looking for a compelling, disgusting, creepy, bleak, and claustrophobic read.

What an incredible, haunting, fever dream of a book! I went into this book blind as this was my first of Agustina Bazterrica’s titles, but it most certainly won’t be my last. I requested this because the description hooked me in and because it was reminiscent of such powerhouse authors as Mariana Enriquez (Our Share of Night).

The story is from the point of view of an unnamed woman, a member of the mysterious Sacred Sisterhood. She is writing about her life - using whatever materials she can cobble together, berries, old ink, her blood. As the story starts, the reader is in the dark about much of the narrative but as the story continues to unfold, clarity arrives. We go from the quite often hurried or panicky present, in which the main character is attempting to organise her thoughts, to moments of her long-buried past where more information about her life slowly reveals itself.

I really enjoyed Bazterrica’s writing style and the description was exquisite. I am not a highlighter at all, but I had to highlight some of these descriptions, the words just give a completely vivid picture of what the author is describing and what the protagonist is going through.

This book had me hooked from page one right up to the end. The sense of impending danger and haste that emanates from our main character, was reflected in my reading - I had to keep going to find out what would happen!

This was everything I wanted it to be! It was weird, dark, thoughtful and intriguing. I loved the writing, the absence of dialogue, the lack of explanations and the general intelligence that went into crafting this text.

From the first page, you are hooked. Taken into a dystopian universe where you are no longer the master of your domain. Everything you believed in, had faith in and even hoped to become is now the very nightmare you tried so hard to escape. Unexpected wonders intertwined with heartbreaking moments will keep your eyes peeled, your mind running and your hope teetering on the edge of your soul.

There is so much to like about this book. It's unsettling, and you feel like Bazterrica is constantly trying to knock her reader off kilter, which I really enjoy from my novels - I like not knowing where things are going to go and how the story is going to end. The atmosphere is also well established, and her descriptions of the punishments experienced by the Unworthies are visceral and will leave most readers feeling extremely uncomfortable. This is a book that you are going to feel physically as you read it.

The one thing I felt was missing was character development - I felt like I could never really get under the skin of the narrator, but this is a short novel and it seemed to me that this was the area that was sacrificed as a result. The flow of the story also felt a little disjointed, but this could have been intentional due to the fact that we're reading it through someone's clandestine note taking, but it could also be from the fact that it has been translated. This definitely worked itself out in the second half though, which is why I've given the novel 4 stars rather than 3. It read more smoothly as it went on and the ending is impressively jarring.

I felt slightly underwhelmed by The Unworthy mostly because I had such high expectations of Agustina Bazterrica after Tender is the Flesh. The first few chapters set the tone well and the writing style flowed beautifully (big props to the translator too) but it felt quite rushed in the end, especially towards the last two/ three chapters. I enjoyed the post-apocalyptic landscape but the characters felt undercooked and at times repetitive. Bazterrica is such a talent and you can see her explore new territory here while old themes (dystopia, gore, absolute authority, faith) still resonate. Overall enjoyed but greedily wanted more, 3.5 stars!

Bazterrica's writing is the star of this show: she creates an intense atmosphere of dark shot through with the red of blood as female bodies are tortured, mutilated and killed.

While the setting is vaguely post-apocalyptic with ecological disaster and everything poisoned, there's a strong sense that this is not just a potential future but is also a twisted version of our present: the structuring of power, the dictatorial hierarchies, the injustice upon which these are built, the complicity and fear, and the sacrifices of resistance as well as the leveraging of organized religion based on mystery are all familiar.

In fact, this is almost too familiar. There's almost a mythic sense of knowing what has to happen with tropes of love, revelation and sacrifice. A bit Handmaid's Tale without the foreground of plot or extensive world-building, this feels too long for the lack of development - but the writing is lush with its uncompromising imagery of brutality.

OhmyGod. What did I just read? This book is horrifying from the very first page and kept me hooked till the very end. I knew Agustina Bazterrica was a star when I read "Tender is the Flesh" and was expecting something like it but this book breaks boundaries of comprehension! It's terrifying to read and you still won't be able to put it down because the story keeps your trapped throughout. And the more you read, the more you learn about the House of the Sacred Sisterhood. The more you unravel the lies and the horrors of the place. The more you realise how the protagonist got to this God forsaken place! But you'll be left in awe throughout. That much I can promise.

The dystopian world described and the many, many torments faced by The Unworthy and the others in the House of the Sacred Sisterhood is so close to reality, it opens your eyes to real horrors of the world.

By the end of it, I was crying ugly tears and could feel my heart beating wildly, praying for the protagonist to escape.

Agustina, you never fail to amaze me with your work. I'm speechless after reading this and yet am somehow capable of penning down my thoughts for this review.

This is a must-read for all dystopian horror lovers and I'm really really grateful to Pushkin Press for having given me the opportunity to read and early copy of the book.

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!!