Brilliant, chilling ... Suspenseful ... The horror is made visceral by Bazterrica’s feverish, mythic prose, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses ... Vivid and anguishing ... A novel filled with secrets, and part of the thrill is cracking open one forbidden door at a time.
If there is one thing I know, it’s that Agustina Bazterrica knows how to cultivate a landscape of such horror, such intrigue, and such cunning that I’m glued to the page ... Balances fable, fiction, and fearlessness in a truly unforgettable fashion ... Body horror at its finest ... The horrific aspects of this book are balanced well with lyrical prose and some truly deep questions that this book grapples with ... It really was the beautiful writing that had me so engaged with this plot ... The world building, too, is simply stellar. The convent is well thought out, with believable levels of hierarchy consisting of unique and terrifying sects that each serve a different purpose to the story. The use of the senses to build a feeling of deep unease is an achievement I’ve rarely seen but is done so well here ... This book is meant for everyone ... It was a true pleasure to get to read The Unworthy...and have it be my first five-star read of 2025. This book is swimming with stomach-dropping moments and unforgettable meditations on power, shame and scorn, all the while floating in a sinister world that is eerily reflective of our own.
While the detail with which Bazterrica considers this creepy conceit is thoroughly engrossing— and often truly gross — the novel distinguishes itself by examining the brutal choices and compromises made by those who find themselves in a system that spun out of 'chaos' ... Turns an astute if despairing eye to a not-so-distant global future where small numbers of depraved elites force the desperate masses to make unimaginable compromises ... As with Tender Is the Flesh, Bazterrica’s world-building is perversely and unsettlingly entrancing ... Harrowing ... The petty cliques and struggle for survival among the unworthy make for an arresting story on their own, but the novel is truly animated by the narrator’s attempts to regain her memories ... Translator Sarah Moses’s sympathetic and fiery translation brilliantly captures the narrator’s ongoing crisis of faith ... Raises probing questions about the nature of faith and the power of abusers, and it absolutely skewers the means that organized religions employ to exert control over their flocks.
[Bazterrica's] prose is a blunt instrument, simple but precise ... As with religious feeling or erotic conviction, the author seems to suggest that writing opens access to a deeper, more actual present.
Bazterrica is in her element dramatizing the violent and atrocious acts that the residents of the community are subjected to and, in turn, inflict on each other ... This satirical horror is incisive and convincing as it skewers religious fervor and blind obedience.
Heartrending ... Moses’s translation is marvelous, capturing the lush lyricism with which Bazterrica describes the most harrowing extremes of human experience. Calling to mind Cormac McCarthy and Chelsea G. Summers, this is as beautiful as it is brutal.
A somber reflection on an increasingly hostile world ... The story is a little tough to follow due to the narrator’s fragmented memory, not to mention lots of interruptions from the old ultraviolence and body horror ... As a subversion of expectations and an indictment of unchecked power, it’s unflinching and provocative, but readers expecting a satisfying denouement may be left wanting.
