The Unworthy

By Agustina Bazterrica

Book Overview

THE JAW-DROPPING NATIONAL BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668051885
• ISBN13: 9781668051887
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

I wanted to love it

I loved Tender is the Flesh so much that it is still one of my favorite all time books and I bought and will continue to buy and read anything Augustina Bazterrica publishes, but maybe these other stories just aren't for me. The premise and world she has built is captivating and she does it so well, but the plot is transparent. I am not the most intelligent reader, but anyone with even the slightest bit of healthy skepticism towards religious leaders will guess the ending at least a third of the way through. Maybe to experience the events and the revelation through the eyes of the main character is the point.

Ehhh

I’ll be honest: this was so boring. Even the body horror stuff was boring.

Had potential

The book is told from the point of view from someone in a post apocalyptic cult. It mainly focuses on this persons experience and what happens to them while they were there. It could have been so much more interesting exploring the cult itself, its beliefs and the dark secrets the cult held and the reasons for them. One could argue that the unexplored mysteries of “The Unworthy” add to its charm, but for me it lost its most interesting element.