Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Tell Me I'm Worthless

3.5 but Goodreads doesn’t have half stars. Tell Me I’m Worthless is a haunted house story that is so much more than that. I went into this pretty blind with no expectations and I’m glad I did because if you pick this up looking for just a haunted house story you will be disappointed because there is so much social commentary on trans rights, misogyny, violence against minorities, and our disjointed and hateful culture in todays world.

This book had scenes that were absolutely horrifying and had so many references to other literary haunted house stories, like The Haunting of Hill House and Bluebeard’s ghost. While the horror elements were superb this book at times read like a fever dream with chapters that were strings of consciousness from the characters, including the house itself. The author intertwines the supernatural horror with the horror of bigotry, hate, and sexual violence so well that there were scenes I struggled to read.

If you’re looking for a unique horror story with diverse characters and a meld of horror and social commentary then I highly recommend Tell Me I’m Worthless.

Content Warnings

antimony's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

REALLY difficult to read not because of the writing but because of like. everything that happens. but it was good

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murk's review

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Alison Rumfit quotes a lot of other books in this piece, using near line by line replications of good horror that has recently been adapted to screen as if to say “no look, I know the original content! It was so much better!”, but doesn’t seem to have a lot to say on her own.
As a queer person involved in the community, “shock horror” never really did anything for me. The long winded tangents felt unnecessary and didn’t stick the landing to prove the points they desperately wanted to.
Toxic, damaged characters are hard to write and have people care about. Usually I love reading/watching the slow train wreck but I felt bored and uninvested in what happened to them.
There are some good scenes, but they get lost in the whiplash of the rest of the book.
Not the worst afternoon read, but one I had to force myself to finish.

Content Warnings

displacedcactus's review against another edition

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When the description says "dark and unflinching", believe it. I'm not a big horror reader, and so when I do dip into the genre, I need some sort of lightness to balance out the darkness. I didn't find anything here that could help me get through a story with such heavy themes of fascism and transphobia. The book does feel very well-written, so I suspect that if you enjoy work that is this rooted in really terrible real world horrors, you'll enjoy it.

Content Warnings