Reviews

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

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ariahaiello2908's review

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I think I was comparing this book a little too closely to the author's other work, brainwyrms. to be honest, I think the metaphor of this one went straight over my head and I kept trying to find the correlation between the house and facism. I'm not sure. the words got a bit muddy at points in the story and I had to skip whole paragraphs at a time because the words just turned into mindless brainrot. Maybe this was the authors intention but It got a bit tiring towards the end just being constantly confused. I probably just dont have the insight/experience/intellect to understand this book and if that's the case, i really wish I did. I could tell the story was important and the author truly felt it to be essential to write this and I will always appreciate that. I think the characters were all very honest,. Very disturbing themes, although as a fan of the gruesome aspects of the horror genre, I would've loved to have seen a bit more gore.

jinxei's review

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4.0

While this story started as, what I had assumed, to be just a story revolving around a haunted house involving the disappearance of one of three friends that ventured into into it, it evolved into so much more. Tell Me I'm Worthless was a violent horror story on the surface, but holds so much more under that. Tackling tough issues like fascism and being trans, this book will intentionally make you uncomfortable and upset while terrifying you at the same time.

Make sure you check through warnings or go in when you are in a good mental headspace if you are part of the queer community as the treatment, threats, and verbiage that is thrown at one of the characters could be triggering. This is not a light read, and definitely not a "fun" seasonal read. The social commentary is thick, but well done.

This was an incredibly quick read that left me not just unsettled, but also leaving the lights on afterwards.

Thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC of Tell Me I'm Worthless!

corymackenziegray's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

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

4.0

melonfizz's review

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1.0

“Sometimes, at the end of everything, the only option you have is to make it worse.”

Pros: ?

Cons:
- extreme transphobe turns out to be a trans man
- insufferably racist protagonist, written by a white woman
- graphic r*pe as a plot device
- feminism 101 meets leftism 101
- shock value for the sake of it
- plot & writing style were nonsensical, misdirected, and boring
- not scary or creepy in any way

samuelachillese's review against another edition

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4.0

Disturbing psychosexual gothic horror about British fascism and (trans)misogyny. A thorough and terrifying exploration of the logics of fascism and its effects psychologically and interpersonally. Through this nightmare-like fictional exploration, British transmisogyny and fascism and the ways the two are interlinked is easier to grasp as an American reader. Some of the metaphors feel a little on the nose, but that’s a small quibble with what is otherwise a creative and deeply disturbing text. Nicky Endres’ narration of the audiobook is masterful, too, particularly the voicing of the house.

Content Warnings

thehermit's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

there were some things i enjoyed but i think this would have served better as a novella.

suzannahslibrary's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

2.75

driaslibrary's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

cnccs21's review

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This book is really such a weird reading experience, I can barely find words to review it.
I dont know how else to put it but to say that it is overly written?
So many long and convoluted sentences that just drag on and on, and make the meaning of the text barely understandable. There were whole chapters like this.
I get the intention behind this, but it made the book much worse in my view.
I dont think I can recomend this, despite finding it an interesting (if convoluted) explorarion of its main themes.

punk_flower_child's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Horrifying, heartbreaking, grabs-you-by-the-throat storytelling. I had to finish it quickly because it was putting me in a weird headspace but I still loved it. Some of the run ones make it a little hard to follow but I really think it lends to the idea of psychosis or other forms of mental torment

Content Warnings

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