Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica

47 reviews

missmonigee's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder

arayo's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Death of parent, War

ylimets's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy

corgia's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

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check the spoiler for a warning about animal cruelty. there are other trigger warnings on here as well.

there is animal cruelty against a cat which made me cry.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book but I'm glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail

rachel_garris's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The Unworthy is a dark and brutal story about power, survival and the human condition. Viewed through the lens of a bleak world destroyed by climate disaster our FMC risks it all to journal the experiences of those “saved” in a convent, one of the last havens left on earth. Readers get a front row view to the gritty harsh realities of these lonely and desperate women through a misogynistic religion, isolated yet competitive atmosphere as they ultimately do anything to survive. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence

hexoracle's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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A horrifying look into a world devastated by a climate disaster, where those who crave power turn to religious fanaticism to regain it when there is none.  The author perfectly puts you into the mind of the main character through her diary entries, the way the cult she is trapped in strips her of her identity, and how it fosters animosity between its members to keep them compliant. A brutal but needed reminder not to be blinded by infighting and forget who is really in power, that the only way forward is through joint effort and compassion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

4.75

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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gurl miss agustina ate this sapphic religious trauma up!!! absolutely LOVED this book and the world that  agustina built. shockingly, i feel like the way she worked in that brief discussion about

artificial intelligence

was done well. HOWEVER, i was so looking forward to

finding out what the world outside the walls was like

, and the fact that i was ROBBED of that knowledge is upsetting so i did have to dock some points for that. other than that this was perfect. loved the lesbian pining <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Murder, War

dizzzybrook's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Relentlessly suffocating and bleak with my favorite type of horror imagery. I was pleasantly impressed by this and found it to be much more my taste over Tender is the Flesh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Classism

thegayestghost's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry

bisexualbookshelf's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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"The truth is a sphere. We never see it whole, in its entirety. It slips down our throats, through our thoughts. The truth is changeable, it contracts, implodes, it’s powerful like a bullet. And it can be lethal."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book is out now in the US.

Agustina Bazterrica’s The Unworthy is a fever dream of religious horror, a novella that burns with lyrical brutality. Told through the secret writings of an unnamed narrator, it unspools a world where faith is both refuge and terror, where women are categorized and mutilated in pursuit of divine purity, and where memory itself is a battleground. The House of the Sacred Sisterhood, ostensibly a sanctuary in the wake of an apocalyptic event, functions as a site of rigid religious hierarchy and grotesque violence. The narrator, desperate to be deemed worthy, documents her existence in stolen moments of defiance, her words pulsing with urgency, loss, and a fragile hope.

Bazterrica’s prose is hypnotic, swinging between fragmented recollection and poetic horror. The novel cultivates a suffocating, cult-like atmosphere, where belief is survival and doubt is a death sentence. The mantra—“Without faith, there is no refuge”—reverberates throughout, a chilling encapsulation of the Sisterhood’s philosophy. The narrator, classified as Unworthy, longs to ascend to the status of the Enlightened, fearing the disfigurement imposed on the Chosen. But as she uncovers the Sisterhood’s horrors

—including the sanctioned rape of the Enlightened—

her faith fractures, and love becomes the catalyst for her ultimate act of rebellion.

The novella’s thematic weight is staggering, grappling with religious trauma, authoritarianism, and the erasure of self under oppression. Women’s bodies are controlled and punished, their autonomy sacrificed to an unnamed man’s divine decree and the Superior Sister’s ruthless enforcement. Language and memory are wielded as tools of both control and resistance; in writing, the narrator reclaims what has been stolen from her. The text pulses with questions of truth—what is real, what is myth, and how does faith warp perception?

Despite its bleakness, The Unworthy is not without tenderness. The narrator’s growing attachment to Lucía, a woman who enters the Sisterhood and quickly becomes a source of fascination and longing, injects the story with a quiet, aching intimacy. Their relationship is fleeting yet profound, an ember of humanity in an otherwise barren landscape. In the end, the narrator’s sacrifice is not just for Lucía’s survival but for the preservation of truth, her words a final act of defiance against oblivion.

This novella is eerie, reflective, and beautifully sapphic. Not everything makes sense, nor does it need to—its power lies in its atmosphere, its language, its ability to unsettle. Read it in one sitting, if you can, and let it haunt you.

📖 Read this if you love: religious horror, cult narratives, and feminist dystopias; I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.

🔑 Key Themes: Religious Trauma and Control, Memory and Identity, Faith as Manipulation, Queerness and Forbidden Desire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Grief

Minor: Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury