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A review by atomic_tourist
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-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
The sort of book that makes you go woah, what did I just read?! in the best sort of way.
I'm left with a million thoughts and a bajillion questions. If anyone I know ever reads this book, please please PLEASE tell me what you think!! And if you're on the fence about reading it, do it.
Rumfitt beautifully pays homage to the 'greats' of horror, with passages in the book that wink at Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, Henry James, and others. But rather than imitating or simplifying their works, she is in conversation with them. In Tell Me I'm Worthless, she expands upon existing works by directly engaging with questions of queerness, race, fascism, and how they intersect with the horror genre.
My one qualm about Rumfitt's writing is that at times it read as overly neat or academic. But I think it's impossible to write a novel like this without having some structured segments that guide the reader toward the politics and theory that Rumfitt has added to the mix.
What I loved the best about Tell Me I'm Worthless, though, were the raw, emotional, unstructured parts. That stream-of-consciousness bit near the end, when Ila and Alice are back at the House-- I was holding my fucking breath for minutes while reading it. It was incredible.
A great execution of a haunted house novel that draws on tensions inherent in queerness and questions of race and intersectionality. Worthless was horrifying (meant as a compliment, given its genre) and is maybe my favorite horror novel of 2023.
I'm left with a million thoughts and a bajillion questions. If anyone I know ever reads this book, please please PLEASE tell me what you think!! And if you're on the fence about reading it, do it.
Rumfitt beautifully pays homage to the 'greats' of horror, with passages in the book that wink at Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, Henry James, and others. But rather than imitating or simplifying their works, she is in conversation with them. In Tell Me I'm Worthless, she expands upon existing works by directly engaging with questions of queerness, race, fascism, and how they intersect with the horror genre.
My one qualm about Rumfitt's writing is that at times it read as overly neat or academic. But I think it's impossible to write a novel like this without having some structured segments that guide the reader toward the politics and theory that Rumfitt has added to the mix.
What I loved the best about Tell Me I'm Worthless, though, were the raw, emotional, unstructured parts. That stream-of-consciousness bit near the end, when Ila and Alice are back at the House-- I was holding my fucking breath for minutes while reading it. It was incredible.
A great execution of a haunted house novel that draws on tensions inherent in queerness and questions of race and intersectionality. Worthless was horrifying (meant as a compliment, given its genre) and is maybe my favorite horror novel of 2023.