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A review by literaryjunarin
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Since reading Tender is the Flesh, I picked up everything Agustina Bazterrica wrote.
This book is incredible. An all-women convent called The House of the Sacred Sisterhood is a place weaponizing religion to oppress women they "saved" after the society's collapse due to the climate crisis. The violence is gut-wrenching. The Superior Mother's visceral punishments often include whipping, putting spikes inside the mouth, mutilation and the like. She also forces the women to self-mutilate as a form of offering to their God e.g., needles in the nipples.
As always, Bazterrica's prose is raw and sharp, which disturbed me but also since this was written in epistolary style, it also reads like a fever dream. From bleak and dark, to warm and heartfelt, until the thrilling end, it was a wild ride.
This book is incredible. An all-women convent called The House of the Sacred Sisterhood is a place weaponizing religion to oppress women they "saved" after the society's collapse due to the climate crisis. The violence is gut-wrenching. The Superior Mother's visceral punishments often include whipping, putting spikes inside the mouth, mutilation and the like. She also forces the women to self-mutilate as a form of offering to their God e.g., needles in the nipples.
As always, Bazterrica's prose is raw and sharp, which disturbed me but also since this was written in epistolary style, it also reads like a fever dream. From bleak and dark, to warm and heartfelt, until the thrilling end, it was a wild ride.