proseamongstthorns's Reviews (946)

This was a solid 4 star until the twist that just felt completely unrealistic. A shame as I was enjoying the characters, the setting and the lack of awful attempts at shoehorning in romance. 

I’ll still carry on with the series though. 

Wow. What a book!

‘Tender is the Flesh’ was such a sucker-punch in all the best ways, I really wasn’t sure how (or even if) you’d follow that up.

But ‘The Unworthy’ is haunting and horrific in a whole different way. 

A dystopian world, not too dissimilar to where we find ourselves in Tender, where there’s a climate crisis, the animals are dying, we’ve tumbled into lawlessness.

‘The Unworthy’ slowly reveals this world to you piece by piece. It requires you to put in work to weave it all together. It moves relatively quickly, but has this feeling of slowness due to how much work you’re putting in yourself.

There’s a lot I still don’t understand about this book. We find ourselves in a convent - but it’s unlike any conventional religion. A man, a physical human man (presumably), is god and only women are allowed to stay in the convent. Alarm bells ringing yet?

I really enjoyed seeing the sapphic representation in this one. And alongside this, seeing Lucia become more human and more relatable throughout the story. So much is stuffed into this short novel. 

I’ll almost definitely read this again to get more out of it. On the first take, it feels like a commentary on femininity, false news, controlled states and how hierarchical structures impose violence on ‘lower’ individuals. At it’s heart is the power love can grant you - the desire to look beyond the curtain and bring down systems put in place to control us. 

This made me cry - but in a good way. The best kind of romance. 

This was relatively fun - dark at times but hopeful. We all need a little more Elizabeth Zott in us. 

I was really excited to read this one - but it just didn't hit the mark.

It felt rushed and incomplete. The characters and their motivations were confusing and sometimes contradictary. It was hard to really feel for them or their romance when everything felt so surface level.

The F1 world also just felt so unrealistic. The fact that drivers would be expected to show a random new employee around a city... just no. I love a good f1/sports/celebrity romance but it has to feel somewhat realistic. This one felt a little too wattpad-y. At times there was a lot of detail around the F1 world then suddenly it would skip all the action and time-jump you forward with no context.

There were definitely glimpses of greatness. I felt like we were given small glimpses into our characters minds. It needed a little more time to build out their motivations and more importantly build on their relationship. It didn't really make sense to me.

It's a shame, but I think romance lovers would still like this. The F1 fangirl in me prevented me getting to into this one.

This is one of those books you need to study to really love. I found it moved too slowly and then everything happened all at once. Quite predictable and not really sure of the purpose.