Worry is going to be a talked about book, dripping in millennial ennui and charting the enmeshed and complicated relationship between two sisters in NYC. Jules lives in the city, in a relationship that she thinks is going to go the distance when her younger sister Poppy moves in, after having left their mother's house. On the surface, Jules has her act together- the aforementioned relationship and a stable job at a Cliffs Notes-esque company. Poppy appears more fragile. She attempted suicide in the past, something that is not talked about and is experiencing debilitating recurrent hives, which no one can figure out the cause of.

There is a sustained undercurrent of anxiety throughout Worry. Things on the surface are not as they appear. Jules spends her time on a secret social media account searching for mommy bloggers and conspiracy theorists. She amuses herself by reading these, but becomes obsessed with searching. While the relationship with the sisters is complicated, their mother adds another degree of pathology, often pitting the two sisters against one another, when also saying that they bring out the worst in one another.

At times this book can be funny (there's a three-legged dog named Amy Klobuchar, the girls go home and get "touched up" by their plastic surgeon dad as a sign of love), but also there is a sense of dread throughout. There is not all that much of a plot, as just when it appears something changes in their relationship, it reverts back to baseline.

The ending of this book will be polarizing- and triggering to some folks. If I had known going in about it, I may not have read, but I also don't want to spoil. I would have rated this book higher, if not for the ending.

Thank you to Scribner via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

The statement “I think you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much” in book form. Chronically online, full of mind-numbing Instagram conspiracy theories, endless consumption and misery and nihilism. But I swear it’s also funny! I thought the writing and character work here was very well done. It’s difficult to capture the intense kind of love that is also deeply toxic and often hateful that can exist between sisters (and mothers), knowing that these characters are acting this way out of deep love and even deeper insecurity. I do think the ending was a bit strange and out of nowhere, it kept up the themes of this book but otherwise didn’t feel like it fit, being as quick and jarring as it was. If you are a fan of messy 20-something coming of age stories, I’d say this is another solid installment, though I can’t say it’s the strongest of the genre.

Genuinely hilarious. A true dramedy, full of current pop culture content which feels self-referential rather than dating but still anchoring the book in the just-right time for the story to work exactly as it does, all while telling a timeless story of woman- and sisterhood. What a treat!!