Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Worry

This was a weird one. On the one hand, it's an incredibly easy read. The prose is punchy and flows well so it's hard to stop reading once you get into it, but on the other hand, nothing really happens and the nihilistic perspective may turn readers off.

The main character is unlikeable and unsympathetic. She's floating through her life, bound to her narcissistic and borderline abusive mother and her absentee and vapid father through their financial support of her lifestyle, yet she doesn't enjoy the lifestyle or anything about her life. She's alone but prickly about her sister living with her. She's casually cruel to her sister yet craves the kind of intimacy friends and siblings have.

I think this is mischaracterized as a comedy because there's not much humorous about the book or the characters. It's more a tragic look at modern life and an incredibly dysfunctional Jewish family in which each member is deeply unhappy in their own special ways and comes together for a reluctant ceasefire over holidays and then ends up explosively falling out once again until the next holiday.

I'm of two minds with this book still. This was an easy read, yes, but it wasn't really an enjoyable one for me. I was engaged in bursts by the relationship dynamic between the various family members, but at the end of the day, not much happens and there's no real plot. Make of that what you will.

Content Warnings

nordstina's review

Go to review page

medium-paced

3.5

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.

Content Warnings

mmccombs's review

Go to review page

dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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.

Content Warnings

reallybadwolf's review

Go to review page

funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow I can’t wait for this to be published so I can go on Reddit and figure out the ending (something I’m sure Poppy would take offense to).
This novel was described as “Seinfeldian” and wow, what an apt descriptor. This novel follows two sisters in the every day minutiae of life as they are just completely awful to each other and everyone around them. It’s so funny, so witty, so shocking at times. I had such a good time reading this.

Content Warnings

bookishbabe93's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

juliapls's review

Go to review page

dark funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I wanted this story to just say more. There were some really witty passages and interesting moments but what you get from the first few chapters of the book is all you'll get from the book. A slice of life that should have been a short story.

Content Warnings