What Happens to Hannah is Absolutely the Worst. A Review of Tell Me I'm Worthless

 Tell Me I'm Worthless, to paraphrase Whitman, contains multitudes. I scarcely know where to begin. The novel deals with gender identity, fascism, horror, mental illness, imperialism, capitalism, sexism, racism and people who pay money to be told they're worthless. Did I leave anything out? Probably.

At first, I thought Alice was mentally ill. Her rock-star poster likes to insult her, and her bedroom walls enjoy closing in. But several people together usually don't hallucinate the same things, which is where the horror comes in. A house, not haunted but a living creature itself, consumes the minds of the three major characters. Then it does worse. 

Several times in the book there are run-on sentences that go on for pages. I understand this is an entirely different kind of novel, never-the-less, the run-on sentences become annoying. I'm knocking a star off for this. There's a reason run-on sentences are considered hard to read.

Blood, gore, brutal sex, torture, self-doubt and confusion. There is no letup. There is no moment of repose. There is no happy ending. A book for horror fans who like the blood to splatter.

Thank you to Tor/Forge and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Tell Me I'm Worthless.