Bazterrica writes horror that can be enjoyed by fans of horror as well as readers who don’t think they like horror. The writing and themes are just that beautiful. Sarah Moses also translated Tender is the Flesh and she delivers a smooth, fluid translation.
The Sacred Sisterhood is a “religious” order in a world where ecological collapse has destroyed civilization. Within the walls of a former monastery, the sisters practice a debased faith that rejects the tenets of Christianity and dehumanizes the sisters . Most of the sisters fall among the group known as the Unworthy and are ruled with total life-and-death control by the Superior Sister who is more like the commandant of a concentration camp than a religious leader. There is only one male, He, never seen, and the "spiritual" leader.
The story is told in the form of illicit journal entries by an Unworthy. She shows the reader the depths to which an extreme religious cult can be taken. The Unworthy are so conditioned that they vie to be the one to devise horrible punishments for other sisters.
When a new and charismatic sister is accepted, the power dynamic within the Unworthy is upset. I imagine this society is like that of a prison where guards control the prisoners and the prisoners create their own hierarchy to give themselves some semblance of control of their lives. The brutalized pass that brutality on to the weaker.
The Unworthy is a story of survival in the face of brutal rituals and punishments in the name of faith that are more akin to torture than atoenment. It is especially chilling because the extreme conditioning it shows is all too possible.
This is a compelling, thought-provoking, and well written story that explores power using faith to exercise that power and strip away the humanity of those within that faith.
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