Reviews

Worry: A Novel by Jessica Westhead

jficele's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

charperry's review against another edition

2.0

I read and read waiting for something major to happen, but it just never really got there for me. Not what I was expecting I guess anyways.
I wasn’t a fan of the way the author bounced from current to past without ever informing the reader; it was confusing at times.

ebalon's review against another edition

3.0

The dialogue in this book felt a bit stilted and I didn’t love how it would jump from past to present from one paragraph to the next. You could feel the tension building throughout the story but honestly the ending was a bit disappointing.

k_char's review against another edition

5.0

The way Westhead weaves a story together is amazing. I have really visceral reactions to her writing And while I find some pieces of this book lacking, i hi k the overall effect is a winner. It’s dark and uncomfortable and makes me hold my breath deep in my chest.

clarehitchens's review

4.0

The tension in this story reminded me of Elisabeth de Mariaffi's books, and reading it during the pandemic meant I often picked it up just to put it down again because it was too much. Complicated relationships here, and I'm not certain the plot worked for me in the end, but the strength of the book is in its tautness and exploration of emotions like grief and jealousy.

alisonj's review

3.0

3.5*. Super fast read. I really liked the writing — more than the content, if that makes sense. I found the toxic friendship a bit heavy handed. So much of the book made me feel sad, and some parts really made me squirm (so, it was effective). I’m not sure what I think about the ending, but the fact that I’m thinking about it after finishing the book is a strength. This won’t be for everyone. But I’ll read more of this author’s work.

anndouglas's review

5.0

WORRY is a thoughtful and multilayered book that explores the many factors—both personal and societal—that might cause a parent to retreat to a place of worry. Initially, the reader isn’t quite sure why the main character, Ruth, seems to spends so much time worrying about her four-year-old daughter, but, over time, those worries begin to make sense. At the start of the novel, we sense that something is wrong, but it takes us a long time to figure out what that “something” is (almost as long as it takes Ruth to acknowledge that “something” to herself). The result is a psychologically complex and highly captivating novel that insists that you keep turning pages as a way to relieve your own worry about what’s going to happen to these characters.