Publishers Weekly
★ 12/11/2023
In Tanner’s mordant debut, two sisters deal with their anxiety and depression while rooming together. Jules, 28, is less than thrilled when her younger sister, Poppy, moves into her Brooklyn apartment—temporarily, Poppy assures her. The sisters were close while growing up in their Jewish household in South Florida, and Poppy looked up to Jules. After Poppy finished college, however, she sank into a depression and moved back home. Recently, Poppy’s mental health seemed to improve substantially, and she announced plans to settle in New York City. Only Jules knows that before arriving in Brooklyn, Poppy attempted suicide. The pair bicker constantly, in a manner that is both comical and savage (Poppy throws a toenail clipping at Jules during a fight). As things go well for Poppy—she gets along with Jules’s boyfriend, finds a job, and plans to adopt a dog—Jules feels threatened. Anxious about being stuck in her dead-end job as a study guide editor, she soothes herself by “hate-stalk” the “tradfem” mommy bloggers on her Instagram feed (one of whom claims to have a “mom-crush” on her “mini-boyfriend”: her newborn). Though Tanner finds plenty of easy targets for Jules to mock, she never sacrifices the psychological acuity of the character’s sharply portrayed angst and mean-spiritedness. With unflinching honesty, Tanner captures the claustrophobia of 21st-century young adulthood. Agent: Monika Woods, Triangle House. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"A bitingly funny, extremely online novel about sisterhood." —Washington Post, Summer Reading Recommendations
“This hilariously absurdist novel will have you relating to the character's anxiety a bit too much, even as you can't put it down . . . [an] addictive read.” —Isaac Fitzgerald, The Today Show's "Best Vacation Read"
"A moody beach read for girls who hate their jobs, text their exes, and feel like the things they want will destroy them." —Kelsey McKinney, host of Normal Gossip
"Dryly witty . . . highlights absurdities of contemporary culture and the consequences of self-absorption." —New Yorker
“Fabulously revealing. . . . The novel runs on an engine that relentlessly converts suffering, usually of the inner-turmoil variety, into comedic relief. . . . Some stories give you the unvarnished truth, some the varnished one. Worry is generous and wise enough to give both.” —Hannah Gold, New York Times Book Review
"A portrait of sisterly love that is both hilarious and deeply disturbing." —Ailsa Chang, NPR
"If a Big Sister Manifesto did exist, one that captured the hypocrisies of the role along with the heroism, the joy along with the pain, then Alexandra Tanner has come as close as it gets with her debut novel, Worry. . . . Like Ferrante and Heti before her, Tanner has constructed a layered Künstlerroman, an artist’s novel about two artists coming to maturity." —Leah Abrams, Los Angeles Review of Books
“Tanner’s Brooklyn-set debut novel about two sisters’ coming-of-anxiety is both riotously funny and wryly existential.” —Harper's Bazaar
"There’s warmth and originality at play here, as well as a strong emotional undertow to Tanner’s tale of anti-vax momfluencers and the indignity of splitting the cheque at birthday parties held at expensive small-plates restaurants. . . . Jen Beagin's zany and brilliant Big Swiss could be this book’s cousin." —The Guardian
"Alert: A genuinely funny book has entered the chat. . . . This debut novel’s observations about life in 2019—and in your twenties—are darkly hilarious and almost too spot on." —theSkimm
"As vividly and unrelentingly dark as the world of Worry is, its storytelling style is genuinely funny; Tanner also inserts absurd details and scenarios that will make you laugh despite the narrator’s sour perspective." —The Cut
"A portrait of contemporary life that is equal parts hilarious, brutal, and affecting." —Lilith
"Limning the absurdity of our internet-addled, dread-filled moment, Tanner establishes herself as a formidable novelist." —The Millions
"Worry is exacting and hilarious, the startling, familiar shock of seeing your own slightly warped face reflected back to you when your iPhone dies from hours of scrolling. . . . But at its core, Worry is a novel about sisters and the love they share despite being given access to each other’s emotional nuclear codes." —NYLON
"Dark, funny . . . a haunting snapshot of contemporary life." —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"A tragicomic portrait of urban millennial life, Worry is a timely mashup of Ottessa Moshfegh's desensitized characters and Sally Rooney's attention to complex social (de)attachment." —Shelf Awareness
"Gripping . . . Worry contains both the chaos of Lena Dunham’s Girls and the neurotic humor of Curb Your Enthusiasm." —Chicago Review of Books
"A disturbingly relatable tale." —Jezebel
"Could very well be the Great Millennial Novel." —Debutiful
"Worry is the book of the year for hot Jewish girls—and everyone else." —Hey Alma
"Reading this feels a lot like hanging out with a sister . . . It’s a bit like looking in a fun house mirror at times, sometimes to my horror, but always to my entertainment." —Condé Nast Traveler
"[A] mordant debut . . . comical and savage. . . With unflinching honesty, Tanner captures the claustrophobia of 21st-century young adulthood." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Worry is the novel of the online generation. . . . With wit and brilliant insight, Tanner explores the nuances particular to sisterhood." —Electric Literature
"Perfect for fans of Elif Batuman and Ottessa Moshfegh, Worry encapsulates a uniquely millennial malaise." —PureWow
“Worry writes toward truth in the time of the internet, it uncovers the absolute horror of ‘buying things,’ and it does what novels are meant to do: hauntingly display the dark and familiar sides of human behavior.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age and Come and Get It
"The kind of book you will constantly be reading out loud to others. . . . This hilarious, unremittingly jaundiced depiction of modern young adulthood hits rare extremes of both funny and sad." —Kirkus (starred review)
“Fans of Jen Beagin and Melissa Broder will appreciate Tanner's style. . . . A stinging yet joyful story about life playing out online or nowhere.” —Booklist
"Candid, funny." —BBC, Best Novels of 2024 (So Far)
"I've spent my whole life desperately trying not to say the stuff that comes out of these characters' mouths." —Tony Tulathimutte, author of Private Citizens
“A furiously funny, delirious anxiety spiral of a book—a novel of ideas with a bad case of insomnia.” —Hilary Leichter, author of Temporary and Terrace Story
"A ‘Seinfeldian’ take on sibling rivalry . . . hilarious, moving and reflective." —WPR
"Worry is a wonder. A novel you could spend all day in, mesmerised by the unexpected leaps and jumps of its sentences. It is at once gorgeous, hilarious, disturbing, and very, very sad. If you have a sister, are a sister, or wish you had a sister, read Worry." —Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days
"A dark and laugh-out-loud funny debut about sisterhood, internet poisoning, and suspecting that there is something incurably wrong with you but not wanting to know what it is (relatable!)." —Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
"This book is like popping an Adderall and discovering the beauty of your food processor." —Beth Morgan, author of A Touch of Jen
"One of the most exciting literary debuts—and just one of the flat-out best novels—in memory." —David Burr Gerrard, author of The Epiphany Machine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-12-16
A dark millennial comedy starring testy, needy Floridian Jewish sisters who move in together in New York City and drive each other nuts.
This is the kind of book you will constantly be reading out loud to others, so forgive the abundance of quotes in the following. “My sister Poppy arrives on a wet Thursday, dressed ugly and covered in hives.” Announcing itself with this sardonic opening line, Tanner’s debut is narrated by older sister Jules Gold, 28, who will have you laughing/horrified (this book’s signature combination) by page 2, where she explains that “to save fifty bucks on airfare, Poppy flew from the Palm Beach airport not to JFK or LaGuardia or even Newark but to MacArthur, on Frontier, then rode a shuttle from the airport to Ronkonkoma to catch the LIRR, then took a two-hour train that ended up taking three hours because someone jumped onto the tracks and died as it was pulling into Jamaica.” On the edge of a breakup with a new boyfriend, Jules passive-aggressively both invites and discourages her sister, who not long ago attempted suicide, from staying on. Continually. For months. Jules’ life is certainly missing something; her jobs writing literature study guides and cynical horoscopes, her obsession with Mormon mommies on social media, her relationships with her blunt, pyramid-schemer mother and plastic surgeon father—none of these things makes her happy for even a second. Mom to Jules: “I saw your Instagram story the other day—honey—you’re a little uneven, your smile on the left side is pulling up a little high still. You need to come in and see your father. I don’t want you walking around like that. I’ll pay for the plane ticket.” Poor, miserable, hive-covered shoplifter Poppy expands their codependent household by adopting a three-legged rescue dog named Amy Klobuchar—and of course they fight about her constantly. Only complaint: Given that we can’t help loving all three of these sad sacks, the ending feels a bit dark and unclear.
This hilarious, unremittingly jaundiced depiction of modern young adulthood hits rare extremes of both funny and sad.
