Unworthy by L. Marie Wood
Mocha Memoirs Press (September 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent
Fans of psychological horror, rejoice: Unworthy, L. Marie Wood’s “novel in stories,” has dropped. Wood is a recognized virtuoso of the subgenre, her list of awards as long as it is genre-spanning, and readers craving true literary terror will find the fix they need. Unworthy marks the fifth installment in the author’s “Open Book Universe,” but like its companions — The Open Book, The Tales of Time, The Tales of Time: The Lost Stories, and poetry collection Imitation of Life — the novel also stands on its own.
The first and last stories in Unworthy bookend its events. A woman of royal blood comes of age with her mother’s bloody body at her feet. She doesn’t want the crown she’s destined to take, and she has to prove that she’s “not unworthy” to take the crown. The stories show us the path there.
Further explanation would ruin the fun of this novel-collection. While the stories interlock and lace together, each works alone as a complete tale. Vivid characters face domestic violence and dangerous dreams, angels and zombies, serial murders and a high-stakes version of capture-the-flag. The scenarios are terrifying in themselves, but the true horror in these tales lies not without, but within. Though Wood gives us plenty of chills at the hands of the undead, the horror at the heart of these stories is madness, loneliness, and inadequacy. This volume asks what it means to be (un)worthy. We sit with characters forced to scent their own doom on the wind, driven to reckon with their own inadequacy. If you don’t know why Wood is called “a master of psychological horror,” these tales will offer explanation as each story’s tension builds to a breaking point.
You can’t have psychological horror without great characters, and the people in this book shine. Don’t get attached. They’re as varied as they are relatable, and Wood forces them to cope with the ugly results of their personal choices and pet inadequacies. Standout stories include “Patty,” a twisting account of heartbreak and domestic violence; “Dear Monique,” a letter written by a woman scorned; and “The Black Hole,” a viscerally terrifying novelette of racially-motivated horror.
Readers who want to step back and see the full picture of this novel should take notes. Don’t let that turn you off; like the book itself, each story functions as a self-contained entity. But to truly appreciate Wood’s genius, at least jot down names. Readers who devote attention to this collection of vivid, twisted prose will find that these scary stories fit into a brilliantly cohesive whole. Here, true horror lurks in each of us, and Wood forces us to see it. A terror-packed novel-collection by a master.
