Review
"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
“A deadpan comedic novel that will have you laughing aloud as you read and then—at other times—wanting to throw the book across the room in frustration at its characters. . . . With a focus on sisterhood, life in the modern era, ambition, and ennui—with a side of existential dread just for fun—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
"Tanner’s domestic novel is a study in the conditions that might prompt a person to self-isolate, even in a pandemic-free world: internet addiction, delivery and dating apps, an epidemic of loneliness, the bare fact of anxiety [which is itself] an ouroboros: anxiety breeds illness, and illness more anxiety. Their apartment complex used to be a Jewish hospital, and for these two afflicted Jewish American Princesses, it sort of still is . . . [Worry is] a bitingly funny, extremely online novel about sisterhood . . . [which], not unlike the internet, is its own universe." —Washington Post
“Tanner’s Brooklyn-set debut novel about two sisters’ coming-of-anxiety is both riotously funny and wryly existential.” —Harper's Bazaar
"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
"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. It feels both like an anthropological time capsule of turn-of-the-decade culture and a prescient crystal ball of our current, utterly droll hell. . . . 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." —Megan Spurrell, 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
"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
"I want to make all of my friends read Worry and then take them to a bar so we can fight about which sister is right and which is worse and which is moral and which is me." —Kelsey McKinney, host of Normal Gossip and author of God Spare the Girls
"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
About the Author
Alexandra Tanner is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School and a recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, The Center for Fiction, and Spruceton Inn’s Artist Residency. Her stories, essays, and reviews appear or are forthcoming in Granta, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Baffler, The New York Times Book Review, and Jewish Currents, among other outlets. Worry is her first novel.
