While Tell Me I’m Worthless draws on horror and fairy tale fiction influences complete with homages to Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter, Helen Oyeyemi, books including Jamaica Inn or Jane Eyre, as well as allusions to pioneers of literature on gender and race such as Audre Lorde, there is still a thrilling uniqueness to the novel that feels it couldn’t-and maybe shouldn’t-have been created by anyone but Rumfitt herself.

Alison Rumfitt, a trans woman, has delivered a harrowing narrative on the trans experience that hits with a truly astonishing force and is a perfect example why we need inclusivity in publishing to tell a more encompassing range of stories. This book is a lot, and I’m completely blown away by it. ‘ Where were you when we lost the culture war?’ Tell Me I’m Worthless is an unrelenting horror festival that boldly pulls the reader through the hell of modern discourse and violent ideologies to explore the real-life horrors of queer life in the UK. Only the two of them walked out, both with conflicting memories of abuse from the other that occurred during their stay, and are forever traumatized and haunted by both figurative and literal ghosts. The novel rotates between perspectives of Alice, a trans woman, and Ila (with an intentional choice to mirror their names), her former girlfriend that is now a public figure for trans exclusionary radical feminists, and the voice of the House itself, as the two women deal with the aftermath of them having entered the house years ago with their friend Hannah.

Drawing on a long history of horror and fairy tale literature, Rumfitt delivers a razor-sharp and very political haunted house narrative that explores issues of trauma and the trans experience under creeping fascism. Seriously, this book is intense and while the content warning that precedes her grisly tale lets you know what you are in for, nothing can truly prepare you for how unsettling this is in the way it forces you to confront the violent and pervasive ideologies of fascism as it slimes its way through modern society. Tell Me I’m Worthless, the debut novel by promising young writer Alison Rumfitt, is a horror novel that not only has teeth but an intelligence and power to tear you to pieces and put you back together in a way that leaves you forever haunted, and glad for it. I relish the rare moments when a book can completely annihilate you. ‘ Ghosts are born from trauma and violence.’

Tell me im worthless book