When you have a sibling, you can have a relationship with almost no boundaries. You can say anything to me; I can say anything to you, and because we’re bound by all of these things—the structure of our family, the understanding we have of one another’s issues, the love we have for each other; we’re always going to be connected. At the same time, it’s a delusion to think that you know a person so entirely because you grew up together—because you have the same parents; because you were raised in the same way. Every person has secrets. Everyone has a complete internal world that you know nothing about.
― Alexandra Tanner, The Columbia Journal
What booksellers are saying about Worry
- Do I love to hate these characters, or hate that I love them? Worry is so funny, and also so bleak – Girls meets Shiva Baby meets Curb Your Enthusiasm if Larry David used organic tampons and worked for an astrology app start-up. These two sisters who find themselves in close quarters and under a specifically 2019-style emotional duress made me laugh and appreciate my own (mostly) functional family. Shoutout to Helen Glaser, this audiobook’s narrator, for absolutely committing to the bit!
― Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida | BUY
- I loved this! For fans of Halle Butler and Elif Batuman, if you love slice of life and “no plot just vibes” reads, add this one to your list. This book is at its best with its dialogue. You will see yourself in both of its main characters as they fluctuate between being vulnerable and caring for each other and then switching to subtle insults and manipulative power plays.
― Maddie Grimes, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY
- Worry is brilliant. Jules and Poppy’s characters could be your sister, your friend, or even, you. The storyline time placement is genius. All Jules and Poppy appear to want is to move their lives forward – together and apart. But with setting this story a year before the pandemic, the reader knows it really doesn’t matter what they are planning. The family dynamics is pure chaos. The struggle with mother-daughter-sister relationships felt true and unbelievable at the same time. I felt so many emotions during the interactions between Jules and Poppy, Poppy and Mom, and Jules and Mom that I’m officially on Team Poppy. Tanner’s writing style is direct and doesn’t linger, which felt natural and relatable the entire time. (Not recommended for readers who need a plot device to move the story forward.)
― Jenny Gilroy, E. Shaver, Bookseller inSavannah, Georgia | BUY
- Start with a large portion of sibling rivalry, add in anxiety, internet theories, a set of codependent parents and you have Alexandra Tanner’s debut novel, Worry. Sisters, Jules and Poppy, become antagonistic roommates when Poppy unexpectedly moves in to job hunt in Brooklyn. Set in 2019, the sisters plow through both the job and relationship markets always looking for the golden ticket of fulfillment. Tanner rounds out the family with a three-legged dog named for a failed Presidential candidate and Jewish parents living in Florida who are only too happy to share advice. Worry is full of dark humor and sarcasm that will leave you laughing as you wonder if you would have been half as good as Jules and Poppy at navigating life’s worries.
― Mary Jane Michels, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina | BUY
About Alexandra Tanner
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.
