Tell Me I’m Worthless

Rumfitt’s debut novel is a harrowing haunted-house story that pulses with real-world terrors. Three years ago, Alice, along with her friends Ila and Hannah, explored a haunted house, which changed them forever. In the present day, Hannah is still missing, while Alice and Ila try to forget the trauma they shared. But the house is beckoning them back, and the two women are unable to resist its siren call as they rediscover horrors, both within and without, that refuse to die. Narrator Nicky Endres narrates three distinct POVs (Alice, Ila, and the House), and her voice easily slithers between all three, demonstrating how the house dominates this story and the women’s lives. Rumfitt’s tale uses unflinching but not gratuitous depictions of sexual assault and visceral descriptions of body horror. Rumfitt also reveals the real challenges faced by trans people in today’s society, as Alice is a trans woman and Ila is markedly transphobic.