This is a book with teeth, with fire, and with a bloody, beating heart. Just as Benji sheds his skin to become a dark creature of wrath, Hell Followed with Us warps our own world inside out, showing the ugliest and brightest parts that humanity has to offer.” –Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX This book made me feel as understood and validated as I was unsettled and pissed off. With vivid prose and a mirror held up to the ugliest parts of ourselves, Andrew Joseph White is poised to become a defining voice of our generation.”— H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King

the characters come in main character who is fine and other characters i don't remember the names of because they felt as distinct as grains of rice. This book made me feel as understood and validated as I was unsettled and pissed off. With vivid prose and a mirror held up to the ugliest parts of ourselves, Andrew Joseph White is poised to become a defining voice of our generation.”— H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King<.b>

Books By Andrew Joseph White

However, while these aspects are horrific in their own right, I had the strongest reaction to all the world-building around a fictional pandemic. Descriptions of dead and mangled bodies? No problem! Mentions of masks? No thank you. Encountering my lived reality of existing in a pandemic in a fictional story was somehow scarier than anything else. Burning It All Down with Queer Rage Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with. If they want me to be a monster one step closer to God, that's fine. In what world was their God ever a benevolent one?" This authentic story of consuming fury and the power of found family to heal is an excellent choice. . . .” —School Library Journal

Hell Followed With Us’ bristles with energy and intensity, written with a kind of gleeful ferocity. . . . It shines in crystalline moments when Benji considers himself and his body, the viciousness of the virus taking hold and the irony of its unexpected gifts. . . . White’s novel . . . [responds] with a long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like, well, a virus.”— The New York Times I’m almost certain YA horror has never been this good. Striking in both narrative and premise, its no wonder I’ve heard nothing but praise for this book. This quote may not be in the published version of this novel, it was copied from the advanced reader’s copy.) Mom said I would be venerated as a true instrument of God’s will, just as holy as the cherubim, thrones, dominions, and virtues. Dad begged me to tamp it down, to be quiet, to be better than what the Angels had done to me. Theo told me my power would be as terrifying as the Devil and twice as righteous.A timely and riveting tale of queer teens surviving and resisting fundamentalism any way they can. Andrew Joseph White holds a mirror up to the monstrosities within all of us, and I couldn't look away."— Ray Stoeve, author of Between Perfect and Real A chimera of horror, romance, and something stranger. Hell Followed with Us won me over to its vision of a grotesque future where we're still here, still queer, and more monstrous than ever."— Rose Szabo, author of What Big Teeth Considering he has a presence put inside his body, by a neo-fascist, extremist & warped Christian CULT, called Seraph—a six winged, clawed, flesh-deteriorating beast thought to be holy, that is supposed to bring about the end of times—but never stops fighting to LIVE, is so very inspiring… which despite all of the beyond awful, hellish things (when I say hellish, I mean HELLISH; the erm, terrifying AF images portrayed through the author’s vivid prose are something that probably will haunt me forever, in the best way possible, if that makes sense?) that this kid has to go through bring me to a theme that stands out in this novel— perseverance.

Like others i was so excited for this book and wanted to like it so bad, but I was left fairly disappointed. The premise of the book was so catching, the idea of a boy turned monster getting revenge on those who created him is what drew me to the book. However the poor pacing, religious overload, and one dimensional characters drew me out of it. Also: Look out for triggers that include abusive relationships, deadnaming, & misgendering. And… probably, definitely, NOT a book for serious Christians.**

More Details

Content warnings for: violence, gore, murder, religious bigotry, body horror, homophobia, transphobia (including misgendering, dead-naming, and forcing a character to wear clothing that causes dysphoria), body dysphoria This book made me feel as understood and validated as I was unsettled and pissed off. With vivid prose and a mirror held up to the ugliest parts of ourselves, Andrew Joseph White is poised to become a defining voice of our generation.” –H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King Achimera of horror, romance, and something stranger. Hell Followed with Us won me over to its vision of a grotesque future where we’re still here, still queer, and more monstrous than ever.”— Rose Szabo, author of What Big Teeth A utopian model for queer community masquerading as a dystopian YA novel. Andrew Joseph White has dared to create a story where queer kids of all stripes love, fight alongside, and care for each other despite their personal differences and the myriad of things looking to kill them. It is as beautiful as it is hard to read. This is what horror can and should be.” –Cliff Helm, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO This book was STUNNING. It was horrific. It was brutal and twisted and made me want to throw up and claw my hair and cry... and I loved it so much. It was horror, but not jump-scare, there's-someone-in-the-house horror - oh no, this was pure gore and body horror, combined with some of the best LGBTQ+ rep I've read in a while. Everyone was so incredibly queer and messy and traumatised... I'm obsessed!