4.5

Thank you Netgalley and Peachtree for the opportunity to read this book ahead of its release in exchange for an honest review!

I was not expecting to love this as much as I did, but from the get go, I was completely hooked. I was fascinated by the dystopian plot, and I just wanted to know everything about what had happened to the world in this future. This book is beautifully, gloriously queer; there are dozens of characters with dozens of identities. This book was the first book I've ever read to feature two characters with neopronouns, so that was really cool to read, and you really do fall in love with the found family aspect of the book. There's also an autistic love interest which was so nice to see! I loved seeing that!

I will say that there were just a few things I wish we could have had more detail on, particularly how this cult came to take over the entire world, as I was a little confused on that, but maybe I just missed something. Also, if you don't like gore, then please be aware because this book is heavy on the horror gore, and not going to lie, it made me feel a bit sick reading it at some points.

There are also heavy, HEAVY trigger warnings here for transphobia, deadnaming, homophobia, and lots more, so please just be aware of that!

Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us is a heartfelt, hope-filled allegory for defeating personal and societal persecution lovingly wrapped in an angsty, gory, monster-filled fight for your life.

The book begins with a thoughtful list of content warnings, a practice I’d encourage more authors to adapt. It’s beneficial for a horror story such as this, which can be such an open-ended category to leave the reader wondering what kind of horror they’re in for. I appreciated that I was left with little doubt about what I’d be reading.

I was struck by how real it felt for a story with so many fantastical elements. The characterizations of queerness, transness, and neurodivergence felt natural and normal. Or, at least, as natural and normal as they could be in a post-apocalyptic world filled with doomsday religious cults, religious extremism, and Eldritch-style monsters. But neither the book's characterizations nor its many horrors detracted from one another. Fighting for my life against an angelic horror wouldn’t make me any less queer or gender nonconforming. Why shouldn’t that be the case for a fictional queer or trans character? It’s a common complaint of mine when encountering token queer or trans characters in otherwise heteronormative stories. I’m thankful for queer and trans authors who so ably address this.

I appreciated that the story's hero was a trans masc person surrounded by a queer chosen family, including a character with neopronouns, an aro character, and a character who tries to mask their autism. I can’t imagine what I’d do in the face of Benji’s difficulties. But stumbling on the remnants of a queer center would be high on my wish list.

This story contains many references to transphobia, including deadnaming ad misgendering, highly descriptive violence, gore and body mutilation, religious persecution and abuse, and abusive relationships.

The queer representation in this was absolutely amazing. And that together with a fascinating world and an action filled plot? Could not ask for anything else. My favorite things about this book were definitely the representation, the horror, and the characters. The queer rep was rich and authentic, and the horror was disgusting and vile (just how I like it), and the characters were easy to love. This book was similar to Gideon the Ninth in a way that you did not get much backstory or worldbuilding which always is a bit of a bummer, but I do prefer this kind of worldbuilding over info dumping. I would much rather see the characters interact with the world and learn about it from them rather than read a history book on a world I don’t care about. I highly recommend this book to any queer people who love horror or who starve to read about some queer rage. Because there were plenty of that in Hell Followed With Us.

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

Note : Thank you so much for the advanced copy, this book was a blessing (little pun here).

*This review is my personal opinion*

REVIEW :

This YA novel follows the story of Benji, a sixteen-year-old trans boy running away from the cult that raised him. Benji gets rescued by Nick, the leader of a group of teens which is called ALC, the LGBTQ+ Center. They offer him shelter in exchange of his help to protect their group, but there’s a lot of secrets and mysteries to unpack while trying to survive against the Angels and the bioweapon that infects Benji.

First of all, this book is a masterpiece.

When you start reading a book, the best feeling is to get hooked on the first pages ; that’s exactly what the author did. This YA novel starts strong and it never stops. Each pages, every detail is important and linked to something that will appear later in the book. Don’t zone out while reading because you’re going to miss something! I absolutely loved the style of the author, it’s beautifully written and I just couldn’t stop reading. It’s thrilling, mysterious, a strong book with wonderful representations.

I highly recommend this book, I truly wish I had a book like that when I was 16 as well. The author definitely shared a strong and important story, beautifully executed, unique and memorable.

Be aware of TW’s before reading. They are listed by the author.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57911600

[Arc kindly provided by Netgalley]

I love reading books about queer stories– stories where I can empathize with the main characters–, and written by queer authors.
I'm also a lover of fiction (fantasy, dystopian, scifi) novels, so I put ''Hell followed with Us'' in my tbr list time ago.

Anyway, back to the book.
Most of the global population has been slaughtered.
The Armageddon has been unleashed by a cult of Christian extremists, whose main goal is to create a bioweapon capable of turning humans in the Seraph, a gore-y, genetically modified human being that is seen as a symbol for redemption.

I found the core concept a solid basis to expose criticism towards the toxic and suffocating environments that sadly, as a queer christian, I often see within religious communities themselves. The fusion of ethic (and ideological beliefs in general) and biological weaponry is also, in my opinion, very striking.

The main issue I had with this book is that, even though the plot was intriguing and the ideas behind it very original, I felt no emotional connection with the characters. The cast is diverse (which is awesome!), but each character except for Nick and, of course, Benji has a maximum of few lines, which keeps us from seeing a concrete development in their personality and to actually getting to know them.
If somebody asked me about Aisha, Cormac or Faith in a week, I probably wouldn't remember anything about them.

While following the protagonist's struggle for survival, I also started feeling less and less connected to his journey. Everything was happening too quickly, which didn't give me the time to really jump into the book's atmosphere.

Another aspect that kept me from loving the novel is is the setting's description. A detailed depiction of the worldbuilding and giving the reader time to fully understand it are fundamental when it comes to dystopia, which, in this case, didn't happen.

At the end of the day, I found it an okay read. The style is nice and the words flow, making it a pleasurable book.

Pure unadulterated queer rage and anarchy? Sign me up

It's the end of the world, (oh no), and it's a very scary and realistic end of the world. Enter Benji, everyone says hi to Benji, Benji is running for his life, from the extremist religious cult that has turned him into a monster, claiming that he's their salvation. He finds safety in this group of very gay vigilantes. Now if you're thinking what I'm thinking- Gays against the Church, then you would be right Gays against the church. (hell yeah)

I really enjoyed all aspects of this book. The world-building (which is technically the world's downfall, anyway). Also the representation. Especially how the author exposes some of the internalized homophobia within the queer community as a whole. On how there will be people within the queer community that would invalidate others for not being gay enough. That they are not a real trans person because they don't do x,y, and z. Or they don't look gay enough.

There were some minor pacing issues and some underdeveloped relationships. I kinda wanted more, from both the characters and the world.


Trigger Warnings:
Transphobia (deadnaming, misgendering)
Body Mutilation (a lot of descriptive gore)
The Church (Religious abuse)
Returning to an abusive partner and self-blaming
Abusive parent
Vomiting (there was just a lot of it)
Violence

This was an amazing book. I'm not typically one for dystopian books, and I have no Christian Church trauma but I was still able to get into and enjoy the book.

I love the idea of this book but with all the trigger warnings folded into the beginning I made the decision not to continue after a short while. Super appreciate the trigger warnings! I will be recommending this title to my students who would be interested!

This book was fine. Great for fans of Six of Crows. I think it had the same winding, vast plotline that Bardugo fans enjoy, but it just wasn't for me. I did find myself racing to the end, though, even though I was only vaguely aware of what was happening by that point. I think that a lot of queer teens will love this one, though.

Holy shit.

I’m so excited for when this book comes out, for three reasons. One, I’m super excited that in a few months, trans teens are going to get to read this book. As a trans adult, I wish I had been able to read this book at 16. In addition, I work with kids (many of them being queer or trans), and I can assure you I will be recommending this to all of them. Two, I can already tell this is gonna be the next big YA book, and I’m gonna be able to tell people that I read it before it was published. Three, I cannot wait to read this again.

What I Liked:
- The narrative here is so compelling that I could not put the book down. I cannot remember the last time I was excitedly awaiting the end of a class so that I could come home and read, but it certainly happened with Hell Followed With Us.
- I loved all of the characters, Benji especially. His voice is so interesting to read and I missed him when he wasn’t at the center of the narrative.
- The metaphor of transness as monstrousness is impeccably done here; the body horror aids in this a lot and is also very well done.
- This is one of the first books I’ve read (and the first YA book that I’ve read) that centers around trans anger and portrays it realistically.

What I Disliked:
- There were details about the world that I wish had been more fleshed out, specifically surrounding the cult and New Nazareth, Benji’s history and his family’s connection to it, etc.
- Spoilers Ahead: I didn’t love the romance between Benji and Nick, I thought it was somewhat rushed and didn’t feel super necessary to me.

Overall: in all honesty, I have very little to say about Hell Followed With Us other than “please read this when it comes out” as well as “please make sure any trans kid in your life knows about this book”. This was easily my most anticipated book of 2022, and it was everything I wanted it to be.

I devoured this book. This was the book I needed 25 years ago. I fell in love with so many of the characters, I can't even enumerate.

QUOTES:
- I hate that I can’t cry. I want to sob, I want to do something, anything, to get this pressure out of my head, this awful thing building behind my eyes, I hate it so much, and if I can’t tear Nick to pieces, I need to get it out.
- A banner flutters high above me: GOD LOVES YOU. Corpses dangle from the wires, yellow-pink organs hanging from their stomachs to obscure their nakedness, like Adam and Eve ashamed of their bodies.

hell followed with us is a book that will probably end up meaning a lot to quite a lot of people. i can definitely see it blowing up because it’s such a good story and i have to say it’s a solid debut novel. the gore parts were absolutely amazing and, from what i’ve heard from other people, it’s got great trans rep! however, i don’t think i was the main target for this book as i was very confused by the whole religion aspect. in my opinion, the book wasn’t coherent and consistent enough which hindered my enjoyment of the story.

it's got a great cast of characters, i really liked how distinct their voices were and how each of them had a well thought-out personality. it’s not my place to comment on the rep, but i’ve heard nothing but good things about that as well. i really liked Benji as a character quite a lot, he was a very complex character and his journey was interesting to read about. the author does such a good job at making Benji’s emotions come across and making the reader sympathize with him. nick was probably my favourite character but i have to say the romance felt a bit too rushed. i couldn’t fully embrace the romantic plot line, but i loved all the other dynamics. love me a found-family trope.

now, the actual plot made me so confused. we’re thrown right into the action without any explanation of why everything went bad in the world or any background as to what happened, who started it or even what’s going on now. maybe my brain is just tiny but i was fighting for my life trying to keep track of everything. i didn’t get why people transformed into graces? why some are okay and others turn? eventually it felt a bit messy. however, it was fun to read and the gore was *chef’s kiss*.

the ending was rushed. the plot twist of a said character turning into a certain thing was a bit questionable, like i don’t think it did any good to the story. it kinda lost me as a reader because it wasn’t believable. not that the rest of the book tetters on reality, but considering it all, i still didn’t buy into it. a lot of things weren’t explain and i simply couldn’t fully grasp the story because of these plot holes. the villain characters were severely underused for the build-up they had, especially mother woodside and sister kipling.

all in all, hell followed with us is a stunning debut and i’m so looking forward to reading more from this author because the horror parts were so, so bloody good

Definitely a creative and interesting plot. This being said, I don’t think it’s for me. I would consider it more of a literary fiction, and generally that is not my favorite kind anyway. Great premise, just not my style.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book .hell followed with us is a story about a trans boy who has just escaped a cult in a futuristic america. this book blew me away, it was so powerful, emotional, angry and tense. the pacing was perfect i never felt bored and it was super easy to read. there were a few shifts in perspective which made the story well rounded. the plot was well thought out and the slightly more ‘fantasy’ elements of this book were explained well as the story went on, the same can be said for the world building which wasn’t confusing whilst reading but it wasn’t over explained either. the representation in this book is something all books should aim for i loved seeing the inclusion of someone who uses neopronouns! i would recommend this book to those who liked ‘Between Perfect and Real’. however i think readers should be aware that this book can be quite graphic and gory at some points and features moments of transphobia and dead-naming. i would recommend this to readers 16 or older. i thoroughly enjoyed this and have rated it 5 stars.

*3.75 stars*.

I'm honestly really disappointed that I didn't enjoy this to the extent that I thought I was going to. The premise sounded incredible - a rag tag team of Queer kids trying to survive the apocalypse? Yes please, sign me up. For me though, the execution was not pulled off as smoothly as I wish it had. I didn't enjoy the worldbuilding, and the world itself didn't really excite me. The idea of an eco-fascist Christian cult taking over the world sounds interesting, but it didn't pull me in in the way that I thought it would. Perhaps if I had grown up with an Evangelical Christian background it would have a bigger impact on me, but lots of the references just went straight over my head.

But onto what I did like: The characters! I loved the diversity in race, genders and sexuality and am so happy to see more of that in YA literature. Benji was a sweet main character, but it was Nick who stole the show for me. I loved the way he was portrayed, and especially loved the way his autism was written. Seeing an autistic character who isn't treated like a baby was incredible, and I hope to see more of that in literature.

Although this wasn't my cup of tea, I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future!

"For fans of Gideon the Ninth" hell yeah it is! Although if you're familiar with the Locked Tomb Series, Hell Followed With Us is a lot more Harrow the Ninth than it is Gideon the Ninth. Something about body horror, religious trauma and queerness just speak to me.

Let's be honest, I was a little afraid going in because I cannot stand any kind of zombie media. I just cannot. So when I saw reviews about how heavy it was on body horror and how people who liked zombie video games I was apprehensive. Well yeah they were right but I feel like I've grown into loving the weird queer genre. I want more. I want more queer stories that are raw and weird and gross and angry.

Hell Followed With Us is an post apocalyptic story where Christian terrorists have unleashed a plague that killed most of the planet (yeah they're the ecoterrorist "too many people on the planet" type). Benji escapes the cult that's been making him into a monster and runs into a group of queer teenagers where he learns to full embrace his transness. And his revenge. This story just reeks of anger and vengeance in the best way. The anger of queer kids who were wronged by their upbringing and will never let it happen again.

There's something about a trans kid (especially a transmasc teen) turning into a monster that's so poetic. To shed the the skin of "girl" and been born anew into yourself but yourself is a monster angel of destruction and wrath. I absolutely loved how Benji thinks about how "monster" hides "girl". Peak transmasc experience (I may be going through some things right now and trying to figure myself out so this whole book is a blessing). The way Benji speaks about his dysphoria... chef's kiss "My dysphoria comes from the way other people see me" yes.... so true king.

Also I need to talk about Nick who is the man Benji bonds with after he escapes and our other main character. Nick is autistic (among other things) and I just loved all the little things: the way he hides his stimming even though he is surrounded by people who could technically understand, the "acceptable" stimming, the way he processes emotions and feelings.... Nick you are so dear to me.

Also this book is Queer Religious Trauma: the book. Like queer ex-christians that's your book. I feel like it will feel more visceral to (American) Protestants than Catholics because it's missing some stained glass and and I don't know the vibes are different. As a non American, what Christianity has become in America both fascinates and terrifies me (what on Earth is a mega church?). But overall this will be very cathartic for some.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

I was excited to get an early copy of this because the concept was so unique and interesting, the cover even more so. A cult that brings about an apocalyptic plague, check. A trans boy who may be the key to saving humanity, check. Representation out the wazzoo, check. Religious deconstruction, check.

Unfortunately, and the reason this is a 2.5-3 star read for me, the body horror/gore elements didn't just border on gratuitous, it jumped the fence and ran into the next county. I KNOW that there is an audience for this level of gore but I am not it. If that had been scaled back I think it would have made for a stronger overall debut novel.

All of this said I am so interested in seeing where Andrew Joseph White's literary journey goes next.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a book about queer/trans rage and horror of Christianity gone even more wrong. I was hooked from the author’s note to the end, if you do Dec to read this please do heed the content warnings included in that note because this book is not for the weak of stomach or faint of heart.. Horror is not typically my jam but I think it portrayed the anger of a young trans character and how mess up society is very well. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives in the story and honestly wished there was more but I think how they were used was a great way to give information to the reader that the main characters still had to learn.

My favorite part of this sorry were the many in-group (trans) based jokes and the multiplicity of diverse well developed characters. Very impressive to have a story of horror and rage turn into one of found family and hope. Definitely recommend!

When I first laid eyes on Hell Followed with Us I knew I absolutely had to read it. That cover alone is worth a five star rating. I mean.. look at it. It's stunning and gorgeous. It would make a lovely tattoo. I jumped at the chance to read this when I saw it was a read now book on NetGalley. Then I had to brag to my friend that I had it.

As for the actual story which is what I'm really supposed to be talking about, let me just say it is as awe inspiring as the cover art. Right at the beginning, you're picked up by the scruff and tossed into this world that seems like hell on Earth. The main character is Benji, a trans boy who has escaped a cult but not before they injected him with something that will turn him into a monster.

Benji does not want to become Seraph but he especially doesn't want the cult to use Seraph to wipe out what remains of humanity. They already killed so many during the Flood, which deformed those not killed and made other monsters they use called Grace. The cult's soldiers are called Angels. So Benji is being hunted by Angels and Grace when a group of kids save him. The group is lead by Nick who knows what's up with Benji and wants to have him on their side.

So Benji is taken in by the ALC, named for their home base at the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center. He immediately bonds with and is accepted by his new found family. Though there are exceptions of course because humans are complicated. I love all of the representation, love that these kids have each other and can be themselves. Just like in real life, they have to band together and fight for the chance to live as they want and be left alone.

Hell Followed with Us is dark and brutal. It is chock full of blood, gore and body horror. There's rage and love, hope and despair. Take heed of all the content warnings the author has kindly provided. If you can handle it, this book is a must read.

Thank you NetGalley, Peachtree Teen and Andrew Joseph White for the opportunity to read an e-ARC.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I want to read everything Andrew writes.
Hell Followed With Us explores the religious trauma, how society tries to form us and make us in the image that they think is the right way. I love Benji, I love Nick and everyone at the ALC. I hope this is not the last time we see them.