A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!

I’m so thankful for the autistic representation that is finally coming into the book world, we really need more like this!! Please read this and support the author!! <333

Honestly it was funniest idea/Worldbuilding as debut book from the author. I really appreciate no living at this social chaotic world and dealing with a eco-fascist & religious sect. (itself should be a thriller); where that damned vicious circle mixing white privilege madness (into fiction and real life).
I ain't surprised that "being well" we live like this (I'm talking 'bout this fallen and burnt world, remembering the white power sequels over the years ).

Love his grotesque gore's style 'till body horror, vomiting or even the final battle against angels. No doubt t-was an great attribute of the author.

Now..
I'd like to remind that within of the story there's toxic relationships presence
🔪Amorous; such as Theo & Benji (TW: transphobia among MLM relationships; a subject that is still not much addressed).

🔪between friends as in the case of Nick & Benji. It's clearest to me that whoever wrote this wanted to leave the inhospitable, crude and sinister book's plot context (wherever we look) falling into psychosis metaphorically (or not?). I was really confused about the bad reaction to Nick (who as a "queer" leader from LGBT+ group had attitudes such as harassment and transphobia in a place where he pretends to give light in the midst of chaos). UNfortunately this happens in real life, where we always reduce the collective to being (cis and white) gay.
I'm saying that these practices should stop, but when I read all this I thought for about two seconds about expelling him (not to say shooting him on the spot; friends that last one I said for fiction though...just kidding).

It would have been nice to have seen how others would have taken action on the matter by apologizing and fixing the mistake he made (several times). Personally I think he should pay for everything he did.

🔪Transphobia is never justified🔪

While this work has no more installments, I didn't feel it. There were still a few things left in the way. If there was a "small chance" for me to publish a spin-off I would be more grateful than ever. Especially with the relationship between Sadaf & Aisha (🕌🕌my bi muslim icon from this book..i guess).
Or even write a whole book about how it was for Salvador to leave Latin America and come to where this institution group was formed.

This novel represents queer rage. The author knew from the beginning what he was getting into when he wrote this untamed animal.

WOW!!

(Thanks Netgalley)

thanks to the publishers & netgalley for providing me with an e-book arc for an honest review!

4.5 star

Hell Followed with Us is a post-apocalyptic queer YA fantasy/horror following Benji’s journey in embracing his rage and unleashing it upon those that have wronged him. Hell Followed with Us is one of my most highly anticipated 2022 releases and I’m incredibly happy to report it exceeded my expectations. It’s so satisfying to witness Benji’s growth and triumph with the help of other queer youths from Acheson LGBTQ+ Center.

From the age of 11, Benji is brought up in a religious cult that unleashed a deadly virus across the world in the name of salvation. Those infected either die a nasty death or mutate into a monster called ‘Grace’, they are, for the believers, weapons in God’s holy war. Benji is chosen as the Seraph, the monster to lead all other monsters in the mission to wipe humanity from the Earth.

There’re religious references and imagery throughout the story and along with all the body horror descriptions, it creates such a creepy but also almost beautiful atmosphere that makes the story so engaging to read. I cannot exactly put it into words, but I was engrossed the entire time even though the plot is not particularly fast-paced (for me).

What shines the most in Hell Followed with Us for me is definitely Benji’s character arc. From the very first chapter, I’m immediately drawn to his character (honestly, that Chapter 1 is one of my favorite first chapters). Being a trans boy raised in a very oppressive environment, he has a lot of trauma & suppressed anger. This is complicated by the fact that his body is mutating into the Seraph and he has to defend himself and those in ALC against the world. All of this is so brilliantly interwoven into his overarching character arc and the plot. I’m just in awe. Benji is not a character without faults but he’s an incredibly compelling character you want to see succeed.

Another thing I really love is Nick’s character and the different friendships & relationships between the youth in ALC. Hell Followed with Us provides a realistic look into what happens when marginalized youths are abandoned by adults to fend for themselves. There’s commandry but there’s also antagonism. It’s complicated and it’s 10/10. To be honest, the relationships Benji has with characters beyond ALC is also super well-written. I’m running out of ways to say this book is really well-written but please, pick it up for yourself and give it a read!!

The only thing I wanted more is a more in-depth look into the side characters. Hell Followed with Us is written in first-person perspective so it’s difficult for side characters to stand out to me in the first place. There’re some really well-written relationships between Benji and other characters but I’ll like to know the side characters themselves better.

There’s a fair amount of body horror in this book (check tw for warning!) and at times it gives me Tokyo Ghoul vibes which I love.

Also, that book cover?! Incredible. Cannot wait for June so I can have this beauty on my shelves.

To conclude, I love Hell Followed with Us, totally recommend if you are looking for a queer fantasy/horror!!

I cannot believe how much I loved this book. I had no expectations going into this despite what I read from the description on NetGalley. I couldn’t put this book down even if I tried, which is why I was so quick to finish it. I started reading it on the 22nd and it’s now the 27th, which if you know me at all you’d know that’s quick for me since I am a very slow reader.

Benji is a trans boy who fled from New Nazareth, the main campus full of rebel evangelical Christians who are wrecking havoc on the world and killing and murdering nonbelievers in the name of god. I am going to try to keep this as spoiler free as possible but I may write a spoiler ridden review elsewhere.

Benji is on the run when he and his dad are stopped by a group of Angels— the group of soldiers employed by New Nazareth to track down heretics and nonbelievers and do gods work by killing them— where his father is murdered and Benji has no choice but to run by himself. He is found by a kid named Nick who tells him to keep silent and he takes him back to his camp known as the ALC. The Acheson LGBTQ+ Youth Center, a center for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults to find peace and community with each other in the world they’re living in.

The only thing eating away at Benji is the monster growing inside him, a literal monster that will eventually tear him apart and make him inhuman.

This book is FULL of trigger warnings: body horror, violence, murder, blood, weapons, religious terrorism, transphobia, homophobia, gore, torture, apocalyptic themes, and grotesque descriptions of bodily horror. I was truly unprepared for some of what they talk about in this, and it starts right off the bat too. From the very first few pages it is filled with graphic descriptions that surprised me, and it only got worse from there. If any of this bothers you please be warned before picking this up when it hits the shelves this summer.

I loved this so much I pre-ordered the physical copy of the book when it comes out and I plan on reading it again later on. It is written so well, but I would not say this is for young adults by any means. I think I would say this is more New Adult or Adult LGBTQ+ fiction. I don’t see this turning into a series or see a sequel on the horizon, it wrapped up so well that it felt perfect on it’s own!

This book is like almost nothing that I've ever read before, and that's saying something. I love queer books, I love horror, I love post-apocalyptic stuff, and still I wasn't prepared for how this book went down. It's filled to the brim with body horror, and dripping with gore.

I loved every messed up second of it, but it's not for the feint of heart. There's body horror, and then there's Hell Followed with Us. The journey and transformation the main character goes on is brutal, but in a way hopeful, mirroring the journey trans teens often go through.

The imagery is intense, often verging on too much if you're not ready for it, but it is so worth the ride. One sitting reads happen for one of two reasons for me, either I'm bored and have nothing else to do, or I'm so enraptured by what I'm reading that I literally cannot stop regardless of the time of day. Hell Followed with Us was a one sitting read because of the latter, I literally could not put this book down. The way this book tackles religious trauma is just...perfection. The catharsis is real.

Long story short, this book is amazing but you need to know what you're signing up for before reading it. Heed the content warnings laid out by the author. If it's something you can read, do it, because I can promise you that you'll come out on the other side different than when you first started reading it.

Also, the cover goes so hard.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

This book was an anticipated release, and i was hoping for good things from this book and guess what it exceeded expectations and was bloody fantastic. The raw anger that is felt through the words and writing of this book is so amazingly well done and written and i am in such awe of Benji as a character and that we get to see him fully as he is.
Hell Followed With Us, is about a 16 year old trans boy named Benji, he was injected with a bioweapon and is on the run, running away from the cult who raised him, the sector that unleashed Armageddon on the world and commited genocide to the human race. When cornered, he is recused by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Centre.

I adored the writing from the start and it pulled me in and i was lost to the story straight away, time be damned. Benji is an amazing character who i want to give a big ole hug to. I just loved having all these queer characters teaming up. This is one to preorder and put on your tbrs right now

I grew up very religious, and I'm LGBTQ+. The anger in this story spoke to me in a very personal way.
The trauma that is processed in the book is done so beautifully. The metaphors that are used in the book between being trans and becoming a Grace are done so subtly and cleverly. The ending gave the characters their power back. The story is so relatable to many people. Reading this book was cathartic for me.

The writing and prose within the story itself are also so well done. I loved the characters and became invested in their lives and wellbeing very quickly. I admired their bravery. This book is definitely one of my new favorite LGBT reads.

This is an incredible book! Benji is one of the most complex and compelling narrators I've ever come across, and the way that he carries his unthinkable burdens while remaining true to his essential self feels both impossible and unquestionably true. This is a dark, angry book that also manages to be beautiful and tender. A masterpiece.

Hell Followed With Us feels like pure rage and desperation. It's about religious indoctrination, holy war and holy genocide. Our main character Benji is a sixteen year old trans boy. He grew up in a fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and set out to wipe out the world's population in the name of God. Benji desperately tries to escape to where they can't get to him or the bioweapon they infected him with. When cornered by monsters born from the destruction, he is rescued by teens from the local LGBTQ+ center, and their leader Nick knows Benji's secret.

Do you ever feel like you have so much to say about a book that you just come out blank? That's how I'm feeling right now. Reading this was so intense, and I don't know how to explain the journey that was taken.

First things first, I absolutely loved this book from first to last page. For the past couple of years, I've felt like YA isn't really for me anymore (unsurprisingly, considering I'm 26 at this point) and while I many books in that category are still good, they don't hit like they used to. That wasn't the case when I read this. Not for a second did I feel like it wasn't for me, but importantly it also didn't feel like "YA for adults". It just felt like a really intense story about teens trying their best in absolutely horrifying situations.

There are a lot of potentially triggering content in this book, and I'd advice having a look at the list of content warnings and consider if you're okay to read it, but if you are - oh boy, you're in for a treat. This book is loudly queer, with almost every important character being queer. There are so many varieties of sexualities and gender identities, as several characters using different neopronouns. Despite it's dark and sinister plot, it was so beautiful to see the diversity. It just makes me so proud and happy to see diversity teens today have access to. Absolutely love it. I wish I could have read this as a teen, but I'm so glad I got to read it as an adult.

I think you would like this if you enjoy reading about horror, found family, queer ragtag groups, and intense rage.

Benji, a sixteen year old trans boy, is on the run (with his dad) from the cult that released The Flood. The Flood is a sickness that wreaked havoc across the world, and turns people into... well, some kind of abominations. Benji has to run and find shelter; he is the most important bioweapon created by the cult, and he has to stay out of their hands. In his mad sprint through Acheson, he runs into the ALC: an LGBT+ group that's been surviving the apocalypse together.

The premise of the book? Gold. I thought it was fast-paced, and fun, and deeply personal. Hell Followed With Us is a gripping sci-fi novel about transformation and the grit you need to survive it, and it's a book you fall into extremely easily. These are all tropes we've seen in some form or another, but including the rage of a boy who is working through understanding his own transition to not just a boy, but also a monster, is in many ways moving to feel and thrilling to read.

Transformation and acceptance go hand in hand with this book, because when the ALC accepts Benji into their group, it becomes about finding home and creating a family in the most pressing conditions, and every character matters. Everyone has an innate understanding of each other, and it reflects in the banter and the deeper conversations that these characters have. You can understand the rage, the grief, and even the lighthearted moments, because these are just children forced to navigate devastating circumstances. It is something that is handled extremely well.

Overall, the reading experience was a great one, but I did have a couple of contentions that I quickly want to outline:
1. Benji constantly talking about "If I could cry, I would" got extremely frustrating after a point because this exact statement shows up at least seven times in the book, which is really five times too many. I didn't keep count but it's something that stuck with me through the whole book.
2. I didn't really buy Benji's constant mental nagging about his betrothal. It didn't seem very legit, but it kept popping up.
3. Very small, annoying thing, but I found it slightly funny how Benji knew what a "black bloc anarchist" looked like, considering he'd been raised in a cult since he was eleven years old. Not really a contention, but I'm nitpicking here.
4. There were two or three parts of the book that were fairly cliched just because of how this post-apocalyptic, dystopian, cult/disease/bioweapon story normally plays out. I was hoping for a slight subversion, but it's really not too bad, just a slight bit disappointing.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book! As someone for whom this genre is totally a new venture, I found myself enjoying every chapter greatly, and I just wanted to blow through this book like there's no tomorrow.

This is the queer YA horror of my DREAMS. Religious trauma, extreme body horror, and queer rage? Yep.

This book is nasty and brutal, full of absolutely disgusting, twisted body horror. And naturally I loved it. It doesn’t shy away from grotesque just because it’s YA; it leans into it full force and the result is incredible.

The characters are great, Benji especially. Reading from his POV and experiencing his anger and trauma, and how those emotions paired with his physical transformation from human to monster…it was really something. Nick was great too (loved seeing some autism representation!), and so we’re the rest of the cast (who are all queer!).

I’d been anticipating this ever since I heard about it and I feel so lucky that I got the chance to read this early. If you’re a horror fan, this isn’t a want, it’s a need.

I’ll be the first to say I don’t read a lot of post-apocalyptic stories, it’s not a genre Im usually drawn to, but what I really liked about this is that it’s an end of the world story not necessarily about the end, it’s about the people. Yes there are...vivid descriptions of guts and rot and disease that brought the world down, but at its heart it’s a story driven by humanity and the resilience of people. All the characters were forced to grow up to fast, to make soldiers out of children, and the fact that there are times in the story where despite everything going on they still manage to laugh and be KIDS? That contrast with all the brutality of the worldbuilding, and the fact that those aspects blend and contrast so well together? I love that so much.

This is a book you want to give your whole attention to, no matter how badly you don’t want to put it down, want to steal glances at every free moment you get, it’s a story you should savor, one with so many layers and details that deserve to be caught. It’s horrifying and hilarious and heartfelt and trust me, you want it when it comes out, I promise

I’ve been dying to read this book since I first heard of its release. At its core, Hell Followed With Us is a story of queer rage and the power of being unapologetically yourself. It's brutal and violent, but frighteningly tender and real. This story tackled the dystopian genre in a way I have never read before, and it’s a point of view I think readers will love to see.

I knew from the moment I started reading Hell Followed with Us that this book would be like a sucker punch to the gut.

It's bloody, it's brutal, but it's so much more than that. This book is about queer kids working together to uplift each other and carve their own place into a world that seems rigged against them every step of the way.

I would heavily advise anyone interested in this book to check out content warnings before hand, because apart from the violence and gore, it deals with a lot of other very heavy topics. This is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year, but readers should be careful and take the time to read the author's letter at the start (which includes content warnings)!

This book was wonderful in its depiction of queerness and I loved that it didn't shy away from giving the side and minor characters their own complex problems and personalities. It was also super meaningful to see the spectrum of ways that characters experienced their queerness, rather than them all just being reduced to one specific type.

The writing style flowed also really well. You don't always see YA that gets this disgustingly descriptive in its gore, but White didn't shy away from any of the horrifying experiences the characters dealt with at all.

Hell Followed with Us is a must read for anyone who wants a cast of unapologetically queer characters who continue to persist no matter the odds. As I said earlier, it's definitely one of my favorite reads already, and I'm sure it'll continue to hold a special place in my heart.

[There are a lot of content warnings, but I personally believe that it was all handled well and it wasn't done for shock value.]

Hell Followed with Us is a celebration of trans rage and anger. It's also impossibly brimming with religious trauma.

Story switches between POVs at some points, but it's mostly from the POV of Benji, a trans dude who runs away from the Angels, an eco-fascist white surpemacist Christian cult genociding the entire Earth using the Flood, which is a virus/plague which turns many of its victims into tools they further use in their murders (the Angel soliders inhale it themselves, but only a bit, as a way to take one step closer to God). Benji is their ultimate weapon in making (there are parallels there between his transness and his body being shaped and used against his will).

There are some points where the dialogue seem jarringly modern for a book set decades into the future, but we can't really ever escape the time in which we create. I also think that Benji mentally escaped the cult way too easily, with not quite enough lingering ideas, thoughts, and traumas implanted and caused by the Angels. But generally most of the flaws of the story get swept away in the sheer power of the plot, which is fast, gripping, and constantly changing.

Benji finds a found family in this big group of young adults which live in an LGBTQ centre. We only get to know a handful of the kids who Benji interacts with the most, but even with them I wished there was more space to get to know them (also I never did figure out what happened to Calvin). Benji got close with them immediately, which could be said to be unrealistic, but is also how a lot of queer kids react when they first find other queer people (but he did just escape a cult which fed him lies for a big part of his life which could make him more weary, so the scales are even, maybe).

At one point, I got triggered by the ( for me painfully realistic) interaction between Benji and his mother, but I took a step back and it was okay after a bit. Be mindful of all the possibly triggering content and read only if you're sure you can handle the story.

This story will definitely be one I remember – not (only) because I felt myself reflected in many aspects of it, but also because of the plentiful gore and grusome body horror, which is one of my favourite types (trans people and body horror, a love story for the ages).

What an amazing book!
The book is super exciting and would love to read more from the author!

Thankyou netgalley for the ARC

I can already tell this is going to be my favourite new book of 2022.

Hell Followed with us is the story of Benji, a sixteen-year-old trans boy in a post-apocalyptic world who fights tooth and claw to avoid the destiny forced upon him by the religious cult he grew up in.

This book is phenomenal, especially for a debut novel! The prose is sharp as fangs and slick as blood. It kept me on the edge of my seat from the very first page with its pacing and vivid imagery. The representation of all sides of the queer community is fantastic and realistic, and all I can do is applaud the author for executing it in such a brilliant way. Truly a breath of fresh air.

One of my favourite things about the novel was how it dealt with the idea of morality and what it means to different people. It's all about trying to be good in a world where good no longer exists.

Should you shove away the monster within, or embrace it?

“... When I started writing this book I just snapped and said, ‘If they want to see us as monsters, fine, I’ll give you monsters.’” - Andrew Joseph White (author)

when i requested to read this book i honestly didn’t expect for a review to be so difficult to write. this book is brutal. it is rage and resentful and bloody.
the characters are so very well written. i felt every bit of benji’s anger and pain, possibly because it resembles my own in a way, but getting to know him was like a punch in the face. like in a positive way! the love and acceptance that was felt throughout benjis found family breaks my heart it the best ways.
i absolutely adore this book and i can’t wait to annotate this shit out of a physical copy.

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White follows transgender boy Benji. He is on the run from the cult that unleashed Armageddon. He desperately searches for a place to hide. The cult has infected him and with a dangerous bioweapon. After a close call, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, also known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader is Nick, who is autistic. Nick knows about Benji’s deadly secret: The bioweapon is mutating Benji into a monster that will destroy the rest of humanity. Nick offers Benji shelter on the condition that he use the monster to defend the ALC. Soon, Benji realizes that Nick has some secrets of his own.

This is such a unique story. I love how gory and dark it is. I would love to see what happens next.