Visceral, cathartic and monstrousness embraced, this book is so messy, so full of rage. There’s just something about the apocalypse being queer, about the structures that have caged us crumbling down allowing us to explore ourselves in a way that wouldn’t be possible within the structures.

The trans body as main theme. Pre-transition, body horror, transformation. Benji's body is used against him his entire life. He's made into a virus-infected bioweapon by the cult that raised him and once he undergoes the full transformation into seraph, the messiah six winged monster, extinction is brought forth to wipe out humanity. Humanity then finally reaches ascension to heaven. Religion and horror so deeply interwined that if you separate them you tear flesh. 

It's just always so refreshing to see queer characters engage in messy feelings, in general but also about their queer experiences, and trans characters in special need more space to do that.

I loved this so much. The sheer rage that comes screaming off the page paired with the absolute euphoria of finding people like yourself is perfect. It was just so good???? The world is so immersive and the story and characters are so compelling. Would 1000% recommend.

Benji is a trans boy trying to escape from the religious group that turned him into a bioweapon and ends up meeting and hiding with a group of LGBTQA+ kids that have been surviving in the support center they were trapped after Armageddon. Benji is hiding from the cult and trying to hide the changes his body is going through because of what the cult did to him.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a different story and I like that. I Really like Benji and all the other characters. I liked how diffent issues were addressed. It was a good debut. Sometimes I felt like the descriptions were a bit long but they don't take away from the story. I would recommend it.

Okay, let me start by saying that this book was unexpected in every way and I loved it precisely because it took me pleasantly by surprise.

Benji is a sixteen year old boy on the run from the cult that raised him, a fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world's population.
He searches for a place of refuge, but cornered, a group of teenagers from Acheson LGBTQ+ Center (ALC) comes to his rescue.
The leader of the ALC is Nick, an autistic but lethal boy, in fact he is an excellent marksman and knows Benji's darkest secret.
Nick offers him shelter anyway, only if Benji can tame his secret and not put the community at risk.
Benji can't help but be grateful for this hospitality, but grandfather the only one who keeps secrets hidden.
Hell Followed With Us is a dynamic, lively, surprising and engaging book.
I was enchanted by the author's writing, the topics handled with subject knowledge and tact. Nothing is taken for granted, nothing is left to chance.
The characters, in their variety, are complex, emotionally strong and well delineated.
Well laid out story development, too bad about the introduction. I found it a little difficult to get into the story right away, but once you get into gear you won't let go of the book.
I agree that if you loved Tamsyn Muir's books, this book is for you.

I can't say that this book was exactly what I was expecting it to be.

First of all, I was initially drawn in by the absolutely stunning cover art. It's probably the best cover art I've seen so far in 2022! I also think it perfectly illustrates the contents of this book.

The first 20 or so pages had me absolutely immersed in the action sequence of Benji running away from his pursuers and then being caught in the middle of a really dramatic gunfight. I loved the body horror that was in this book, and unlike the other reviewers, I didn't think there was "too much gore." I can safely say that there was an appropriate amount for people who enjoy body horror.

The depictions of gore were very vivid and indulgent, even seeming poetically beautiful in their grotesqueness at times.

I was really happy that the author was talking about these important ideas openly and directly (in a respectful way), but the way that he presented them was a little bit unwieldy. For example, there is a scene where Benji meets a new character who is trans and uses neopronouns. The inclusion of neopronouns is very cool, but it's contextually strange for Benji to conveniently remember a time when he read this character's very specific neopronouns in a book he salvaged with his father (who was brutally murdered shortly prior to this scene) and repeat them in his head. Educational? Yes, but at the cost of the story's flow at a crucial part of the book that should be focused on drawing the reader in. To be honest, this is some delicate stuff that is often skirted around, so I applaud the author's openness, but this section was clunky, overloaded, and too much telling instead of showing, which is a real shame.

Another thing I'd like to mention is... This story had a lot of the same elements as Takaya Kagami's Owari no Seraph (or Seraph of the End). The manga is one of my favorites, and it was a little hard for me to close my eyes to the similarities.

Other than that, the story was formatted in an interesting stylistic way, with perspective switches and the little blurbs at the beginning of each chapter. I think the chapter excerpts actually helped a lot with the worldbuilding and were effective.

I really enjoyed all of the queer representation. I was great to see such a varied cast of LGBTQ+ characters in a piece of plot-based genre fiction. This, and the gruesome horror elements are honestly this book's strongest points. I can tell how passionate the author is about them, and I like that refreshing rawness.

Even though this book was a slight miss for me, Andrew Joseph White is undoubtedly talented, and I'm excited to read more by him in the future. I hope he maintains his gritty edge and shameless attitude.

My rebellious teenage Catholic school heart was really drawn in by the biblical references and religion as the enemy. I absolutely loved how the cult members called themselves angels. The body horror and gore is some of the best I’ve seen in YA. The struggle with self-identity was woven into this dystopian horror story so well. I could not put this down. This novel filled with religion, gore, queerness, and fighting tooth and nail to be who you are resonated so hard with me.

2022 is the year of darker yet hopeful and powerful queer YA stories like All That’s Left in the World and The Honeys, and without a doubt, Hell Followed with Us belongs to this category. It’s equally gorgeous, breathtaking, eerie, and at its heart so very queer.

Like I gushed over the books mentioned above, I could gush over Hell Followed with Us for hours, days, even for years. Over the content and trigger warnings in the letter from the author, d*mn Andrew Joseph White, you gave me shivers when I hadn’t even started reading the story. Over the book itself, the beautiful writing, the amazing character development, the terrifying horror, the fabulous rep. And over the acknowledgments, d*mn you again, Andrew, my chest tightened, and tears ran down my cheeks.

When I started reading this book, a huge storm was blowing outside. Roof tiles flew around, trucks just fell on their sides, and trees snapped like straws. But when the wind died down, the sun began to send its rays down to earth, and people started cleaning the mess. At the same time, a storm was blowing inside me as well. I sat down on a chair and read and made notes and clenched my fists and had a knot in my chest and stared in the distance and cried and kept drinking in so many beautiful words.

To control the monster inside you takes guts. To go through hell and back takes guts. To make life better for yourself and your friends takes guts. And that’s why, despite this being a hell of a story, hope and queer power, instead of blood and organs, eventually soak the pages of this extraordinary story. D*mn you once again, Andrew, this book will haunt me, probably like forever, and I’ll pick up anything you write from now on even without reading a blurb!

I have been so ridiculously eager to get my hands on this book since it was first announced, even though just about every part of the premise is outside of anything I would normally read. While I want anything queer-related I can get my grubby little hands on, I am not a horror reader. Or a post-apocalyptic reader. Or a thriller reader. Or a - you get the idea. But the very idea of this book - a trans boy in a post-apocalyptic world fleeing the cult that caused said apocalypse with a bioweapon in his body finding shelter with a group of queer teens - was just so appealing, I needed to read it as soon as I could.

This book was everything. I devoured it in two days flat of desperate late night reading. It's messy and traumatic and violent and horrific and I don't want to say that I adored a book that will likely be causing me to have nightmares for weeks, but it's just so much. It is 400 pages of queer rage packed into one story. One character. One character who went through too much for too long and finally decided to unleash all of his hell back on the world like it deserved with his found family at his side.

The representation in this book meant everything, too. Benji the trans fundamentalist cult escapee who just wants to burn down the world for the sake of his new family. Nick; autistic with noticeable stims and a crack shot. Salvador's use of neopronouns. Muslim Sadaf wearing a hijab. So many great, well-developed characters in a world destroyed by plague.

There's so much symbolism to unpack in this story of a monster finding his home not among his actual family, but among a ragtag group of queer teen apocalypse survivors in the remains of a LGBTQ+ Center. Even the pieces that could have been fleshed out more - how the virus originated, how it worked, the romance plotline - worked in the overall messiness of the story itself. I cannot wait for this book's release and to add it to my classroom bookshelf. I know it will be an important story for students to have access to.

"There is no other world. Just the one we have here. And in this one, I am alive."

I'll round up to 4 stars but it's probably closer to 3.5 stars for me. This one is a tough one to review.
It's good, rough, but really good.
It's a captivating story about Benji who is a trans boy living in this dystopian/post-apocalyptic world run by a cult that unleashed a virus onto the world. Benji manages to escape and falls into this group of teenagers just trying to survive while he also is trying to survive while turning into what the cult wants him to be and struggling with what and who he wants to be.
It's a fascinating plot, maybe a bit anxiety-inducing with everything that has happened in real life over the last few years. You really get a sense of Benji and what he's going through. You even get a little glimpse inside of Nick's head and how he handles things. The author really knew where they were going and what they wanted to say with this book, it's strong.

I know that this is a YA book but the one thing that I really didn't care for was the teenage romance aspect. I get learning about Benji's relationship with Theo since that was a part of character development but I didn't think the thing with Nick made any sense. The feelings Benji had just felt so fast, close to being that YA "insta-love" and with everything going on it just felt off to me.
I think the other thing I got a little tired of was just the gore. I know that this is also classed as horror but it just got repetitive and wordy. I understand that it's supposed to be horrible, the Flood and changing into a Seraph but less sometimes is more instead of saying the exact same thing every time Benji throws up or there's a Grace. Sometimes I think just with all the description of gore it took away from what was going on, especially in the final fight, it just got a bit jumbled and confusing.

Overall though it was a good read and I look forward to more works from this author.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

trans anger, bloody monsters and horror are totally my vibe so i really flew through this book. the main thing for me was the concept, i love the entire concept and I think the development of this post-apocalyptic world was incredibly well done. the inclusion of transness and queerness mixed into this terrifying, gory world was just the best. and the imagery, oh my god. the imagery was 11/10, it was so visceral. the reason why it's not quite 5 stars is i wish the relationships between the characters were more developed. it went by really fast and i didn't quite connect with the bond between them. but i would totally read it again and recommend it, it was a great read!

hell followed with us is an absolutely amazing book. the book follows benji, a trans gay guy, escaping from a genocidal catholic cult after they injected him with a virus making him into a monster and biological weapon. he finds refugee at a lgbtq+ youth center in this post apocalyptic world and tries to help them destroy the cult.
it explores queerness and being trans in a different way than you usually see. it was also amazing to see how the almost all queer cast interacted with each other.

Hell Followed with Us is a brutal and extraordinary book. From the first chapter, I had no idea what to expect. I don't think I've never read anything quite like it. The writing style and premise reminds of Tahereh Mafi in her Shatter Me series, in a more mature and evolved way. It explored gender and transness in a way that I haven't seen before and in a way that I really related to. The characters were incredibly diverse which worked very well and didn't feel forced. The main characters were so complex and developed that I wish the rest of them were too.

hell followed with us was such a gorgeous, horrifying novel. i loved it so, so much. the characters, all of them, felt real and complex and i loved the portrayed dynamics of how queer people interact with each other. just queerness in general was so refreshing to see in this, how each teen found themselves a family, albeit dysfunctional, within the alc. everything about this book was perfect to me.

I’m struggling to find the right words to describe this story. It is a terrifying, beautiful, heartbreaking, hope filled story. Told from multiple view points (although NOT alternating chapters) the story unfolds to reveal new information just when it can do the most emotional damage- and I mean that in the best possible way. You want the characters… all of them, to find their path, to find salvation, to find peace… even when you know they might not all deserve it, even when you know that it’s seemingly impossible for that ending to be reached.

I finished reading a few hours ago and my heart and my head are still trying to untangle my emotions on this one. But in the end what matters is that this is a story that digs into you and refuses to let go. I can’t wait for everyone to read it.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for a copy of this book.
This is an epic dystopian horror, that highlights the dangers of cult religion, and what could occur if they managed to take over and kill most of the population, in order to cleanse the planet.
Benji our MC is their "secret weapon", but the religious sect refuse to accept he is trans.
His father helps him escape, and soon he meets a group of the "heretics", a group of LGBTQI+ fighting for their survival.
What follows is a great tale full of horror and gore, while Benji breaks away from his "beliefs" and finds himself along the way.
It's detailed in its descriptions, and I'm intrigued to see if there will be any additions to the story in the future.
An enjoyable read.

I devoured this novel in two days. I couldn’t stop reading.

Smarter people than me could analyze this book and pull at the many threads of metaphor that make up the post-apocalyptic plague world of Acheson—the role of queer communities in one’s self-discovery and acceptance, the liberation of being seen, the power of trauma over one’s thoughts and choices, the cruel, crushing, silencing violence of society against queer folks and transgender people especially.
As for me, I dove in this book almost squealing with glee: a gay, transgender main character? Yes please. An autistic love interest who’s not only gorgeous but also deadly with a gun? Hell YES. A community of queer kids against the rest of the world, seeking sweet, sweet revenge against those who put them down all their lives? I knew I needed to get my hands on HFWU *immediately*.

And I’m so glad I did. I was rooting for Benji from the very first pages, and by the end of the first chapters I was rooting for all the kids at the ALC, too. Benji’s experience of being trans, Nick’s realistic, compassionate portrayal, left me feeling *seen.* This is the kind of book I wish I had in my hands when I was fifteen. I’m so glad today’s teenagers and young adults can have access to stories that represent them in the role of the hero. On the side that *wins* in the end.

Not only that, but the novel is so well-written. I couldn’t put it down. The pacing was perfect, the descriptions made me picture everything so clearly (too clearly, at times), and I *felt* Benji’s every emotion in my bones. This is a brilliant debut, and I can’t wait to see what else the author will write. Congratulations, really.

**Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!**

HFWU opens with a quite literal bang. I mean, an explosion of soft pink matter and visceral, ostentatious morbidity. In fact, the novel as a whole is page after page of intimately and vividly described body horror. I applaud White's ability to twist tendons, crack bones along their joints and liquify skin into puddles of goo. While perhaps not a conscious intention, I felt that Benji's experience as a bioweapon mirrored the grotesque reality of human experimentation in likeness of Unit 731.

The rage of Benji, Nick and the rest of the ALC (pronounced as a word with a hard c not as individual letters) is potent through every lithe of script. It is reminiscent of the rage I felt reading Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow--another YA SFF written by a Trans author with a protagonist full of vengeance, ambition and horrid, soot-black anger.

The pacing of the novel is fast. Each plot point follows the next seamlessly and there is seldom a dull moment. I was hooked anytime the Angels and Benji (with or without the ALC) faced off and was invested in the macabre of Benji's slow but sure physical decay into a living monstrosity.

The side characters we see often, Erin, Aisha, Faith, Cormac and Salvador are all unique in personality and even characters with smaller parts like Sadaf and Alex are given enough nuance that as reader, makes it easy to gauge their personalities. They were truly a found family that was so much fun to tag along with as they struggle together in a world passively trying to kill them as the months number on.

Nick was a brilliant character and I wish we had more of his POV. The inconsistent POV shifts were a narrative choice, and they fit well into the development of the story, yet I still find myself, even after finishing the book, holding out for more of Nick as a main character. His story was intriguing and I would have loved to experience how he became the way he is.

YA as a whole is prided on its romance and I once again applaud White for creating a believable teenage experience. Hey, its fiction, a post-apocalyptic one at that, I certainly enjoy all the creative liberties authors take in developing romance plots but it's such a breath of fresh air to see an author let the feelings of their characters develop organically and realistically.

I felt like the friendship between Benji and Nick was completely believable and the the nudges of a maybe relationship in their futures was exactly how their friendship would progress.

This aside, there were a few issues I had with HFWU that stops it from topping off at 5 stars.

One thing that was glaringly obvious in a book with so much diversity in its character range was the lack of Asian American characters. This was weird considering how White made good efforts in putting other POC characters within the cast.

Another thing that rubbed me a little wrong was the first interactions the ALC has with the Vanguard.

The Vanguard is described as being composed of mostly white, middle-upper class families and the ALC depends on them for supplies. The character Salvador is Latino and uses xe/xem pronouns. While interacting with the Vanguard Benji notes this:

"A guy in the back eyes Cormac like a competitor...Another stares at Salvador as if he's trying to figure xem out, which has so many racist and transphobic implications that the air goes thick with it."

??? I was and still am so lost by this one statement. Benji, you just met Salvador not even a whole day ago. You also probably have no idea why that one dude's looking at xem why would you assume the worst right away? Transphobic I could see yeah, this is an LGBTQ+ center by how is he looking at Salvador in a racist way? I don't get it. I'd like someone to explain that part to me because I truly am at a loss.

Calvin was also a bit of a completely pointless character. I am all in for discussing and representing transphobia and gatekeeping within the trans and LGBTQ+ community but not when it feels as meaningless and forced as Calvin.

I mentioned before that the pacing of the novel is fast and emphasized this was good for the plot points. It was good for the plot points alone. Benji warms up to the ALC so quickly for someone whose lived in a literal cult for five years and has every reason to be very untrustworthy of the motives of people around him. I mean, it's great that Benji fits right in with them, he is a queer teen after all and so are the rest of the ALC for the most part but that alone doesn't make up for how easily Benji slides right into the ALC. The fast pace of the novel is in part aided by the fact that much of what happens is told to us through Benji's eyes rather than shown to us. Much of the interesting world building (especially of that on the Flood and New Nazareth) is simply told through Benji without actually explaining in detail the nitty gritty of these crucial factors.

The last critique I want to point out is the final few chapters of the book. the rising action, the climax and our conclusion. They were settled in a fashion bordering deus ex machina. There was so much abysmal horror in describing New Nazareth and characters like Mother Woodside and Sister Kipling that when they came and went...it fell flat and I felt that they were sorely wasted.

Mother Woodside had me coiled in anger when she deadnamed Benji. It felt like a terrible, sharp punch in the gut. I wanted to see her teeter on the edge of truly disgusting. I wanted to see Sister Kipling shatter in despair over her realization that everything she has done has been a tragic, brutal and senseless blitzkrieg.

That being said, this is a book that is about 400 pages long and thus, I do understand that in its ambition it had a lot of ground to cover. There was a narrative White wanted to tell and he did so successfully.

I have complaints over telling rather than showing but White does a tremendous job of creating atmosphere and is insanely talented in detailing all things body horror and vengeful, putrid rage. Those aspects alone drew me in and held me down while I finished this book in one sitting. I adore that vision, the members of the ALC and Benji and Nick much more than any critique I've had.

I am ecstatic to have read this book and will value having it on my shelf. I love White's short stories and so I know that he is capable of amazing things. This is a debut and its good, very good. So, I know that as White matures as an author and becomes even more familiar with novelistic writing that his work will only get better and better.

(maybe hoping for a very gore infested very body horror, very queer adult SFF in the future ;)?)

due to my complete lack of understanding of the catholic church, a decent amount of this book didn't really make sense to me (i wasn't aware reading the blurb that the cult was based on a section of the catholic church) and i would like to note that the whole monster/plague/disease thing is extremely confusing and didn't make much sense to me. i really like the queer rep though it felt a bit unnecessary to instantly put a label on everyone the moment they are introduced (too many characters too many labels and too little personality). there is no 'showing' just 'telling', if it doesn't bother you that's fine!!! tbh it's just a huge pet peeve of mine because it feels like authors are trying to force representation for the sake of it without actually giving them personalities.

some statements irk me a little, and even though white has clearly tried his best to portray poc characters there's some part of it that feels a bit off to me.

i'm not autistic and i personally do not identify with the label trans (though i am gnc) so i cannot speak on the portrayal of it and i really hope someone else can (how is it?) there is definitely a part of it that speaks to me though.

i couldn't really connect with the characters sometimes and benji doesn't make much sense as someone who has been in a cult all his life (warming up to ALC so quickly makes no sense...?) but it gets better after the 50% mark and i actually started seeing the characters as fully fleshed out people.

sorry for the negative review i just did not like the vibes of it. (less)

Runaway trans teen Benji, infected with a bioweapon by a cult whose actions have decimated the world, is rescued by autistic sharpshooter Nick and his ragtag band of friends from what remains of their city's LGBTQ+ Centre. Together, they agree to wreak vengeance on their enemies. But Benji is steadily mutating into something horrific, and with Nick hiding plenty of secrets of his own, how long before this fledgling bond of trust shatters?

This book is something else, honestly. Gloriously violent and literally dripping with body horror on almost every page, it felt like Resident Evil meets The Last of Us meets Seraph of the End, but make everyone confirmed queer. The unapologetic viciousness of the book is its greatest strength, in my opinion, like a neverending howl of rage. The world and concept is fascinating, although I think more could have been done with these aspects of the story when it came to the strength of the characters.

For my tastes there were a few too many people 'floating around' without a purpose, and I felt the use of certain characters could have been tightened up a little. I loved the chapters told from NIck's point of view and I felt like he was criminally underused. I wish the thematic progression of Benji's abusive relationship had been stronger, because there are some beautiful lines regarding this aspect of the plot. Overall I felt somewhat disappointed that Benji needed saving so often. I could forgive it at the beginning of the story, but I had hoped that for someone with so much potential power, he would come into his own in a more emotionally fulfilling or impactful way, With that said, I feel like this is a fairly 'grey-and-grey' world in the sense that everything is pretty much terrible, and it's a sliding scale of how bad it is, so I understand if my expectations for something a little more hopeful or uplifting were misplaced. In the end, the utter visceral carnage of Hell Followed with Us carries the book, and if you feel up to the challenge, I think you'll love it.

Definitely be aware of content warnings for misgendering and repeated on-page deadnaming (it's made absolutely clear in the narrative that this is unacceptable); gore and body horror; abusive family dynamics and an abusive relationship. The author has included a full list of content warnings on Goodreads.

I am grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free eARC of Hell Followed with Us. These opinions are my own.

Thank you to PeachTree Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for review.

I just want to start off by saying this book has been a HIGHLY anticipated read for me since the cover dropped last year. Getting to read it early made me realize, it’s so much better then I ever could have imagined. Holy crap, wow, and every other exclamation.

Hell Followed With Us focuses on Benji, a trans boy who was raised in a religious compound, as he deals with his inevitable transformation into a monstrous creature called Seraph. I adored Benji’s character and was obsessed with the absolutely unhinged amount of gore throughout the novel. Hell Followed With Us was like the book I had been looking for but wasn’t aware I needed (like seriously, so much blood).

I got Agnes at the End of the World (book) vibes meets VERY gay Bloodborne (video game). So if that sounds like something you’d enjoy, PLEASE pre-order this book because it was just amazing