If this fantastic, imaginative, riveting, castigating, captivating, intense, passionate, diverse, and grotesque novel is only Andrew Joseph White’s debut effort in the mad, mad, mad, mad world of literary publishing, I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next, because this book was not only worth the wait, but it exceeded expectations.

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I would need some time to sit and marinate with this book to give you a really good rundown of all the metaphors, parallels, and themes that run rampant all over this book. The double-sided meanings behind every Bible passage quoted and the intention behind their repetitiveness. The evolution from larvae to final form, in more ways than one. The completely justified castigation of evangelical Christianity and their hypocrisy versus the open arms with which the LGBTQIA+ community welcomes everyone and takes them in as a member of their tribe. This has always been the way of the queer community, and it always will be. When religious families kick their queer children, teens, and young adults out of their homes, the LGBTQIA+ community has a long tradition of taking these lost and often broken strays with them to safety and shelter whenever possible. This book illuminates this quite clearly. Even if it’s evident the apocalypse may be coming quite soon, the local queer community has come together and not only managed to find each other, but to stay alive and to prop each other up at the end of the world.

I couldn’t have adored more the queer representation in this book. I think maybe the only letters I didn’t see represented were B and I. And hey, that’s okay! We got more than one trans character in there, and that’s a miracle in and of itself when it comes to mainstream publishing houses.

This book is horrific in many ways, but it’s not scary. The horror comes purely from two sources: what people will do in the name of religion (which is nothing new) and body horror/gore. I say this with one caveat: PLEASE READ THE CONTENT WARNING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK. This is AJW’s request, as there is a great deal of material in this book that could be triggering to queer youth. I don’t normally include content warnings in my reviews, but since the author himself wants to be sure people read it, I’m gonna go ahead and sling it in here.

I seriously recommend you give this book a shot. It’s horrific but absolutely justified in its righteous anger. Have you ever felt enough rage over the way LGBTQIA+ people are treated that you wished you could rain down a little hellfire on those who oppress them? Believe me, this book will give you a little taste of that.

Thanks to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Hell Followed With Us is an explosive and fresh novel about a group of queer kids surviving in an apocalyptic world, a world that was brought down by a Christian terrorist group and made to kneel in front of believers who were convinced that the only way to absolve humanity of its sins is to erase it. We follow Benji, a trans boy who was chosen to bring down the last of the human race, but manages to escape, unwilling to ruin everything in the name of something he doesn't even believe in. As he is taken in by a rogue group of queer teens, the infection festering inside his body begins to spread and he only has a handful of weeks to prevent the world ending for good.

I was SO in love with this group of teens, full of resilient and badass individuals of different sexualities and identities, with so much casual rep we DESPERATELY need! (we also had a character, Salvador, my love, use neopronouns which we still don't see a lot of! Another win!) They survived the literal apocalypse and they keep fighting for themselves and for each other, taking Benji in and accepting him wholeheartedly, something he's never known before. His bond is especially strong with the de facto leader of the ALC (this group of teens), Nick, an autistic gay boy who's seen too much and yet is holding it together for everyone else. Nick needs a warm hug and some biscuits okay, I wanted to just keep him safe throughout the whole book.

As these teens are trying to survive, we learn more about the past and what brought forth this horrible fate of humanity, while diving deeper into Benji's own experiences with this religious group he used to be a part of and everything he endured because of them as well. One of the PoVs also comes from Benji's betrothed, Theo, who has a lot of unresolved stuff to get through as well - and who plays a vital role in the story and how it develops.

All in all, Hell Followed With Us is an angry and impactful debut by Andrew Joseph White and I want MORE! The queer rep, the autistic rep, discussions of (and metaphors for - because this book at times felt like the perfect metaphor for trans anger and generally queer anger) queer anger made this into a book I'll return to again and again. Now let's wait for White's second book, deal? Deal.

This book was absolutely amazing! I loved that it explored the "monster within us" as part of the plot line. I think its a subject that needs more attention in order for people to feel they are not alone. I also loved the lgbtqi rep in this book.

Hell Followed with Us was a fully engaging and fast paced YA apocalyptic horror. I really enjoyed how the author did not hold back on the gory and grotesque body horror element of the story and the . The story had heavy themes of homophobia, transphobia and religious trauma but this was balanced by a strong thread of queer found family throughout.

The cast of characters were really interesting and appreaciated the wealth of lgbtq+ representation that was included, though I do whish some of these characters were developed more.

Overall, a unique concept that takes the reader on a wild ride.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

...and Benji does not feel fine. Escaping Christian terrorists with his father in an attempt to live life on his own terms, Benji finds himself alone to survive in a world in which he's hunted by the Angels seeking to return him to his manipulative mother. Benji seeks shelter with a group of queer teens, but fears they will oust him if they discover the monster that lies within.

This horror novel is the most visceral I've ever read, as Benji's body responds to The Flood he's been injected with by his mother's command to transform him into a 6-winged Seraph with the power to control other Graces similarly infected. The goal of Benji's mother's cult is to rid the Earth of the plague of humans by genocide for the glory of God.

Benji wrestles to reconcile his role and obligations to those he was raised with and those he's just met. Will Benji come to terms with the monster inside as he navigates the lies, secrets, betrayal, and hidden identities surrounding him? Will Benji be accepted for who he is, or will he be rejected unless he complies and conforms?

I struggled through the first half of the book, but then zipped through to the end. I found myself rooting for Benji to overcome the trauma inflicted upon him by those who were supposed to love and protect him.

this book was absolutely incredible. I genuinely want everybody and their dog to read it because it is truly that good. I'll be thinking about Benji for a long long time.

as a cis queer person I am living for all these books coming out from trans perspectives, especially when they're not neat and pretty stories. Benji is no angel (ha!) and he will go to any desperate length to protect the people he loves. I am so glad I got to read his story.

thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC !!!

Wow.... this book was everything to me. The description of 'fiercely queer' is so accurate - this book bleeds with queerness, and I'm so grateful to have been able to read it. Thank you to Peachtree for the eARC, and a huge thank you to Andrew Joseph White for writing the queer YA horror we've been yearning for.

Firstly! I adored the horror aspect. I like to describe this book as 'visceral', and it's not for the faint-hearted, if blood and gore descriptions put you off, but I really enjoyed it. The characters as well, not just the mains of Benji and Nick but also the whole host of queer side characters who were so wonderfully real, were fantastic. I personally adored the aromantic side character represention. And the representation (of so many different identities!) was amazing.

Thank you again for the chance to read this eARC. This book is one of my favourites reads of the year, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys queer horror.

“If they believe in judgment, let them feel it.” // “Leave room for His wrath. I am His wrath made flesh.”

HELL FOLLOWED WITH US is a searing, rage-filled YA novel about a trans boy who eviscerates (literally) the fascist, homicidal religious cult that raised him. White imagines a dystopian future that, while extreme, feels like a natural extension of our world: a sect of fundamentalist Christians have unleashed a plague to murder everyone and hasten the end times, chosen ones are infected with a bioweapon that turns them into deadly corpulent fighters, all while climate change continues to ravage the globe and the precious few “nonbelievers” struggle to survive. Benji has been selected to become the ultimate monster: Seraph, a six-winged destroyer destined to finish off the remains of humanity. But Benji has no intention of fulfilling that role. He runs away and finds the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, where a ragtag group of teens have cobbled together a life and are chipping away at the local death squads. Benji starts falling for Nick, their handsome, autistic leader, and together they devise a plan to embrace Benji’s monstrosity and turn it against those who created him in an epic battle with queer and trans kids at the forefront.

This book goes so hard and I loved every minute of it. White leans into the destructive, hateful, and bloody aspects of Christianity and turns that energy against that oppression. Anyone vaguely familiar with the more extremist groups of Christians who seek to inflict what they see as justice and bring about the future they believe in faster will recognize those elements in White’s story. What I love is how Benji’s character embraces that violence to fight back. The connections between Benji’s identity as a trans guy and his transition into Seraph are incredibly powerful. There’s something so profound about the shame we are taught about the unacceptable parts of our bodies, the dysphoria of not being recognized for who you are, and becoming something seen as vile but revered as holy that is hard for me to articulate but that I felt so deeply. Throughout Benji’s journey we see him wrestling with the changes in his faith and his instinctual turn towards prayer as comfort, despite his lack of belief; I could definitely relate to that unlearning. The story is steeped in biblical language that’s blended beautifully and terrifyingly with gore and body horror; it’s like listening to a death metal cover of a hymn (which very much exist!) that centers trans anger and revels in tearing down the tyrannical, puritanical aspects of religion in the most brutal way.

It’s an utterly ferocious and intimately cathartic novel that, even with the heavy themes, I found so much joy in. Thanks to Peachtree Teen and Pride Book Tours for the review copy! Also, I highly recommend the audiobook; the narration is so earnest and savage.

Content warnings: abuse/control in romantic and family relationships, violence, death, child death, gore, illness, body horror, homophobia, transphobia, gender dysphoria, deadnaming/misgendering, religious trauma

Surprisingly this book was both quite addictive and took me a long time to read. The narrative, the character, ALC, the dynamics all made it very hard to put down at the same time, the content and triggers (and also personally) made me slow down, take a break and reset.. Hell Followed With Us is a dark, powerful and hopeful queer story which follows Trans boy Benji after he escaped New Nazareth (a City of Angels who are trying to wipe the Earth clean and start over as a new race), escaped the future he never wanted, escaped the identity he was born with but never managed to get..
Along the way, after losing his father and only one who supported him, he runs into ALC - a group of nonbelievers/ survivors and finally finds people who understands and accepts him for who he is.. Trying to help his friends survive while also being infected with the virus that was quite literally turning his insides out, Benji manages to wade through and out...
Even though the book is most certainly a masterpiece and one of my favorites this year, it still feels raw and undeveloped. A lot of information has been crammed into the pages as a result some important parts are missed out of lime light.. I am still very confused abt the ending.. Even though the book is chaotic af , it was everything I wanted and didn't knw I needed..
Thank you Andrew Joseph White for this beautiful story..

Thank you Netgalley for the Advance copy.

“I will keep Seraph hidden, locked up in my chest, whatever it takes to make sure the Angels never get the weapon they made of me. But I’m just so tired of running.”

Publisher: Peachtree teen.

Release date: 7th June 2022

Pages: 416

Representation: LGBTQIA+ (Trans FTM, mention of MTF, Gay, Lesbian, Non-binary), Latinx, BIPOC, Hijabi, Autistic.

Trigger warnings: *these content warnings come directly from the author* Violence (explicit gore, arson, murder and mass murder, warfare, terrorism), Body horror, Transphobia (misgendering, dead-naming with name written out repeatedly, threats of transphobic violence, forced detransition), Religious abuse/Christian terrorism, combined with elements of eco-fascism, Abusive parents and domestic partner violence (including returning to an abusive partner and victim self-blame), Self-injury (including attempted suicide of a side character), Emetophobia (vomiting) warning throughout.

Summary: Benji is 16, Trans, and on the run. Raised by a religious cult in a world that’s been ravaged by a deadly virus, he knows he doesn’t have long left. The bio-weaponized mutation they put inside him is growing, and there's no way he can stop it. All he can do now is keep himself out of their hands, even if it means surviving alone. That’s until he meets Nick, and a group of other teens that survived simply by being in the right place at the right time-the local LGBTQIA+ community centre. With every passing day, Benji is getting closer to exploding-and the cult isn't going to stop until they get him back.

Hell followed with us sets out to burn the world to its knees, and leaves us stood awestruck in the charred rubble of its success.

Note: I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and fall under the Trans umbrella, so therefore feel able to talk about the representation in this book with an honest yet critical eye.

This book handles real world, hard hitting issues in a way I’ve never seen before. There’s no pandering, it’s brutal in its assessments and honest in its outcomes. It manages all this whilst still being respectful to true religion-you believe in any kind of god? Cool. You want to slaughter the world in his name? Definitely not cool. The entire message of the book comes across so simply; do what you want, be who you want, believe in whatever you want, look however you want-literally be a monster if you have to be- just don’t be an asshole.

The only issue with it I found was that occasionally there was a lack of tension, undercut by the myriad of emotions Benji was feeling. We knew the world was at stake, but it sometimes never felt that way. He is an emotional character, and that;s okay, but I wanted a few more sentences of atmospheric building, showing just how much was truly at stake instead of just telling us.

The horror was bloody, and didn’t shy away for the sake of the young characters. The idea of the monsters-and especially the regular mention of their teeth-made me feel uneasy in the right way, the way you’d expect a horror novel to. There was just the right amount of horror and action, with quiet scenes mixed in when needed. It helped that it took part in a world that dragged us in right at the very beginning. We were part of it from the start, and that immersion dragged us along until the very end where we were left as bloody and scarred as many of the characters.

The characterisation was extremely impressive, and although I didn’t always agree with everything the characters did, every single one of them felt real-even the side characters that we saw barely any of. They were fleshed out, and representative of more than just the plots needed them for. I was especially impressed by Nick, and how the aspects of his autism were weaved into all of his actions-it didn’t define him, and it didn’t diminish what he was capable of. Not once did he or Benji consider himself not enough because of it, and that’s extremely important. He wasn’t strong, or smart or a good soldier in spite of his autism-he was all of these things with his autism, side by side, which is a thing you see so rarely in fiction.

The rest of the representation (though do not take my word about race representation above that of reviewers of non-Caucasian ethnicities) is immaculate and unapologetic; there are people of multiple ethnicities, religions, and identities; It even includes neo-pronouns for one of the side characters. It even tackles transphobia within the LGBTQIA+ community-looking down on others for not being queer like you are, for having a different idea of what it means to be yourself. I imagine there would be so many people looking at this book and saying “the world is literally ending, is wearing a dress that big a deal?”, but what those people don’t understand is that for a lot of Trans people, wearing wrong socially-gendered clothing does feel like the end of the world. Is it dramatic? Maybe, but that doesn’t stop the feeling being any less real. It doesn’t stop it being any less of a problem.

It also tells us something that is extremely rare to hear; that It’s okay to get angry. There’s rage etched into almost every page of this book, and you can feel it seeping through the words of every character that’s ever been made to feel like something less just for being themselves. You can see it in the corpses, and the creatures built from the remains of a virus that has done nothing but destroy. It’s an honest anger, and it’s beautifully written. Characters are condemned when they use their anger to hurt those undeserving, but anger flows freely when confronting abusers and never is it even once implied that anyone should “be the bigger person.” and forgive those that caused so much hurt they set out to destroy the world.

Its shining glory: It’s unapologetic in everything it offers; from horror to rage to representation to a scathing review of religious abuse. It takes the world and strips it bare.

Its fatal flaw: Despite the gore, horror and abuse, there was occasionally a lack of tension and atmosphere that you’d expect with such a vicious plot. You knew the literal world was at stake, but it never actively felt that way.

Read this if: You like gory horror, and harsh realities. You like both character and plot driven stories. You want LGBTQIA+ representation that is unapologetic.

Skip this if: You don’t like gore; it’s not for the faint hearted. You dislike books that are character-driven, where the character is clearly driven by the plot. You don’t like religious talk-there’s a lot of it.

I’m not a fan of horror, and definitely not a fan of body horror, but when my librarian friend told me Id like and appreciate this book, I thought I’d give it a try because he KNOWS my tastes. Of course, he was right!

This almost feels like a book of two parts. There’s the Christian Fundamentalists who caused The Flood (plague) and see the whole thing as a cleansing of the earth before they get accepted up into heaven, and how a group of queer teens who would absolutely not be accepted try to bring the core down. Woven into that is Benji, a trans boy who’s had to navigate life being deadnamed, misgendered, and forced into a life that he doesn’t belong in. As he changes into something less than human, will he be accepted for who he is by his new group of friends? Or will he be forced to conform?

This isn’t a fluffy read. It’s unapologetically angry (although the author does note it’s 100% not at his parents!) and at times it sails quite close to the bone if you’re someone who grew up in a Fundamentalist household. But although it’s not a happy ever after ending, it’s a happy enough given the circumstances and when it’s the apocalypse sometimes that’s the best you can ask for. I really enjoyed the read, and I could absolutely see this being a thing that could happen in the future which was more horrifying than some of the the horror!

I do recommend checking the author’s website or the author note at the front of the book for content warnings. There’s significant episodes of body horror (including an episode with teeth and a lot of vomiting), transphobia (including misgendering and deadnaming), on page death (including kids/teens), and general apocalyptic stuff.

I can't wait to read more by this author! I was drawn in by the visceral imagery from the moment I began this book. The world that White has created is dark, gritty and terrifying while still managed to hang on to some humanity. What I truly appreciated was that it's unlike anything I have read before.

The characters are fully developed, intriguing, and unique. The plot unrolls fast enough to be a bit breath-taking at moment and slow enough to tantalize the reader to continue.

Benji is a fantastic character. He's the key to the genre bending of this novel.... there's a lot going on in Benji's world. He is fleeing a cult, infected with a bioweapon, dealing with the aftermath of an abusive relationship. What a marvellously complex and frightening world Benji is residing in.

The plot is sneaky and will catch you good when you're not looking! The fact that the cast of character is populated with diverse and wonderful characters. The book isn't just populated with queer characters, it's about and driven by queer characters. I loved it.

If you like dark and intriguing, body horror, mixed genre- sci fi, you'll love this one! Bravo!

A Huge Thanks TO Netgalley for the ARC.


Hell Followed With Us is definitely a book that I wasn't expecting to get a galley approved. I'm not usually on Kindle and Netgalley doesn't often provide for an epub version which is easier to read on laptop. I do not approve of Adobe Digital Edition or Reader [forgot the name] and it would be better if the epub option was added for a user.

Anyways, the storyline's pretty interesting and I was hooked in from pretty much the first line "angels don't process grief". It's sort of a blend on both dark fantasy and contemporary and I really love how the author has blended the elements into a beautiful and intimidating story.

The dialogue did seem a bit confusing to me but I love the story otherwise.

Going into this book, I was very nervous because I am not typically a fan of horror and gore. I imagine that you are reading this and wondering why on Earth I requested it but the synopsis sounded incredible so I decided to be brave and read out of my comfort zone for the sake of this unapologetically queer, dystopian novel. And wow, am I glad that I did.

This book was a wild ride. I adored the main character, Benji, and I feel like I felt every single emotion he went through right along with him. My heart ached for him as he struggled with his physical changes as the seraph and I felt THAT betrayal down to my core. He was a main character really worth rooting for. And yet, he was angry. He fought for himself and his friends and all of their freedom. He made some questionable choices and he didn't always get it right. But that made him all the more endearing, all the more human in a world that tried so hard to force him into becoming a monster.

The world was so fully realised and with every new thing I discovered about the Angels and the society they were trying to create, I was shaken to my core. This is a future that looks absolutely terrifying. And in spite of all of that, there is cast of such beautiful characters who shine a light of hope in all the dark. Their friendship and their pride in who they are made me feel so hopeful about the world we actually live in. If they could maintain a strong sense of pride and community in a world out to hurt them then I have even more belief in the future of our own societies.

The characters were so wonderfully diverse and just like Benji, unapologetically queer. The idea of having the survivors be based in an LGBTQ+ centre together is a stroke of genius and led to a cast of characters with so many different identities that just add to the richness of this story. I also loved the inclusion of a character who uses xe/xem pronouns because they were used so naturally and this helps to normalise their use within conversation.

Also, there was autistic rep that I thought was done really well and I learnt a lot by reading from the perspective of someone with autism who is in a position of leadership. Seeing their interactions with other characters from their perspective was very interesting too.

Without giving anything away, the plot was phenomenal. I was hooked all the way throughout and whenever I wasn't reading, it was all I could think and talk about. The ending was so satisfying to me and left me with so much hope.

This was an incredible debut and I cannot wait to read more from Andrew Joseph White. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Peachtree for the arc. I am so glad I stepped out of my horror comfort zone to read this equally terrifying and beautiful story.

Thoughts

This book comes with some big claims and some big comparisons. I try not to judge a book by its comps, but this book was still disappointing. It's very dark and very angsty, which is a definite mood but not the one I was in. It has some really great pieces, but they didn't mesh together well in the end.

Pros
Autistic Rep: It is really great to have some neurodivergent representation in a main-cast character, especially when that representation is so carefully incorporated (and not the end-all-be-all of the character himself). It is great to see an autistic character who is not a side character used purely to "round out" and "diversify" the cast, and it is even better to see an autistic character as a love interest, a person in power--a viable player in the plot itself.

Trauma: Benji is a character burdened with all kinds of trauma. Now, this isn't going to be something that everyone will enjoy reading--Benji's trauma is certainly heavy--but it is important to represent broken, struggling, scarred characters--characters who aren't just broken and scarred due to some "traumatic backstory" that doesn't ultimately do much besides add an "edgy" flair to the writing. Benji has scars from religious trauma, family trauma, gender dysphoria, relationship trauma. Benji has been hurt and continues to be hurt, and these wounds don't just magically go away. They continue to affect him, and he continues to struggle through this trauma in both unhealthy and healthy ways. And the representation of struggle to overcome is important, too.

Building Apocalyptic Dread: This book starts with a bang--the bang of a gunshot--and so appropriately starts with vivid trauma splashing onto the bag. The building sense of dread after this abrupt and shocking opening only help to enhance that. As the world expands, so does the sense of woe and foreboding--impending, apocalyptic hopelessness. That hopelessness is a vital tone to any apocalyptic narrative, I think, and it is definitely captured in this book. This book got off to a bit of a rocky start for me, worldbuidling-wise, but it definitely gets into a groove once the characters are settled, and the sense of uncanny dread that grows is something I greatly appreciate.

Cons
Tonal Mismatch: As I said, this book did get off to a bit of a rocky start to me. There was a distinct difference in tone between the "apocalyptic" scenes at the very start and the more "domestic" scenes Benji becomes a part of when he finds his new group. When he is with these new friends, there is no strategy, no sense of urgency, no ultimate point. They are just friends sitting around and chatting, doing chores, and vaguely considering the apocalyptic world around them. I just wish there had been a bit point apocalypse in these found-family scenes. They didn't mesh well with the world, even though I appreciated what the author was attempting. It didn't work.

Third Present: It definitely tripped me up when we switched into Nick's point-of-view the first few times. Unlike Benji's, Nick's perspective is told in third person, still in present tense. The combination of third person present tense really threw me off here. It drew attention to itself. It felt clumsy and awkward. Any time you notice this type of narrative choice (unless you're actually studying the book in that capacity) is a problem.

Neo Pronoun Apocalypse: The discussion that happens within these pages on this topic is really great, but it also ties into the tonal mismatch. I'm just not sure people will have the energy to be debating neo pronoun usage in the literal apocalypse. It just doesn't feel like a top-tier priority. Don't get me wrong. People will definitely still be using the pronouns that they prefer, and they will still be sharing these pronouns with their friends as applicable. But debating the merits seems a little... not tonally right? It just doesn't feel like a hill to die on when there are literally people dying on hills traumatically all around. I felt similarly about This Golden Flame. There's a time and a place, but is this the time and the place? I don't think so. The representation is good, and I know why Andrew Joseph White felt the need to include explanation and debate, but... It doesn't feel natural, and that makes it feel a little bit too agenda-y (even though I don't believe it was meant that way).


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6/10

Fans of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale will enjoy this darkly religious new world. Those who appreciated Steven King's The Stand will like this new cast of characters surviving the aftermath of a plague apocalypse.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Trigger Warnings: physical abuse, transphobia, self harm, massive body trauma

Benji is on the run. He's trying to outrun the Flood, a disease of biblical proportions released upon humanity and injected into Benji. He was meant to be their general in the continued war on nonbelievers, even though Benji is a nonbeliever himself. As a trans young man he is doing everything in his power to stay out of the hands of the Angels(the believers, who feel like they have ascended), be good, and make the Angels suffer. When Benji stumbles upon an LGBTQ+ group of young adults fighting to stay alive he joins and begins to make a new home with them. But will he be able to escape where he came from? Or will the Flood brewing inside his body drown him and his new found family?

There is so much to unpack here. Religious indoctrination, child abuse, transphobia, and lots and lots of gore. The author called to something within myself, as a queer person who was raised in an uber religious house, that I always kept buried deep. That feeling of being truly understood by author and characters wove Kristin into the story right alongside Benji. I understood that sick feeling he experiences, that feeling that you can't win, and finding people who finally treat you like a human being. Hell Followed With Us is a great look into the cult mentality some people have grown up in, not just queer people either. Horror fans will love the gore factor and fantasy lovers will even enjoy the look into the Flood itself and the post apocalyptic setting.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. This book will make you uncomfortable, but in the most necessary ways. It will pull on some people's heartstrings and hopefully help others realize IT GETS BETTER. Age recommendation for this one is 16+ for graphic violence and gore

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hell Followed with Us is one of the best novels I've ever read, hands-down. The plot structure and world building are tight and imaginative, offering an incredible backdrop for Benji's growth. This novel is full of beautiful symbolism and thought-provoking themes. I also saw myself and so many other trans people in Benji and his story, and I think this novel offers an incredibly hopeful, affirming, and rage-fueled conception of liberation. I am thankful this book exists and I am excited to put it in readers' hands.

Let's start with what I loved: everything is a metaphor. There are so many things here that represent the real struggles that trans people go through, the struggles of dysphoria and unpredictability of medical and transition, and all those metaphors? Amazing. There's also so much amazing representation in here. I loved all of these characters so much. Benji is just another in a long list of beautiful angry messy and complicated trans masc characters that I will defend forever. Nick was a wonderful character as well and I found the autistic representation to be great--I think it's really important to show an autistic person who is not only *surviving the apocalypse* but is actively leading an entire group. The other side characters were amazing as well--I loved the entire queer cast that makes up the main squad of the ALC.

Despite loving the characters, I struggled with the plot and structure of the book, which made things difficult since this is a plot-heavy story. Part of this is I struggled with the world-building--I wanted a little more background on the cult at the beginning and a little more information on the virus. I also struggled a little with the structure of the book--it was entirely written from Benji's POV, except for three or four chapters. I wish we had either gotten more of a balance between Benji and Nick's POVs, or simply only followed Benji.

I also struggled to picture several of the concepts in the book, but that was completely an 'it's not you, it's me' thing. I think the author did a fantastic job with grotesque and graphic descriptions when necessary; I just can't really visualize things in my head, and I am factoring that into my rating since that did affect my enjoyment of the book.

It seems this book is already finding its audience and I'm glad for that. I can't say I loved it, but I will definitely be promoting the book and Andrew Joseph White's work in the future.

Queer horror fantasy heck freaking yes! So even though I wanted some more like initial world building from this book, I loved it anyway. I got really attached to the characters and one of my favorite parts was this huge group of queer people and they weren't all perfect. So often you get queer books with every school queer person is the best person ever and that's not just it's not realistic. Being queer does not mean you're a good person and you can absolutely still be sexist and homophobic and queer phobic and transphobic and misogynistic and fat phobic etc if you're queer. Doesn't exempt you from all of those things and I thought that those are very realistic approach.

This is one that I will be recommending widely. The twist on horror and monsters is amazing. Who are the monsters and who are the heroes? It's hard to talk about it much without spoilers.

The center is LGBTQIA+ people. This is a post-apocalyptic romp, but the characters are what makes this a gem.. What a safe space means and is. What community, family, and belonging must be sometimes.

Not that there's no action. The book draws you in from page one and makes you instantly sympathize with Benji.

The horror fan in me *loved* the horror in this book. It is so well done! Body horror is the immediate one, but it seems just an external piece, the true horror lying beneath. Much of it is a sloughing off of the lies other people packed onto those who become monsters. Can monsters be the norm and the rest the monstrosity of conformity?

If you're doing a lit class about monstrosity - include this! If you have any contrrol over a library with a YA section, grab this! If youre looking for LGBTQIA+ rep or on the Pride Month readint bandwagon, get this one now!

Thank you to Andrew Joseph White, Peachtree Teen, and Netgalley for access to this awesome book for review!!