3.5⭐. Thank you NetGalley & Saga Press for the ARC.

I can't say for certain if I enjoyed reading this, even in a ~morbid fascination~ way. But I will commend author Andrew Joseph White for being able to write a deeply emotional, deeply personal story that wrings you inside out. The story felt slow yet I was still engaged throughout.

From the synopsis, I was ready to feel squeamish over forced pregnancy, gore, and an alien life form made up of worms. I was ready for the discomforting anguish that that comes with dysphoria, a society that is not always kind to neurodivergence, and all the toxicity that comes with being in a cult. But what made my skin crawl the most was the all the self-harm that occurs, and not just physically afflicting wounds on oneself. The protagonist Crane subjects himself to what pretty much feels is a sexually abusive dynamic with a fellow member of the cult, Levi. I started to skim all the sex scenes because I couldn't stomach the masochism of it all.

AJW made Crane a deeply complicated character to follow. He is callous in a sense that he has no qualms participating in the murder of humans to feed the alien hive, yet is capable of empathy and compassion for the people he loves. I do wish we got to explore his feelings towards the infant he gave birth to be more complicated, like mixed with resentment. Because ultimately, this was a pregnancy that drove him to be suicidal and one he never would've consented to. It feels almost a cliché that of course he starts to feel the stirrings of care towards the infant as soon as he laid eyes on her, as though having a baby triggers one's innate parental instincts despite all the despair the pregnancy illicit just mere hours ago.

Can't say I cared for any of the other characters aside from Crane. Highly recommend to check out the content warnings, just so you won't be as thrown off by all the abuse as I was.

This was everything! I love Andrew Joseph White so much and I have loved every one of his books and I have been eagerly waiting for his first adult horror. This was everything I wanted and so much more! The ending especially was just absolutely jaw dropping! I will give fair warning this book is extremely heavy so please read trigger warning before going into this. If you can handle this book definitely give it a read because its amazing!

In the past, books by this author haven't clicked with me, which is a shame because I LOVE the ideas behind them, but there was just something with the writing style in particular that I didn't like. Fortunately, You Weren't Meant To Be Human finally did it for me. I can't say I had a great time with the story as the themes are pretty heave, but I enjoyed how disturbing reading this was. It's not perfect and I wish some things were explored more, but overall a solid 4 stars with great characters and a distinct voice, despite the MC being deaf (or maybe because of it).

Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press, for the ARC.

ah yes, my favorite niche microgenre: queer religious trauma meets pregnancy as body horror meets worms of a deeply suspicious origin.

if you, like me, are looking at andrew joseph white’s adult debut and thinking to yourself, “hm. i wonder how he’s going to ramp up the gore and ickiness now that he’s writing fully outside of YA,” i’m going to ask that you take whatever it is you’re envisioning and ramp it up several notches. few other authors writing in the weird and wonderful world of queer horror are capable of putting so many visceral blood and guts and horrific relationships onto a page, while also managing to craft a story in which none of these details ever once feels gratuitous.

you weren’t meant to be human reads a little bit like the most fucked-up rendition of the immaculate conception that you could imagine, mixed with lee mandelo’s flair for the southern gothic erotic and an uncomfortably large dose of “oh my god this is actually really happening Right Now” political relevance. crane, the novel’s protagonist, is a nonverbal trans man living in a cult of sorts that has devoted itself to a nest of rotting worms and flies currently residing in a local gas station maintenance closet. the few members of this cult (or “hive”) have little in common save for their individual traumatic histories and secrets. and while crane has long found some sort of solace in his gender and sexuality among the hive, all of that changes when he becomes pregnant and learns that his helminthic gods are going to force him to have that baby, no matter the cost.

the cast of characters is almost claustrophobically small, and much of the novel presses in on the reader as we pace around the rooms in crane’s apartment alongside him, wishing that he could find a way out of this situation. in giving the reader a story with few characters, fewer spoken words, and a particularly awful backdrop, white is able to play with some incredibly complex and relevant ideas. this is an incredible depiction of the ways in which organized religions often demand ownership over the very bodies of their followers, particularly of those who are most marginalized. it is also a careful examination of the pressures that are put on certain bodies that are born into the world, the twisted value of reproduction, and the way that some people treat others like animals, forcing their bodies to fulfill a biological purpose and then casting them aside.

but pregnancy and reproductive autonomy aside, this is also a book that cares very deeply about the interactions between its characters, as well as what those interactions reveal about complicated manifestations of gender and eroticism. crane refers to the person who he was pre-transition as a fully separate individual from himself—sophie is a secondary character in the novel rather than a flashback living only in crane’s mind. she is someone that crane cares for, pities, and ultimately chooses to destroy (in very graphic terms). crane’s interpersonal dynamics with one of the other hive members is constantly toeing the line of what is consensual and what is not, and through crane’s thoughts the reader is held very close to some very taboo subjects that crane uses both as a source of sexual gratification and of self harm.

in a word, the book is icky. and i mean that in a highly complementary way. i strongly encourage anyone thinking about reading this to pay very close attention to the content warnings, and would advise reading this on an empty (or, at the very least, a comfortably vegetarian) stomach.

thank you to saga press and netgalley for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Never has a book made me feel physically ill while reading it... And it is all the more for it! Giving this a 5 out of 5 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Having read the YA novels by the author, I was very excited for his first adult novel and BOY HOWDY Joseph White has been holding back a lot when it comes to body horror and the trans experience. What is extra wild to me is that the setting of the novel could be our world now, just with the teeny tiny addition of The Hive, which really made a lot of the background news reports even more just absolutely gut wrenching.

There is nothing "nice" about this novel. It does not pull it's punches and the characters are deeply, and very humanly flawed. Many folks will struggle to read this because they have no frame of reference for the different emotions that Crane is experiencing: body dysmorphia, suicidal ideation/action, autistic overstimulation, etc.

Something about Andrew Joseph White novels is that I hate to say I "enjoy" them, simply because there is nothing enjoyable about the horrific and grotesque themes featured throughout the novel.

I truly wish I could put into words every emotion the novel made me feel, as I rated the novel 5 stars. It's one that is going to stick with me for a long time.

There are graphic depictions of body horror, dysphoria, sexual assault, pregnancy, domestic abuse, and suicidal thoughts, so I urge readers to proceed with caution.

Wow, each time I pick up a book by Andrew Joseph White, I am utterly terrified and unable to put them down. They are mesmerizing and horrific but the underlying messages are absolutely phenomenal.

Crane is part of the hive who accepted him into it's following as long as he feds it and obeys. The hive has taken root in little pockets of the Appalachia area in a world that feels a bit post-apocalyptic. Crane has a semi-partner, Levi, and their relationship is highly interesting and intense. In many ways, Levi treats Crane exactly as he wants to be treated, but I will give a trigger warning that some may see this type of relationship as too intense. Things start to go downhill for Crane when he realizes he is pregnant. It is a state he never wanted to be in and even had a plans for how to address it, should it happen. Crane knows there are trans-men who have had children, but he does not want to be one of them. Crane does seem to have a few other friends outside of the hive but they aren't able to do much to help him when he returns to the hive where it tells him that they want him to have the child.

This book has quite a bit of body horror, emotional and physical trauma, and addresses some topics which may be triggering. I will ask that you let it trigger you in the ways it can help you grow to understand the horrors which marginalized individuals face. Yes this is sci-fi/ fantasy, but the underlying meaning and message is there,

Is this story literally intended to be about a hive...powerfully coded culturally as an insect-related word...that controls people to their detriment? Are the hives metaphors for the horrors of cishet society demanding conformity of people not like them? Are the hives infestations of the criminal organizations demanding obedience of the Appalachian people in exchange for the smallest amount of human dignity...or else?

Yes.

The answer is none/all/a combination of these and more. This is why I rate the body horror story as highly as I do. Author White is avowedly transmasc. The story could've been his own; he could be Crane; the body horror could be, is, intensely personal. It is laid out in terms of Crane's quest for bodily autonomy, its various phases and faces of denial and deprivation of this great, fundamental freedom. Trading transphobia for misogyny is not trading up. It is still the imposition of ignorance on top of your own knowledge, the unwillingness of the uneducated to do the work of acquiring the information needed to distinguish between discomfort and threat.

The hive isn't precise or even visible, it's a shifting...space...delineated by rotten stinking meat and a control mechanism brutally physical and insidiously psychological. This is the essence of horror to me. The ugly inner workings of systems of control and brutalization for dominance assertion. The denial of the fundamental freedom, autonomy...self-determination...that all Others endure. That is, throughout time and space, the one sin qua non of horror stories. It gives me shivers even conceptualizing it.

What Author White does best in this story is mobilize all the tropes of horror to embody the reality of an authoritarian world. What the alluring promises of it devolve into. What the systems of oppression will resort to in order to accomplish their hidden aims. Are they even hidden, or are we simply discouraged from noticing them? Accused of being paranoid, thereby handily Othered in an uncontestable way?

The way the story ends, I won't say "wraps up" it's too easy, isn't heartening or triumphal or celebratory. It is instructive. It is condign. It does not spare a thought for the offense against "nice"ness it's made you endure. And surprisingly made you...appreciate, since enjoy is a completely wrong stop to pull on Literature's pipe-organ.

I think this read will titillate the horror seeker, educate the knowledge seeker, and validate the entomophobic person's visceral rejection of reeking, rotting things for what they harbor.

andrew joseph white can truly do no wrong in my eyes. i've really loved watching his writing grow and evolve in real time over the past few years, so being able to read this book as an advanced reader was really exciting to me.

this novel was quite a different read compared to his last three books, which are young adult. i found the sexual content to be far more graphic in this book, but honestly the gore/body horror was at a similar level to his other works in my opinion. i also think this is one of the first novels i've read from the perspective of a nonverbal/mute character, so that was really interesting to read. the way that crane interacted with the characters around him was conveyed very clearly through white's writing.

it really sucks that we're at a time in history where storylines like this are essentially reflective of real life. all i can say is thank god i don't live in america.

I inhaled this book in 2 days. It made me uncomfortable in ways I never could’ve imagined, but as a trans man whose biggest fear is the idea of being pregnant, it ruined me in the best way possible.
Once again, beautifully written autism and trans representation, definitely will be reading again.

Oh boy did I love this book. No surprise from AJW though.

We follow Crane, a man who has been drawn into a cult that centers around a hive of worms and flies that demand absolute loyalty in exchange for salvation. He even has a kinda sorta boyfriend named Levi, an ex-marine who isn’t afraid to treat him roughly. When Crane gets pregnant and the hive demands he keep it, he decides maybe the hive doesn’t have his best interest in mind after all.

First off, please read the trigger warnings before reading this book. It’s chock full of them. That said, this novel hit me hard. It was so raw and real and didn’t shy away from uncomfortable and taboo topics. I love AJW’s YA novels, but it made so happy to see him be able to write this way. It was such an emotional journey and Crane is going to go down as one of my favorite characters.

Woof… this one was HEAVY, both in content and in terror. Hard to believe this is Andrew Joseph White’s adult horror debut. ❗️Check your content warnings❗️ The social commentary isn’t background noise; it’s raw, personal, and relentless. Filled with (deserved) rage and wrath.

We follow Crane, a mute trans man at an exceptionally low point in his life. He believes The Hive (a colony of sentient alien-esque flies and worms) has set him free. He’s impregnated, and The Hive insists the child belongs to them. That’s as much as I’ll say, because this is best experienced without too many details spoiled.

Crane is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve read in a long time. A masochist riddled with self-hatred, he’s used as a vehicle for a poignant story of trans identity, grief, and transformation. His journey reads almost like a breakup letter to the past; bittersweet, brutal, and unflinching.

Then there’s the forced pregnancy horror. Nothing is more terrifying than losing autonomy over your own body, and the way AJW ties this to the very real-world anxieties in this current climate makes the story land even harder. The metaphors are subtle but loudly effective. This book is vile, filthy, graphic…and all the stronger for it.

I was riveted by Crane’s psyche. Since he does not speak, his thoughts and actions are his only form of communication, both with other characters and with the reader. The result is claustrophobic and brilliantly effective. His mind is a dark place…but that’s the point, isn’t it?

New fan of Andrew Joseph White.

Huge thanks to Saga Press for the eARC — all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Saga Press and Andrew Joseph White for the advanced copy of You Weren't Meant to Be Human!

I haven't met a book by White that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. True to the theme of White's other novels, this book was horrific, jarring, and upsetting. But it was also relatable and comforting.

White is a master at the depths of personality and feeling, the contradictions between logic and desires. As his debut adult novel, You Weren't Meant to Be Human explored these themes and mixed in the complexities of sex, love, and abuse as an autistic individual.

This book is amazing in ways I never expected it to be! I was excited for You Weren’t Meant To Be Human because it had autism rep, trans rep, and body horror. What I didn’t expect was the depth of emotion it invoked in me, down to the very essence of my soul fibers! It is a story that hits like a sucker punch, but then keeps hitting and hitting and hitting until you finally escape at the end gasping for breath.

I’m going on a limb here, which is dangerously hard for my mood reading self, but I’m calling this book one of my Top 3 Favorites for 2025.

If you like horror that isn’t mainstream, books that accurately rep autism, and amazingly gross body horror then please take a chance and read this book!

This is brutal and dark, and gruesome, but I think that is point. Be sure to know what you are getting into before picking this book up. Check out the trigger warnings and just be aware. Raw and horrifyingly dark = a 4.5 star for me. I will be sure to check out this authors backlist. Thank you to NetGalley the publisher and author for the opportunity to read.

This book is brutal. There were so many moments where I was audibly gasping. This is such a poignant piece with everything going on in the world right now. Honestly felt nauseous reading at some points but I loved it. Check trigger warnings but this book is great.

Woof, this was incredibly bleak, and very much reminded me of an Eric LaRocca story. This was a dark, violent, claustrophobic, extreme body horror book.

The story follows a trans man who is forced to carry a pregnancy he doesn't want by the cult of a swarm of bugs he's in... yeah, it's weird.

Are the bugs aliens? Are they a metaphor for heteronormativity? A post Roe v Wade world? I suppose it's up the reader to decide.

This book has some TRULY horrifying and disturbing scenes. Definitely look into trigger/content warnings if you're a sensitive reader. While I can't say this was an *enjoyable* read, it was incredibly effective at communicating the feeling of dread it was hoping to achieve.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

Well, that was dark! It's set in a near-future where things are somehow more awful than they are now, which is depressing but also realistic. I love that Andrew Joseph White shies away from literally nothing in this book. Crane is a young, trans autistic man who finds himself working and living with a few folks from the hive that he feels saved his life. The hive... look, I don't fully "get" the hive. I wish we'd understood more about them. You guys know I love answers, and my one complaint with this is that I just didn't get those answers. They're worms. Just worms. Idk where they came from or why they're bothering Crane, but here we are.

Anywho, Crane is in a... let's call it a situationship with Levi. I didn't like Levi from the start, I don't know if we're supposed to, but I did not. He is not very nice to Crane, and Crane is not even sure that Crane is okay with the way Levi treats him, so there's that. But bad news, Crane finds himself pregnant, and very unwilling to remain so. Obviously, living in even-worse-Appalachia, abortions are hard to come by, but he has some friends (I love them!) who might help! Only... the aforementioned hive insists he carry the baby, and will kill his friends if they follow through with the abortion. There's a ton of commentary in here, but I'll let you read that for yourselves, I think it was done really well!

It is hard to read about Crane going through this. But, for that reason, it feels quite necessary. It puts you in the shoes of someone who really does not want to be pregnant, and them being forced to carry that baby (which feels to Crane much like a worm of his own), and trauma carrying said pregnancy causes. It's brutal, very at times, but it's also Crane's authentic feelings. And there were a few small bits of hope to offset the darkness, which I appreciated! That hope feels necessary, even if it is small.

Bottom Line: Really well done and important commentary wrapped up in a propelling story, but do be cautious of the content warnings!

I didn't think it was possible for Andrew Joseph White to take what he did in Compound Fracture and elevate it in such a way,

One of the first things I loved immediately with this book is the intersection that takes place with being trans and having autism. White did SUCH an amazing job with that in his previous book I read, and I just think that the nuance in character reaction/response to events in the story is SO well done. There's a part of the author in the character and you can really tell the energy and effort placed in that development. That, along with the acknowledgements, just shows how much Andrew Joseph White puts of his own experiences/truths into the writing and I love it so much.

The idea of a pregnant trans man who is sort of stuck in a situation he does not want to be in is so novel in it's execution. Add on top of that a worm/bug cult/hive mind and it's just an added layer of WTF am I actually reading? Haha.

I gasped at the end of this book. Like full on stopped reading and didn't know what to do. Haha. I'm laughing at myself now thinking about it. PLEASE check content warnings. Like 100% necessary if you are easily squeamish. It IS his adult horror debut, and if you've read his YA, you sort of know where it's heading!

I do wish we had more of an understanding of the hive mind/main antagonist. Though, even now as I'm typing this, I think that the lack of information and understanding makes them MORE scary and threatening. Yea - I take it back!

Definitely recommend this book. It's wild and compelling and does such a great job of providing trans and autism rep. Can't wait for more!

I love AJ White with everything in me. I love that despite this new form, the soul of his writing is incredibly present. Through this truly vile horror full of gore, assault, and terror, there’s still a hardscrabble, came out wrong, feral little man you want to root for. I also LOVED. like. ADORED. the relationship crane had to Sophie. The way White framed him looking back at the child he’d been was an astonishing and gut-wrenching display of the love you can have for the versions of you that didn’t serve who you are now. Also a master class in the validation that narcissistic abuse, cult abuse, can give to its victims. Just. Spectacular.