Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

49 reviews

in_love_with_him's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

eliof's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a beautiful gorgeous book. Holy shit. Visceral and angry and cathartic and gory and hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

lisacanteven's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Following a trans teen through his escape from a fundamental Christian cult that as developed after a catastrophic event where most of the world's population was killed, we meet a group of queer teens who have managed to survive in the local LGBTQIA+ teen center. Despite the MC, Benji's, awkwardness they accept him and unknowingly give a safe place for the monster he is becoming. Maybe this monster can help them in their fight against the Angels, the cult members Benji just escaped from. 

Benji is a great character. He has always known he is a boy, but his transness is still new to him. Without his new found family, he might not have ever been able to live truly as Benji. The writing of Benji and his internal thoughts was so good. He is flawed, but he is real. None of his thoughts ever felt manufactured. Sometimes I just wanted to scream at him, but others I just wanted to hold him.

Dystopian settings are my favorite, and this one was one of the best. I wish we could get a prequel. I would be invested in seeing how Judgement Day came about because we got little glimpses into the history, but I would be interested in more. It also felt so real, like of of this is just foreshadowing for our own futures. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Queer, trans Appalachian teen turning into a monster to defeat the religious trauma he was raised with? Absolutely yes, in every way <3 The pacing was a little uneven and some of the gory parts were quite literally nauseating but that's the only things that altered my rating. Overall, an incredible debut!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Dysphoria

misslupescu's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

spacememories's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Loved the imagery, very religious tones there. Very queer which was nice. Wish it was more in-depth/ had more of an exploration of the world. I find it very interesting but wish there was more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

hannahrogers's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content

tifftastic87's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings: death of a parent, abuse, blood, gore, body horror, death, general violence, gun violence, transphobia, dead naming, religious bigotry, and genocide

Two years ago a religious eco-terrorist group released a bioweapon called The Flood and killed 9 billion people. They founded New Nazareth and infected Benji with a variant of the virus to create the Saraph. This variant will mutate him and allow him to lead the church's militia and flood abominations to bring everyone to heaven. 

I feel like this needed a bit more time curing before it was released to the world. Benji oscillated between guilt, which didn't use the religious trauma enough to make it feel real, and lusting over the Nick. Nick, the leader of the rebellion group that saves Benji, was very 2D. He was much more of a plot element than a character. I needed more between them than Nicke giving orders and Benji being like "damn he's cute."

The body horror was there, and probably at a good level for YA but somethings were not explained very well and I really couldn't tell what was happening. The story was in firsf person, so perhaps it was intentional, but it was not clear it was intentional. 

I have a lot more opinions on the world building and the lack of justification for the relationship between Benji and Nick (other than it's YA and they have to). But I'll leave it at there were a lot of inconsistencies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

amy_reading_23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This book is a dystopian horror novel about a scared boy who is trying to figure out who he is while the world is trying to turn him into what they want him to be. 

I loved the idea of an LGBT+ youth community centre being a safe hub in the apocalypse. I would have liked maybe some more warm moments from that. But I know, as the author attests, that the book comes from rage and that is evident throughout. I thought it was interesting the sort of parallels between the idea of transitioning and Benji turning into the Seraph. The characters were also complex and not usually black and white which was well done. This is evident in Theo, who even though he has done bad things, you can still understand his way of thinking. 

I would have liked to have seen more of Benji and Nick's relationship blossom. I'm not sure if this book will be having a sequel, but that would be interesting. Its great to see books with so much trans and autistic representation. 

I think this book might resonate more with queer Americans as I know that the Church is quite different there to other places. From what I've seen from American media, this book seems pretty plausible. 

It was well written, and I read it quite fast as I kept needing to know what happened next. I'm not sure why it wasn't five stars for me. Maybe because it was so consistently bleak and horrific without much beauty. I think a few more moments of joy and hope would have made it a more enjoyable read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

alexsartifacts's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic