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trisha_thomas's review against another edition
4.0
What a hidden gem this was! I had no idea this would be so good. As soon as I started, it was hard to stop. Benji was a complelling reader. Benji is angry and frustrated but also feels stuck and unable to change the trajectory his life is going.
I liked that Benji was just a very raw and real character. I like that I saw two parallel stories being told, one seeped in zealous cult teachings but also the gray area of saviors manipulating survivors. I loved that I felt the rage and power at times but also the sadness of feel apart from the others because of what makes you unique.
I was completely swept up in the story, wondering who was telling it straight on and what everyone's uderlying reasons were. There were definite parts that were hard to stomach, but I loved the broken down world and these brokenly, lovely teens.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
I liked that Benji was just a very raw and real character. I like that I saw two parallel stories being told, one seeped in zealous cult teachings but also the gray area of saviors manipulating survivors. I loved that I felt the rage and power at times but also the sadness of feel apart from the others because of what makes you unique.
I was completely swept up in the story, wondering who was telling it straight on and what everyone's uderlying reasons were. There were definite parts that were hard to stomach, but I loved the broken down world and these brokenly, lovely teens.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
geeroyale's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
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
4.75
mallard_duck's review against another edition
3.0
If there’s one thing I don’t really have the stomach for, it’s body horror/gore. Had this book not been chosen as the October buddy read in our Queereaders group, it (most likely) wouldn’t have made it to the top of my TBR list for quite a while; since it was, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself, especially since it’d been recommended to me before.
My two main takeaways from this book are: some body horror is actually okay, depending on how it’s written, and also I really need to stop expecting too much from YA books whose main target audience consists of people under 25 and/or people who only ever read YA. (No shade to either of those groups, it’s just not where I personally fit in.)
There’s a certain morbid fascination with your own physicality and the constraints of human bodies that comes with being trans or even gender-questioning. From there, it’s very easy to take a leap into body horror. While I find physical aspects of existence revolting (with explicit gore being a particularly sensitive topic), though, somehow that part of Hell Followed With Us bothered me the least. Maybe because I’d more or less known what to expect.
Overall, though, I think this was an amazing concept with mediocre execution that left me wanting more. This is where the YA aspect shines – so many themes and plot points would have benefitted from more mature, nuanced, or simply more detailed takes that just weren’t present.
For once, I’ll start with the good. Keeping in mind that there is nihil novi sub sole, etc., etc., I still love the idea of a post-apocalyptic world plagued by a rampant virus and controlled by a religious cult whose main belief is that humans are a blight on the Earth and as such should be eradicated. I don’t care how many times some variation of this has already been written/filmed/whatever. As we stubbornly continue fucking up this planet’s climate to the point that Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans is no longer simple fiction but rather a scary possibility, there’s honestly a non-zero chance that somewhere, someone could eventually come to the same conclusion as pastor Ian Clevenger and at the very least try to create a biological weapon that would ‘solve’ the problem. Let the Earth heal and all that. (Whether or not the invention and then global spread of such a weapon is technically possible is a different story – but that’s the allure of fiction: exploring the what ifs.)
The second thing I really liked was (unsurprisingly) the queer protagonists. I especially appreciated Benji’s reflections about his body and dysphoria, which (in my opinion) helps showcase that it’s not always as simple as wishing that you’d been born with different genitalia and secondary sex characteristics. Some trans people undergo top and/or bottom surgeries because that’s what they need. Some are more like Benji, whose dysphoria “comes from the way other people see him” – he doesn’t necessarily mind his body, but he suffers from not being perceived as a boy. In his own words:
Benji’s transness is crucial in the context of his transformation into a grotesque virus-monster, how he is perceived, and how he perceives himself.
Well then, where does the execution fail?
For a book where one of the main themes is overcoming religious indoctrination – a topic that should lend itself well to the exploration of various shades of gray – most of the time, Hell Followed With Us utilizes a distinctly black and white point of view. I’d say that this is where the YA aspect kicks in. A younger audience (or an audience with, let’s say, less varied reading experience) requires a more blunt narrative, a picture painted with thick, contrasting lines rather than something more subtle. Unfortunately, to someone who doesn’t fit into that demographic, this comes off as a touch too heavy handed. The plot twists are predictable (but well utilized). There’s a clear division between the protagonists and the antagonists: the ALC’s members are queer and mostly POC; everyone else is white and either openly hostile toward or at best ignorant of queerness. There’s zero space for nuance here. It shows not only in which of these characteristics are assigned to which group, but also in how they are described.
I mean. Come on.
The way the ALC members introduce themselves – always providing their pronouns right off the bat – seemed slightly forced to me, but I’m not deducting any points for that. It actually led me to some self-reflection: does it feel clunky because it’s written like that, or does it feel unnatural simply because it’s not as common now? Frankly, I’m thinking it’s the latter. That’s not the problem, then – but the overall characterization is.
The book is decent in length, yet I don’t feel like I actually got to know any of the characters. Some of them definitely feel more like labels than actual people. What do we know about Sadaf other than that she’s Muslim, queer (which is a given in the ALC, anyway), and decent at field medicine? Who is Calvin, other than a trans guy who gets all uppity and gatekeeps being trans? Can anyone think of more than two personality traits, not to mention backstories, of Faith, Aisha, Cormac? I can’t, and those guys are secondary only to the main characters – Benji, Nick, and (arguably) Theo.
Of those three, Nick was, to me, the weakest point. I liked him – I have a soft spot for characters like him – but very little about his motivations is clear to me. Sure, he didn’t fit in, but what was it that made him leave? From a more technical point of view,
Speaking of Theo… well, while I’m strongly in the Theo Deserved Better camp (not least of all because, like another member pointed out, his arc poses some questions as to what’s being said about who gets to break out of the indoctrination), his arc, ironically, made the most sense to me; his motivations were the clearest. As Benji thinks of him as ”a queer boy just like [him] who rotted under the weight of what happened to him”, Theo works as a sort of foil to Benji (maybe even, in some ways, to Nick). I’m not a fan of how his story ended, but, eh, I’ll live with it.
Again in the manner of most YA dystopias, the worldbuilding seems cool as long as you don’t dig too deep. What’s the Vanguard’s deal? How come there’s seemingly no organized force to fight against the Angels at all? How did the ALC survive their first two years if their attacks on the Angels’ death squads have only become a thing recently? And why didn’t they at least have a vegetable patch somewhere? Actually, why did they insist on staying in a dilapidated building in the middle of a hostile city without running water, little to no access to food, etc.? It’s hinted that the climate had really gone downhill by the time the Angels released the Flood, so maybe the wilderness outside of the city is uninhabitable… but is it? The Angels grow some crops, so clearly that hasn’t been rendered completely impossible. Et cetera, et cetera.
Last but not least: the body horror, the gore. I figured out why it didn’t bother me that much: it was described in a very factual way. Descriptive, but without modifiers to make it truly gross. Simply stating that character X puked out their liver doesn’t rattle me, and that’s what the majority of the descriptions were like. Which I find interesting – not an argument against the book for sure – because while I’d definitely agree with the warning of ‘excessive gore’, I’d hesitate to call it particularly gripping.
As far as enjoying myself goes, though, I can’t say that I didn’t have fun with this book - it’s an easy read, fairly quick, and entertaining despite its flaws.
My two main takeaways from this book are: some body horror is actually okay, depending on how it’s written, and also I really need to stop expecting too much from YA books whose main target audience consists of people under 25 and/or people who only ever read YA. (No shade to either of those groups, it’s just not where I personally fit in.)
There’s a certain morbid fascination with your own physicality and the constraints of human bodies that comes with being trans or even gender-questioning. From there, it’s very easy to take a leap into body horror. While I find physical aspects of existence revolting (with explicit gore being a particularly sensitive topic), though, somehow that part of Hell Followed With Us bothered me the least. Maybe because I’d more or less known what to expect.
Overall, though, I think this was an amazing concept with mediocre execution that left me wanting more. This is where the YA aspect shines – so many themes and plot points would have benefitted from more mature, nuanced, or simply more detailed takes that just weren’t present.
For once, I’ll start with the good. Keeping in mind that there is nihil novi sub sole, etc., etc., I still love the idea of a post-apocalyptic world plagued by a rampant virus and controlled by a religious cult whose main belief is that humans are a blight on the Earth and as such should be eradicated. I don’t care how many times some variation of this has already been written/filmed/whatever. As we stubbornly continue fucking up this planet’s climate to the point that Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans is no longer simple fiction but rather a scary possibility, there’s honestly a non-zero chance that somewhere, someone could eventually come to the same conclusion as pastor Ian Clevenger and at the very least try to create a biological weapon that would ‘solve’ the problem. Let the Earth heal and all that. (Whether or not the invention and then global spread of such a weapon is technically possible is a different story – but that’s the allure of fiction: exploring the what ifs.)
The second thing I really liked was (unsurprisingly) the queer protagonists. I especially appreciated Benji’s reflections about his body and dysphoria, which (in my opinion) helps showcase that it’s not always as simple as wishing that you’d been born with different genitalia and secondary sex characteristics. Some trans people undergo top and/or bottom surgeries because that’s what they need. Some are more like Benji, whose dysphoria “comes from the way other people see him” – he doesn’t necessarily mind his body, but he suffers from not being perceived as a boy. In his own words:
I don’t care about my chest, and I’ve never once, in my life, wanted to have a dick. My period sucks, but it never made me feel less like a guy.
Benji’s transness is crucial in the context of his transformation into a grotesque virus-monster, how he is perceived, and how he perceives himself.
Well then, where does the execution fail?
For a book where one of the main themes is overcoming religious indoctrination – a topic that should lend itself well to the exploration of various shades of gray – most of the time, Hell Followed With Us utilizes a distinctly black and white point of view. I’d say that this is where the YA aspect kicks in. A younger audience (or an audience with, let’s say, less varied reading experience) requires a more blunt narrative, a picture painted with thick, contrasting lines rather than something more subtle. Unfortunately, to someone who doesn’t fit into that demographic, this comes off as a touch too heavy handed. The plot twists are predictable (but well utilized). There’s a clear division between the protagonists and the antagonists: the ALC’s members are queer and mostly POC; everyone else is white and either openly hostile toward or at best ignorant of queerness. There’s zero space for nuance here. It shows not only in which of these characteristics are assigned to which group, but also in how they are described.
[The Vanguard] have sewn monochrome American flags and skull patches onto their sleeves, and one even holds his gun with the barrel pointed down between his legs as if to make up for something. I fet the feeling I should be grateful they’re wearing masks, even if two have their noses peeking out over the top.
I mean. Come on.
The way the ALC members introduce themselves – always providing their pronouns right off the bat – seemed slightly forced to me, but I’m not deducting any points for that. It actually led me to some self-reflection: does it feel clunky because it’s written like that, or does it feel unnatural simply because it’s not as common now? Frankly, I’m thinking it’s the latter. That’s not the problem, then – but the overall characterization is.
The book is decent in length, yet I don’t feel like I actually got to know any of the characters. Some of them definitely feel more like labels than actual people. What do we know about Sadaf other than that she’s Muslim, queer (which is a given in the ALC, anyway), and decent at field medicine? Who is Calvin, other than a trans guy who gets all uppity and gatekeeps being trans?
Spoiler
By the way, what happened to that guy? He left ALC very dramatically at some point, and I genuinely don’t know if he ever returned, or was found to be dead, or whatever. It’s like the author kind of forgot about him.Of those three, Nick was, to me, the weakest point. I liked him – I have a soft spot for characters like him – but very little about his motivations is clear to me. Sure, he didn’t fit in
Spoiler
with the AngelsSpoiler
Indoctrination does a number on you; that’s why cults work. What led Nick to the realization that his well-being mattered more than conforming to the brainwashed Angel society? Shrug emoji.Spoiler
how did he manage to kill his entire squad (which, presumably, wasn’t composed of only child soldiers) at age… uhh… thirteen? Fourteen? And why exactly did he leave Theo alive?Speaking of Theo… well, while I’m strongly in the Theo Deserved Better camp (not least of all because, like another member pointed out, his arc poses some questions as to what’s being said about who gets to break out of the indoctrination), his arc, ironically, made the most sense to me; his motivations were the clearest. As Benji thinks of him as ”a queer boy just like [him] who rotted under the weight of what happened to him”, Theo works as a sort of foil to Benji (maybe even, in some ways, to Nick). I’m not a fan of how his story ended, but, eh, I’ll live with it.
Again in the manner of most YA dystopias, the worldbuilding seems cool as long as you don’t dig too deep. What’s the Vanguard’s deal? How come there’s seemingly no organized force to fight against the Angels at all? How did the ALC survive their first two years if their attacks on the Angels’ death squads have only become a thing recently? And why didn’t they at least have a vegetable patch somewhere? Actually, why did they insist on staying in a dilapidated building in the middle of a hostile city without running water, little to no access to food, etc.? It’s hinted that the climate had really gone downhill by the time the Angels released the Flood, so maybe the wilderness outside of the city is uninhabitable… but is it? The Angels grow some crops, so clearly that hasn’t been rendered completely impossible. Et cetera, et cetera.
Last but not least: the body horror, the gore. I figured out why it didn’t bother me that much: it was described in a very factual way. Descriptive, but without modifiers to make it truly gross. Simply stating that character X puked out their liver doesn’t rattle me, and that’s what the majority of the descriptions were like. Which I find interesting – not an argument against the book for sure – because while I’d definitely agree with the warning of ‘excessive gore’, I’d hesitate to call it particularly gripping.
As far as enjoying myself goes, though, I can’t say that I didn’t have fun with this book - it’s an easy read, fairly quick, and entertaining despite its flaws.
beccaeye's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-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
3.0
ari_25's review against another edition
5.0
Damn. I don't even know where to start. I read this book as a part of Trans rights readathon, and it would suffice to say that it absolutely ravaged me. At the end, I wailed like a small child.
The pure rage in this book is unimaginable. If you were ever a religious closeted child, you will know what I'm talking about. And if that doesn't bring you to tears, the found family trope definitely will.
Bravo, Andrew Joseph White. I can't wait to read more from you in the future.
The pure rage in this book is unimaginable. If you were ever a religious closeted child, you will know what I'm talking about. And if that doesn't bring you to tears, the found family trope definitely will.
Bravo, Andrew Joseph White. I can't wait to read more from you in the future.
persephonefoxx's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
- 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
“Hell has followed us onto Earth, and I am the monster that has brought it forth“
This is a blood-soaked tale of wrath, revenge, and queer rage. Wrought with pain, body horror, and gore. Bursting at the seams with representation. Add in commentary on religious cults and systematic oppression and you have this story of teens with talons, fangs, and fury.
This book feels like the catharsis of screaming into the abyss. Primal and raw.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Vomit, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Death, Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, and Child abuse
Minor: Child death, Bullying, and Alcohol
soulsow's review against another edition
5.0
its so good i really absolutely loved how it was beautifully mixed with trans anger in every part of the book, im usually not a fan of religious trauma w christianity but i loved how it was written as the horror part. also theres body horror which was excellent
beebalm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, and Transphobia
livinglifeliterary's review against another edition
5.0
this is a wild, horrifying queer dystopian and I read it in one sitting. incredible.