Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Hell Followed with Us

I absolutely LOVED this book!! Finding a story about a trans masculine main character that isn't tokenized, or made into a story about girlhood and femininity, and instead has him be not only so solidly sent in his identity but for the story to actually CELEBRATE his masculinity. As a transmasculine person myself it was so truly refreshing and gave me something I didn't know I needed.

I found all the characters to be incredibly lovable and fun to read about. I loved their dynamics with each other. Nick was easily my favorite. The few chapters we got from his perspective were all such a treat and added such a fun layer. I loved loved loved how his autism was written. AJW , the author is trans and autistic himself, and you can see that in how he writes these characters. Nick's autism felt so real and authentic without any of the weird stiltedness that can often come from non autistic authors trying to create autistic characters. I found him to be such a compelling and interesting character, how we got to see him do everything he could to avoid growing closer to Benji and still doing so regardless. How we got to see his outside persona, his masking, from Benji's perspective, and then got to see the rawness underneath in his chapters.

I also found Benji to be such a compelling main character. His motivation of "Be good" was done so well. We see him trying to honor his father with this, and trying to balance that with his personal desire for revenge and how he uses "be good" as reasoning for his actions even when it maybe doesn't exactly work. He was so desperate to be anything but what the church wanted him to be, and we see how that intense desire to distance himself from the church and their expectations of him affects him and leads him to decisions both good and bad.

I did find it a little distracting how Benji seemed to constantly switch between being very unaware of queer culture and shocked by diversity -on account of growing up in a literal evangelical cult- and then suddenly seeming quite well read on modern activist takes on race, class, and queerness. I wish we had gotten a little more of how growing up in the cult affected Benji socially and culturally. I wish we got to see him actively learn more about the actual world and learned more about these things from his peers rather than just coming in already with this oddly out of place activist knowledge.

I think the reason this doesn't have a 5 star from me is the ending. The ending is good, it's a nice ending, but I think my main problem with it is that it's a little too nice. The whole book is filled with tradgedy and hardship and death and struggles, and I feel like the ending comes together a little too nicely and happily in tone compared to the rest of the book. Like, i'm GLAD that the characters got a happy ending I was so rooting for them to be happy, but I feel it would have been a little more satisfying with a slightly darker tone to the ending. The ending is also rather open, leaving a lot of room for the reader to imagine where they go from there, but I felt like the ending was a little too open for me personally.

Overall though, this was, despite it's rather heavy story and themes, was such a comforting book to read. It was so unapologetically, loudly queer. It's defiant and hopeful despite the bleak circumstances. In the end it's about community and found family and acceptance and embracing your differences, down to your more "monstrous" and ugly ones. It's about breaking cycles of trauma and trying to be better, despite, despite, despite. It's resilient and beautiful and authentic and messily and angrily queer.

I can absolutely see myself revisiting this and I am absolutely planning reading White's other books too.

Content Warnings

1234_rowan_1234's review against another edition

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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

5.0

Content Warnings

eliof's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

ewinnk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

Content Warnings

helixlhart's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

Content Warnings

hippievamp's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

c_hamdete's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

4.25

This book took me back when I was fourteen years old, and I was so angry. In a way, I think I faced my teen self. I, like Benji, realised that my existence is outside of the binary of this cis heteronormative society. Like him, I hurt people I loved because I trusted the wrong ones. Like him, I thought I'd found love just for it to turn the other way around. Like him, I wanted to make people proud and to love me, even if it meant to hide my true self. Like him, I felt like a time bomb. Like him, I was so hurt and angry, I still am sometimes. But like him, I learnt to stand up for myself, to be proud of who I am, and to fight for what I think it's right.

I would've liked to read more chapters from Nick's point of view. I would've liked to know more about the ALC members. I would've liked to know more about Benji's life before The Judgment Day, specially about his dad. And I think it would've been great if there were chapters from New Natzareth's people point of view, like Sister Kipling or Benji's mom.
I expected to find an epilogue at the end of the book, just to know what happened with The Vanguard, with the ALC and other Angels. But overall, I really liked this book. The characters are very well constructed, each feel unique, flawed and beautiful. Most importantly they feel like kids, kids trying to be grown-ups, but kids nonetheless. Which I think is difficult to achieve, most of the time, when authors try to write teenagers they often seem annoying, immature, cringey and childish (at least some of the ones I've read). So, incredibly well-done! I'm looking forward to read more of Andrew White!

Content Warnings

aaabeegui's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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