Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

38 reviews

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death of parent, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Outing, Physical abuse, Child death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Misogyny, Grief, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Bullying, Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Sexism

Minor: Racism, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.25

I’m not much of a horror reader so this was VERY gory for me but the gore was done in a way that painted a realistic picture. I did not question anything about the characters or setting, I was there with them. Awesome LGBTQ+ rep and disability rep. Love the exploration of religious trauma. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Dysphoria, Genocide, Deadnaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Colonisation, Cursing, Confinement, War, Murder, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual content, Sexism, and Alcohol

woweewhoa's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Child abuse, and Vomit

Moderate: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Deadnaming, Medical trauma, War, Racism, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol

emjams's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, and Child death

Moderate: Xenophobia, Self harm, Mental illness, Medical content, Abandonment, War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Outing, Domestic abuse, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Animal death, and Alcohol

This book has basically every imaginable TW on it EXCEPT for sexual assault, but even that is briefly touched on. Benji has trauma from assault, but only from physical/emotional abuse, not SA.

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

2.0

Love the themes and imagery (as someone who enjoys gore, body horror, and religious symbolism a totally normal amount), but the characters and world just don't feel well fleshed-out enough and the writing is a bit too repetitive and heavy-handed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Body horror, Transphobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Vomit, Gun violence, Death, Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Grief, and Dysphoria

Minor: Sexual content, Ableism, Racism, and Alcohol

lreeve's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, Death, Deadnaming, Violence, Gore, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Cursing and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Sexual content

darkefyres's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Dysphoria, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Violence, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Misogyny, Transphobia, Alcohol, and Grief

dylpicklez's review against another edition

dark inspiring 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? No

5.0

I read this book insanely quickly. I don't think I've ever read a book this size so fast. It is so BEAUTIFULLY written and I'm so glad I was recommended this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Cursing, and Body horror

Moderate: Child death and Genocide

Minor: Grief and Alcohol

The author quite literally has a huge content warning on one of the first pages of this book, and for good reason. Definitely DO NOT read if any of the tags trigger you or make you uncomfortable.

jakegreyxx's review against another edition

4.0

(While most content warnings are listed, I want to add one for dental trauma. This is one scene across a few pages, as well as several further mentions of that scene)
I found this book confusing to begin with, as the main character refers to a religious cult that calls themselves Angels, but at this point, we have no mention of who or what they are. I was struggling to understand if this was referring to actual angels or a group of people.
The book follows Benji, who has managed to escape from a religious group that, in an attempt to cleanse the world (genocide, essentially) created and unleashed an apocalyptic virus that turns people into monsters. He stumbles into a group of teens from an LGBTQ+ youth centre who take him in as one of their own, not knowing that he’s been forcibly injected with a different strain of the virus and doesn’t have much time left.

It’s basically a YA horror about religious trauma, and it seems to use these virus-spawned monsters as a way to symbolise being queer.
For the most part, it was pretty cool.

There are a lot of character introductions bunched close together, which means a lot of descriptions and pronouns and all of that to remember all at once, which gets kind of confusing. Especially when some of those characters are mentioned and don’t come up again for another 50 pages, so we don’t see enough to remember. As opposed to breaking it up, introducing them when they’re relevant, and making it easier to know who is who. It feels like there was this need to just dump out who everyone was all at once, even though only a few of them mattered at the time.

This book has big patches where it somehow manages to make it feel like there’s no plot, while also having a very distinct plot.
My main issue with this book is a lot harder to explain. There were moments in which Benji kind of zoned out and saw things in a different scene, things that were not happening where he was, but also appeared to be at a different point in time. These were brushed off as visions and not really addressed. But in one particular scene, it’s playing out in this fantasy land, while also playing out in real life. When it’s following Benji’s P.O.V., we have this very different version of events, but when we snap back to Nick’s P.O.V. we can see what’s happening with the monsters and the rot and all of that. The way this is written is confusing and didn’t feel as though it was done well. It felt like a shortcut to avoid writing in the P.O.V. of monsters, and it didn’t fit with what was happening around it. It was also never explained, and may as well never have happened.
Aside from that, I did enjoy reading the book. It certainly had interesting ideas and themes that aren’t often presented in traditionally published work, but I’m not sure I’d be inspired to read more work by the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcohol

msradiosilence's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Racism, Religious bigotry, Blood, Cursing, Deadnaming, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Child abuse, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Vomit, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Confinement, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Sexual content