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persephonefoxx's review against another edition
- 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.
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
empearl1's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Dysphoria, War, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Gun violence, and Death
_viv_'s review against another edition
- 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
4.75
By going into this book being surrounded by religious grandparents and their homophobic and transphobic rhetoric I latched onto this book with vigor. The shame the main character, Benji, felt hit close to home. I found myself aching with understanding.
I loved the prose and actually enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of the chapters. I believe it set the scene well and drew readers into the story along with the characters. Being raised religious made it feel as though I was in on an inside joke. While many of the quotations were fictional or modified by the main antagonist group The Angels, they honestly felt as though they were something my grandmother would say to me like it was factual.
While this is a five star read for me, there were a few things that could be improved.
Namely, the side characters. None of them, other than the love interest, are memorable. I found myself mixing them up throughout the book and by the end I'd realized it was because I had not attachment to any of them. They felt more like a grocery list of representation through different gender identities, ethnicities, and sexualities.
It also meant Benji only had real relationships from his abusers, people in the cult, and Nick (his love interest). I would've loved to see Benji form more platonic relationships with the other characters. This was honestly such a small issue to fix. If the author had stuck to only a few side characters we would've had more page time to focus on them. We would've had time to form attachments to them, their goals, their hobbies, their love lives, etc... (plus it would've left more time to explore the identities, cultural aspects, etc... they were representing)
I am not autistic and as such I do not feel comfortable speaking about the autism representation through the love interest Nick. I will say that I wish Nick's POV was included more throughout the book. We see him sparsely and at seemingly random intervals. His POV is in third person rather than Benji's, which is in first.
Next up we have world building. While the Angels and the town near them are described in great detail, along with the history of the Angels, the rest of the world just...isn't. Now this partially makes sense considering Benji was raised in a cult that likely restricted that kind of information from him and other members. I think a lot of the lack of overall world building can be attested to this fact. Which is another reason I think more of Nick's POV was necessary as it could flesh out the world where Benji was blind to it.
Lastly, the body horror element. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the genre, the setting, the horror. It was well balanced horror between being beautifully intriguing and grotesque. It reminded me of a car crash in that way. This goes back to the prose, but I just had to mention the fact. Even the horror elements have a certain kind of beauty to them that just wraps around you.
This is the kind of book that sticks with you. The anger in every page is potent and perfect if you're an angry, queer teen. Or just anyone really. But especially if you are angry. It is asking you to be angry with it, to let that feeling sit with you for a moment. To revel in anger rather than try to push it down and away. It illustrated perfectly what I think the first step of healing is: rage. At who/what hurt you, at those who didn't fix it, at yourself for staying in a system of abuse that hurt you for so long. It showed that sometimes there isn't niceness and harmony in healing but instead the gritty underbelly that comes first.
TWs for Hell Followed With Us:
Graphic: War, Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Transphobia, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Hate crime, Medical content, Genocide, Body horror, and Child death
Moderate: Vomit and Blood
fozlandgirl's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Classism, Vomit, Genocide, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt
cardanrry's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Deadnaming, Genocide, and Transphobia
zoegg's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
truly, my one hang up with this book are the side characters. i feel like it is really difficult to have a super diverse cast without it feeling like it’s erring on the side of tokenism, and unfortunately, the characters in this book feel like they lean more in that direction. :/ there are so many side characters that are introduced & with the pacing of the story, don’t really get much complexity or depth to them other than their race/sexuality/gender identity which!!! are important characteristics to know! but can make them feel one-dimensional when that’s ALL that is known.
nonetheless, i feel like this book is so relevant to what is happening in our world now, and i would highly recommend to anyone looking for a queer horror story. :-)
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Genocide, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, and Deadnaming
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
kibberbl's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gore, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Genocide, Body horror, War, Transphobia, Death, Death of parent, and Mass/school shootings
rowanguerrin's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Genocide, Deadnaming, Gun violence, and Medical content
Minor: Sexual assault
inthemoonlight's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: War, Genocide, Vomit, Death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, and Transphobia
Moderate: Deadnaming, Child death, and Dysphoria
praisethee's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Hate crime, Murder, Outing, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Genocide, Gun violence, Death, Blood, Abandonment, Body horror, Torture, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, and War