Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

507 reviews

ed_moore's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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 is the quiet of the dead, the kind of quiet coloured by the creaking of rope and the rush of water and wind, all the things that aren’t the quiet that makes the quiet so loud it hurts”

The setting of Andrew Joseph White’s ‘Hell Followed With Us’ is simply incredible. The story follows a trans boy, Benji, who has been turned by a far right Christian extremist group who brought upon ‘the flood’ on judgement day and committed the genocide of nine billion ‘heretics’ into a monster called the Seraph that’ll bring them religious salvation. The dystopian backdrop to the story was so captivating and the world White creates around his band of rebel queer teenagers who try to exist in this reality against the force of The Angels is so harrowing yet fantastically crafted. It is however very unsettling and White does not hold back with the gore and body horror. Be warned this book is full of mutilation, disease, creatures that are made up from decaying corpses and general violence, but it does add to the horrifying religious apocalypse that White creates. 

The story is primarily told through the perspective of Benji as he battles with being accepted as a boy and the monster that is growing inside him, however there are occasional other perspectives that didn’t feel overly necessary. I would have been happy with a consistent story from Benji’s perspective. It also often shows only the aftermaths of violence and battles rather than the events themselves which I felt was a small loss. The story however was captivating and the dystopian worldbuilding some of the best I have ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Gore, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

leftovergarlicbread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

1234_rowan_1234'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Ableism, Genocide, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Classism

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

hippievamp's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism

c_hamdete's review against another edition

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! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

aaabeegui's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

doctorw0rm's review against another edition

4.25

this was a tough read, especially towards the end, not because it’s not good but because the descriptions of dysphoria and the transphobia Benji faces were so authentic and relatable. i’ve never been in any situation nearly as awful as what Benji goes through in this book, but I think all trans people have been through some version of many of the events, like learning that someone important to you is misgendering you or doesn’t view you the way they said they did, or just realizing how bullshit the rules of the society you’re accustomed to are. 
I wasn’t a fan of Nick.

I never forgave him for using the wrong pronouns for Benji. Every autistic person I’ve ever met has respected trans people’s pronouns, so his black and white thinking being the reason he called Benji “it” just doesn’t work for me. Yes, it technically was not for transphobic reasons, it was because he didn’t view Benji as a real person. But if that isn’t a metaphor for how trans people are so often dehumanized which leads to people intentionally misgendering us to be cruel, then what was it? That had to be what White was going for, right? And while I know people can change and learn from their mistakes, I think Benji forgave Nick WAYYY too easily, and should not have apologized for comparing Nick to his mother. If I found out that a cute cis guy friend I liked was intentionally misgendering me behind my back, I would tear his throat out with my teeth, not continue to consider him as a romantic interest. I also just didn’t really buy their chemistry. Nothing about their relationship stood out as particularly profound or romantic to me.

I wish Benji had gotten to hang out with the other transmascs more,

just because Calvin was terrible doesn’t mean the rest of them are.

Literally the best part of being transmasc is hanging out with other transmascs.  
That’s really my only gripe with the book though.

Seeing Theo through Benji’s eyes go from a flawed romantic partner to a monster was great! Benji’s turmoil at having to pretend to continue to like him while he’s at New Nazareth was great! Really all of New Nazareth was great.

The book really shines in its descriptions of body horror,

and Benji describing the monster he had been turned into by the church was fascinating and horrifying. I definitely preferred the latter half of the book because of this, since most of the relationships Benji built at the youth shelter seemed pretty surface-level and not all that interesting, except for maybe Cormac since he started out an asshole and then they warmed up to each other.

I can’t wait to see what Andrew Joseph White will do with his Adult book, when he isn’t restrained by the barriers of the YA genre! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Murder, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual content

fuqing_god's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

yashaflwrs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria