Warning: lots of gore in this book.

A dystopian book with a trans main character and lots of LGBTQ+ representation!! This is a great book that follows Benji, a trans sixteen year old who has spent years in a “fascist Evangelical terrorist cult” and tries escaping with his father. Unfortunately, they are caught and Benji’s father is murdered and Benji is kidnapped by the Angels. A group of LGBTQ+ teens rescues Benji and kills the Angels holding him captive.

The cult has killed 9 billion people by infecting the with the Flood on Judgement Day, and they created Seraph, their weapon for cleansing the world via genocide in God’s name. They have forced Benji to become Seraph, and throughout the book you can see the toll that the transformation takes on Benji’s body. The world that has been created is horrific and terrifying, and it’s up to Benji and his new friends to bring an end to the horror.

Thanks to Netgalley and Peachtree for the ARC of this!

I’m a big old wimp, but cults + apocalypse + queer AF? I had to try. There was a lot of body horror, which I can tolerate pretty well, but there was teeth related scenes that I was like covering my eyes for while trying to keep reading. The cult-y and queer aspects were excellent, and the horror appropriately frightening and gross. This would be perfect for fans of Agnes at the End of the World and Out of Salem.

“God is an absent parent who demands loyalty despite never coming around, and I just have to keep throwing my prayers into nothing and trust He gets them.”

I haven’t read a religious horror in years since reading The exorcist but this book does nothing if not remind me that I really need to read more! I absolutely adored this book. I thought it was disgusting and grotesque in its body horror and religious extremism and filled my heart with joy every step of Benjis identity affirmation and found family. This book constant kept me on my toes and my heart was in my mouth everytime they met a new Grace or were targeted by the Angels. I was so fascinated by Benjis body horror transformation into the Seraph and the different variations of what the flood did to people was wonderfully perverse.
I loved the authors style of writing and I will be making an effort to read more by them.

A unique, dark, gripping and deeply moving YA horror-fantasy book. It not only creeped me out but also made me sob. A Must Read for The Pride Month.

"Hell Followed With Us" is a genre bending novel and one of the best in that category if you're wondering. It's got the perfect blend of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and emotions. It is a story about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Andrew Joseph White is a talented author. It really did not feel like a debut novel. From the very first page, I was hooked and couldn't put the book down. Loved the writing style specially...

"Hell Followed With Us" has the most wondrous variety of representation. It features a cast of characters with a wide range of pronouns, coming from different cultures and states and following different religion and belief. This book defies gender norms and acknowledges that all transgender poeple are infact not the same. One of our protagonists has autism. One of our main characters and some of the side characters go through loss and trauma. In a sentence, it is really really informative and eye opening. The author himself mentioned that this book is a product of anger. And I can totally see that. Hell Followed With Us is written in such a unfiltered way, followed by an ocean of raw emotions - it's stunning.

This book might be YA but definitely didn't feel as one. It is way too dark. Blood and gore is everywhere. Please don't forget to check the list of trigger warnings before starting to read it. I personally love horror. So I thought I would be 'okay'. Guess what, I wasn't. I really don't like body horror. And this book have those elements in a overwhelming amount. It was a lot to take for me. Again, Hell Followed With Us is a relatively short book. But the author puts too many stuffs inside it. Lots of important parts aren't emphasized enough as a result. The world he takes us to isn't well developed. I'm still very very confused. These are the reasons I'm restraining myself from smashing the 5 stars button. However there's no way to deny that this novel is a absolute masterpiece. I have read (or heard) anything like it before. "Hell Followed With Us" is chaotic, but in a wonderful way. It's got everything I look for in a Queer book.

This book was a marvellous journey. A unique, unusual and vigorous tale. "Hell Followed With Us" is obviously going to be added to the list of my favourite horror books. It will be realesed on the 7th of June. Make sure to pick it up. I promise, you won't be disappointed. Enjoy!

Interesting premise to a book, an intriguing cast of characters and interesting world building. Overall, a solid YA read, stood out with its angels, demons, and apocalyptic end of days.

No one is ready for how this book is going to take the world by storm. it is everything teens reading right now want but also it's going to be everything so many queer teens need.

I picked this book up because it was exactly the kind of read I was looking for at the time—YA horror that promised to be full of queer rage—and it more than delivered. I’ve been wanting to get into horror lately, and I figured YA would be a good way to ease myself into the genre. It seemed to have a slightly younger audience in mind than I expected, but I was so impressed with the story that I didn’t mind being a little too old for parts of it.

The first thing that caught my attention was the horror (obviously). This story is deeply visceral, from the obvious parts like decaying organs and gunshot wounds to the more subtle, personal feelings like grief, isolation, and betrayal. The religious backdrop of the story is so incredibly fitting—there’s nothing that can make a queer kid feel more raw, bloody, and monstrous than a religion that’s determined to eradicate you in one way or another.

Speaking of queer kids, I want to take a moment to celebrate the diverse queerness in this book. There is a wide range of identities represented in the story, and all of them are treated with the respect and validity they deserve. The story doesn’t wholesome-wash the kids, though—it’s honest about how messy things can get when you put a bunch of teenagers with different ideas about what “queer” means into the same room and force them to work together to survive. It’s not a condemnation or mockery of them, though; these kids are angry and hurt, and they’re seeking control in the only way available to them.

I especially appreciate the way Theo’s queerness is handled. Though he’s more of a villain in the story, it also acknowledges the ways in which he’s a victim of the same system that hurt Benji (albeit in different ways). He was ultimately corrupted by his internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity rather than being able to escape, but Benji reflects on this as a tragedy that could have been avoided if they’d both just been given the space to grow and love each other.

The only issue I have with this book is the multiple perspectives. Considering that the majority of the book is written from Benji’s point of view, the inclusion of three or four additional chapters in Nick and Theo’s perspectives feels incongruous with the rest of the story. It introduces a little dramatic irony in that the reader is aware of things that Benji isn’t yet, but I feel it actually takes away from the story by eliminating the stakes.

The reader knows before Benji does that Nick refers to him as “Seraph” and uses it/its pronouns in direct defiance of Benji’s identity as a trans man, and there’s no real sense of mystery or betrayal when Benji finally confronts him about the rumors. We see Benji’s monstrous form from Nick’s perspective before Benji gets to describe how it feels to have transformed. We see Theo praying for Benji’s safety and get the impression that the Angels have something planned before Benji catches on and realizes the gravity of the situation.

In most cases, we just end up feeling sorry for Benji when he finally catches up to things that we’ve known about for at least a chapter already. In a story that’s supposed to be about queer rage, it’s a shame we’re not allowed to feel it alongside the protagonist. It also would have made Benji’s empathy more powerful when he ultimately forgives the people who insist on hurting him.

Overall, this was a good book that suffered only minimally from some clumsy execution on the perspectives. I strongly recommend it and can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

3 stars.
The cover is what caught my eye originally but then I read that this is a queer, ya horror novel and I was sold.

However, this was very hard for me to get into and I’m not sure I ever actually did. I felt like I was plopped into a world I didn’t understand and was expected to adapt and understand.
Often times I couldn’t tell what was being said to others or what was being thought.

The horror aspect of this was phenomenal- the gory descriptions of the landscape were very vivid and the changes happening to Benji were described in amazing detail.

I enjoyed the characters, especially since there is so much amazing rep in this.

Overall, I would suggest giving this book a try and let me know what you think.

I received an earc copy of this from NetGalley.

Wow this book took me on a journey!

Hell Followed With Us is a dark exploration of religious trauma using a post-apocalyptic setting with a horrifically realistic religious cult, body-horror, and gory monsters. It follows a trans boy in a city in which a virus has wiped out the majority of the population and allowed a religious cult to rise which forces its extreme conservative views on its followers and uses fleshy monsters (made of dead bodies) to exert its will on the rest of society and murder non-believers. Our main character, Benji, is host to the Seraph which is able to control the other flesh-monsters and is treated as a deity by the cult. Benji escapes from the cult and finds himself taken in by a resistance group of queer teens that are hiding out in an abandoned LQBTQ+ center.

This book is able to tackle a lot of really complex queer and trans issues in a intense, fast-based narrative. It was extremely visual and reminded me strongly of the video game The Last of Us. Seeing positive queer representation in the horror genre was really nice and I enjoyed the creepy and unsettling atmosphere of it all. The writing style and world-building was incredible. All of the characters and relationships felt very real and deep. In addition to the queer representation, there is also mental health and autism representation, which you often don’t see in the horror/post-apocalypse genres.

Overall, this book was fast-paced and hard-hitting, it is a new fav of mine for sure. Shout out to that gorgeous cover too!! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure how to review this one. I don't know how to properly put my thoughts into words that will justly convey what this book is.

This is creepy and dark and pretty grotesque (makes sense because it is a horror novel), parts of it made me viscerally uncomfortable but all of that contributed to how good this book is and make it what it is. This is a twisty, gory story following Benji; a trans teenager who was raised in an extreme religious cult who ended the world as he escapes said cult and falls in with a group of LGBT teens. Every one of the primary characters in this is complicated and multi-faceted and some of the most beautiful lines and moments come from some of the worst characters. The cast of characters is hugely diverse and we get a lot of different rep which is always great.

I was a little bit iffy at the autism rep at the beginning of this but as the novel progressed and characters were developed it made sense and was realistic and held true. It's also great at weaving in how people who are broadly the same i.e. trans can have wildly different perspectives and ways of presenting and still be just as valid which is great to see.

The writing is brutal and forthright and wholly encompasses the brutality of this world and narrative. It doesn't mince around things or try and be flowery. This is a horror story about horrific situations and the writing style reflects and mirrors that. A lot of the narrative, particularly the religious narrative hit a little to close to home, which again made me a little uncomfortable and pushed me out of my comfort zone, but not in a bad way.

I loved Benji as an MC. He was steadfast and earnest and wholly made me root for him through the entirety of the novel. The amount of frustration I felt on his behalf was insane.

My only complaints are that personally there was a little too much in the way of body horror (again just a personal issue), and I didn't always vibe with where things were going. I also didn't love the ending, although I do thing it ended in the most logical place.

Overall this is great and SUCH an important book. It's angry and fierce and blunt and completely unapologetic for the statement it makes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

it's very dark book, it pushed me to the limit of my comfort zone but kept me hooked as it very well written.
Great characters, good plot and world building.
The cover is gorgeous.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In awe of how trans anger was blended with horror and religion. Also the author nailed the dystopian vibes, I loved the setting and the imaginative descriptions!

Content warning: Body horror, gore, skin diseases, gun violence, deadnaming, plague, religious abuse, suicidal ideation, dead parents, homophobia

The area of Appalachia where Hell Followed With Us takes place has been ravaged by a virus unleashed by an eco-fascist Christian cult that wants to usher in the end days to meet their God. They do this by an infection called the Flood and the creation of literal monster called Graces, the most powerful of which is Seraph. It’s host is Benji, who’s on the run from the cult because he’s trans and has had enough. He finds sanctuary with a small resistance group, but it wont’ belong long until the cult finds him and take back the monster he stole.

It’s gory, it’s fun, it twists and surprises, and features a cast of queer teens at its center whose thorny found family relationship lends itself to a post-apocalyptic landscape.

This book is fun if works with gratuitous body horror are your thing as they are mine. White’s attention to every gross detail really adds to the mood and atmosphere. I’m not sure any detail had been presented in the same way, and there are some bits that made me literally wince. It works to highlight how much pain the cult has caused. Both Benji’s transformation is sick and uncomfortable as f*ck, mimicking unsettling mental transformations that endure when someone loses themselves to a doomsday cult. But it’s not at all bleak. There is a sense that White channeled a bunch of visuals from horror games, and it really works.

The plot is also fast-paced with lots of room for the characters to breathe. I really enjoyed how Benji finds acceptance of his true self with the group. He gets to have a bit of a relationship with everyone there, even at cursory introductions. It’s neat that Nick got his own perspective in a few places that round out the tensions and the stakes. But the story still very much belongs to Benji and how he’s fighting to be his trans self while trying not to lose himself to a monster he didn’t ask for.

I think Theo could have used some development in the beginning, especially considering that he acts a bit of a conduit for the cult. In fact, the entire last quarter of the book had much stronger development of the cult’s stances on things like gender roles and religious fervor than the first three quarters of the book. To me, it seemed a little too easy for Benji to both want to be around Theo and Theo’s strained acceptance of Benji’s transness. It doesn’t feel with held, just underdeveloped.

That being said, showing the two facets through both Nick and Theo worked really well for me. On one side, there’s the resistance in Nick and the other teens at the ALC. It’s a blown-out bunker that used to be an LGBTQ+ resource center. Tensions run high as food is running out and now they have a new kid with a secret that they have to take care of. But Benji still thinks back to Theo, even though he represents so much of what literally destroyed the world. That arc had some sick surprises, which adds to the horror outside of the aesthetics and both violent and biological warfare.

Overall, Benji’s tale is a gory, nasty ride whose plot nods to games like Resident Evil and The Last of Us, with a trans protagonist fighting to transcend his past and the monster literally living inside him. It ends well enough for him, but wow, at what cost.

Content Warning: gore, violence, death, transphobia, body horror, forced detransition, self-injury, etc.

I truly liked this book and how different it is from the books I normally read. It wasn't really the gore that had pushed me to rate this 3 stars. It just took me so long to get through this one and I found it hard trying to picture the world-building. And there were some parts of the book that felt missing. However, the diversity of all the characters? Amazing. Hell yeah.

Hell Followed With Us wasn't really my cup of tea due but I will have to reread this again in the future. And I have to say that this might engage a specific audience who will surely love this book as it's a queer young adult post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction.

This was very, very dark. I frequently had to stop reading and it’s a miracle I even got through it. This book was definitely not for me.

Loved this! An angry, raw book that somehow provided a cathartic reading experience. I’ve been talking about it nonstop since I finished reading it.

3,5
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for free to review. I liked this book, but it took me forever to get through. I admit, not a huge fan of the religious themes going on all the time for what I feel is no end but I enjoyed the pandemic aspect. Also would have liked to see a little more of the relationship between the main characters.

This was very unique. I loved the perspective and the commentary on religion. I loved seeing LGBT inclusion. The dark and gory and creepy atmosphere was neat.

I never really connected to the side characters. I appreciated the community and the friendships, but didn’t attach to the characters themselves.

I liked Benji’s story. I didn’t care for his relationships much - but he was an interesting character.

This felt like a video game world. It was cool! I think this would be better suited for someone a bit younger than me.

3.5 rounded up because I did really like the description and creepy feel.

I loved this book so much. The themes, the writing style, the world building— it was stunning. I’ve always wanted trans rep in more than just contemporary romance YA and this achieved to create another shelf of possibility for queer representation within the literary market. I will be writing a longer review in a while until I can compile words to describe how I feel, cuz wow!

CWs: explorations of parental death and grief; instances of graphic death, body horror, and violence; descriptions of vomit; in-depth explorations of religious extremism, religious trauma, and some abuse; discussions of genocide; instances of homophobia, transphobia, misgendering, and deadnaming; and some fade-to-black sexual content

In many ways, I was pre-destined to love this book. I wanted to read it from the second I first heard about it from H.E. Edgmon during our interview together, and I added it to my TBR in that same instant. In that regard, I think this book is definitely perfect for fans of The Witch King who are looking for even more stories that honor the sacredness of trans anger, center messy trans characters who make imperfect decisions, and make heroes of monsters.

Hell Followed With Us is the absolutely brutal, violent, horrific story of my dreams. It's a horror story, but it brought me so much comfort, which seems like a strange thing to say. But this story was just an instant shot of catharsis *directly* into my veins. This iteration of the world that Andrew Joseph White has created is merciless and viscous in every imaginable way, and the centering of this young trans boy and his queer found family as they’re fighting to survive with everything they have is incredibly powerful to witness.

This story hits the ground running and does not let up for a single second. There is not one moment in this book where Benji is not in immediate danger, and that constant feeling of unease and fear is such a powerful insight into what many trans people experience on a regular basis. Even the fact that Benji is the hero of this story makes a lot of sense when you think about it. The sad reality is that he has never once known a world *without* danger. He has *always* been fighting to exist, he has *always* been surviving people and circumstances that are fundamentally unsafe. When you understand that overlap between the "before" and "after" of his world, it becomes painfully obvious that there couldn't possibly be a character better-equipped to navigate this post-apocalyptic environment.

There’s also a really fascinating parallel between the concept of medically transitioning and Benji slowly metamorphosing into a monster as the result of human experimentation. With both of those situations, there’s a lot of unknowns. When you take hormones, for example, there’s really no knowing what exactly is going on in your body at all times, and there’s no way of being able to predict the outcome because it’s highly specific based on your genetics. That experience definitely translates to the Seraph transformation, because Benji never knows what change is coming next.

Furthermore, there's also a really brilliant connection between the Seraph transformation and the experience of dysphoria, and how both of those things make Benji feel disconnected from his own body in a way that’s very disorienting and renders him powerless. There’s even a parallel to being closeted with the fact that Benji is trying to hide his Seraph, because he’s afraid that his new friends will reject him because of his association with the cult. But as the story goes on, he’s learning that he doesn’t actually *have* to be ashamed or afraid of that monster, that ugliness, that violence that lives within him.

That, to me, is the most powerful part of the story by far—the fact that, in a world where transness and any kind of difference or marginalization is weaponized against those who experience it, it is incredible to see a character who’s been effected by that then turn back around and *become* the weapon itself.

Something I think about a lot is how transphobia and hate gets internalized into messages that we carry with us all the time, whether we know it or not, and how we then take those words, ideas, or thoughts and wield them as weapons against ourselves. As trans people, we have to remember to put down those weapons, and I love that this story even goes a step further and dares to ask: "What if Benji doesn’t just stop at pointing those weapons away from himself, but then uses them to *destroy* the very people who hurt him in the first place?"

What's more, I love that Benji is this incredibly messy, complicated, fully-realized character who makes mistakes and is deeply imperfect, because he is very much a product of this imperfect world. There is no other way he could possibly be. I love how this story shows that survival is possible, even in the most horrific of circumstances. Even if you don't make it through the journey unscathed, even if saving yourself means having to make irreconcilable choices, even if the experience of surviving the world leaves indelible marks on you and fundamentally changes you for the worst, that is still worth the price of admission if it means that you get a chance to live—because as long as you live, there's always a chance for you to change, and change is not a zero sum game.

Hell Followed With Us is just such an unforgettably cathartic journey from powerlessness to agency and strength, from isolation to community, from fearing the world to unabashedly becoming the very thing that people fear, and to say that I loved it doesn't even begin to do it justice. There is so much more to this story than I've even begun to touch on here, and it's definitely not for the faint of heart, but the pay-off is absolutely indescribable. If this story sounds like it's up your alley, I cannot encourage you to read it enough. It will stay with you long after you've turned the final page.