ARC Review: Hell Followed With Us

Title: Hell Followed With Us
Author: Andrew Joseph White
Publication date: June 7th 2022
Age-range/genre: Young Adult / Horror, Sci-fi, Apocalyptic
Trigger warnings: body horror, gore, murder, genocide, cults, transphobia, hate crimes, religious-based extremism, pandemics, referenced death of a parent.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Summary: [from goodreads]

Prepare to die. His kingdom is near.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.

Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

recommended for: fans of post-apocalyptic novels, powerful queer stories, found family and stories about finding identity

Hell Followed With Us is a beautifully written novel that explores themes of autonomy and identity in a post-apocalyptic setting. It’s atmospheric writing and wonderful characters make it a surprisingly wholesome and touching horror novel.

thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

contents:

★ initial thoughts ★
☆ writing & pacing ☆
themes of autonomy
characters & found family
ending thoughts

• initial thoughts •

A basic summary: Hell Followed With Us is set in the apocalypse, following a pandemic orchestrated by a cult which decimated most of the world’s population. Benji, raised by the cult, is desperate to get away from them – especially after they have experimented on him and made him into a bioweapon.

Before reading the summary, it was the cover of this novel that quickly caught my eye. I’m fascinated with ancient depictions of angels, of them being frightening and with thousands of eyes, so I was immediately taken with the cover and curious about the part they’d play in this novel.

My high expectations of horror were definitely met – the monsters, called Graces, were described to be horrifying, and that certainly came across on the page. It was them and their masters, the cultists, that altogether posed as an ominous threat to our protagonists. I was so fearful for their safety, and so drawn into the story, that it made for such an enjoyable read.

This is what my power looks like. This is why the Angels made me a monster.

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• writing & pacing •

I don’t think I can speak enough about how well written the horror aspects of this novel were. The gore and terror was incredibly visceral and well-written. It was so vivid and easy to imagine, and I could easily picture it like a horror movie, especially with how good the pacing was.

The way the Graces were described… all the other characters were right to be scared of them, and it made Benji’s ability (being able to command the Graces) even more terrifying and valuable.

However, I have to say that the thing that scared me the most and made me worry for Benji’s safety was the cult he had escaped from. They were the ones who had engineered Armageddon, who had wrought chaos onto the world, and I was on the edge of my seat while reading and hoping that Benji would be free from their clutches.

Being transgender is who you are, and the pain is what the outside does to you.

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• autonomy •

Autonomy is one of the major themes in this novel. Benji was a victim of experimentation at the hands of the cult, and the victim of violent acts of transphobia at their hands. The cultists had claimed ownership over Benji and his body, making him part of their experiment, making him into their weapon and prophet rather than a person.

Being trans and having to deal with gender dysphoria and the judgement of prejudiced people is difficult enough, but to make matters worse for Benji he lacks autonomy over his body because of what the cult had done to him. It was heart-breaking and poignant to read, and touched on issues on how the bodily autonomy of trans youths is never regarded.

I am alive, these are my friends, this is my family.

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• characters & found family •

Majority of the chapters were from Benji’s perspective, and I quickly fell in love with his character. He was so sweet and loyal, but also had so much tenacity, and I was rooting for him the entire way.

There were also a lot of side-characters, and it took me a while to be able to differentiate between them. I enjoyed the variety of characters and their little found family they made. These kids had survived for this long through hard work and team effort – and it made me so emotional to see them work together through these hardships. All they had was each other, and many of them helped Benji feel welcome when he joined the ranks. It was a strong contrast to how Benji’s mother had treated him, and just a reminder on how family is what you make it.

I will not be theirs, and there is nothing they can do about it.

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Altogether, Hell Followed With Us was a wonderful novel exploring identity through a lens of horror. The action and violence was very well-written, and it was so fast-paced and fun to read. The novel was not without it’s wholesome parts, especially with the side characters, making it even more enjoyable. It’s a brilliant novel I would highly recommend.

Thank you for reading!

links for Hell Followed With Us:

goodreads

storygraph

bookdepository

Andrew Joseph White’s website