Hell Followed with Us
2022 • 416 pages
Ratings27
Average rating4
15
Ratings27
Average rating4
A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation. "A defining voice of our generation." –H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King "Hands down the best YA horror book I've read." –Aden Polydoros, author of The City Beautiful "A chimera of horror, romance, and something stranger." –Rose Szabo, author of What Big Teeth "A timely and riveting tale." –Ray Stoeve, author of Between Perfect and Real 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I wanted to love this book so bad. But I really didn't. I mean it was fine in the beginning, although I usually prefer topics of queerness to be discussed without modern language. This might be a personal flaw though. I really like the ALC members and their group dynamic.
However, it was a little too gory for my taste. I wouldn't even say this was horror really. It was just gross but nothing about it was scary. Especially in the end when the final showdown basically became Godzilla vs kong style. Only now it was Seraph and Dominion. It was very underwhelming. Plus how Benji moves and what he looks like is generally badly described. He is meant to be this monster now with a massive body but his friends can still casually put their arms around his neck? Fucking how.
I was disappointed in the execution and ending and the gross descriptions aren't my kind of horror. I honestly wouldn't even describe this as dark.
Got me hooked till the end. The writing is both magnificent and haunting. Didn't love the secondary characters
I really enjoyed the body horror in this book, more so than the revenge ark even though that was satisfying too (who doesn't like seeing christo-fascists getting their comeuppance?). I suspect this book would speak to my fellow fans of the zombie genre. The descriptions of the Graces were magnificent.
It was lovely to see neopronouns being used rather casually.
I wish this book existed when I was younger.
Abandoned at 35%.
Queer, trans teen boy, Benji, lives in a post-apocalyptic world. I am just not the intended audience for this. I am glad the representation exists and that trans/queer stories are being told, however, I didn't care enough about the world in which Benji resides to even care if he saved the world or not (assuming that's what was supposed to happen). The book is filled with rage at the world, which I understand being filled with rage, but (perhaps a privileged opinion) I am past this rage in my own life. I am glad this book exists for the representation, but I feel like it is a book where the author threw together representation and rage and covered in with a thinly woven story plot.
I'm glad others got things out of it, but I did not.
