I'm not into gore, horror really isn't my thing, and dystopian stories leave me depressed, BUT this book is incredibly gripping and I couldn't put it down!

Benji is a gay trans teen who was raised in a religious cult that brought about the end of the world. Not only that, but he's been infected with the Seraph virus - a strain of the Flood that will eventually transform him into a creature that will cull the rest of humanity. After escaping and linking up with ALC (Acheson LGBTQ+ Centre), he decides to turn his weaponised body against those who abused and denied him...

The atmosphere in this book is super grim, brutal, and deadly. There is a huge amount of death and body horror, and yet it sometimes gives way to moments of childish jokes and friendship which creates a heartbreaking juxtaposition that lingers with you. I really was hooked, and found myself hoping against all hope that everything would be okay for these teenagers.

There are some things that didn't feel fully developed or had me wondering (like what is the Flood exactly, and how did they make it?), and the ending did feel abrupt and ambiguous. I wish there was just a little more of a resolution, but I guess that makes the situation more realistic.

In the end, I was impressed once again by Andrew Joseph White's worldbuilding, exploration of the self, and unique plot. Hell Followed With Us tackles questions of religion, family, dysmorphia, violence, abusive relationships, and more, and it does so with an honesty that bleeds through each page.

Thank you so much for the ARC. I was really looking forward to this one and had it on my tbr for a while. The concept itself sounded amazing but unfortunately the book fell flat for me. It didn’t grip me and about halfway through I struggled to keep going. The story dragged at times although I did appreciate the multi POV at times to understand the situations fully. perhaps I just wasn’t the right audience.

This book was an absolute page turner for me! I love reading queer stories and seeing parts of myself and my friends, especially in less used genres like YA horror.

I'm not usually a fan of big casts but I loved all the side characters here, and I especially loved seeing real life queer dynamics reflected in the ALC. There were moments that felt very true to life with how little subgroups form and interact in the larger LGBTQ+ community.

Hell has some vivid body horror and I loved how Benji's transformation tied to his treatment in the church: the things you survive might make you a monster, but you are still you.

I'm very new to the horror genre but if I find more books in the vein of Hell Followed With Us, how could I not become a horror fan?

Thank you Daphne Press for the ARC!

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White: A Riveting Dystopian Journey

In "Hell Followed with Us," Andrew Joseph White crafts a harrowing yet captivating tale set in a dystopian future. The novel centers on Benji, a trans teen on the run from a fanatical cult that has unleashed a deadly plague upon the world. The story's backdrop is a world in chaos, filled with monstrous transformations and a society on the brink of collapse.

White's writing is visceral and intense, drawing readers into a world where survival is a constant struggle and trust is a rare commodity. Benji's journey is both physically and emotionally grueling, as he navigates the treacherous landscape while grappling with his own identity and the remnants of his humanity.

The novel excels in its character development, particularly in its portrayal of Benji. His resilience and determination to reclaim his sense of self amidst the turmoil are both inspiring and heartbreaking. The supporting cast, including a group of resistance fighters who become Benji's unlikely allies, adds depth and complexity to the narrative.

White's depiction of a dystopian world is both imaginative and terrifying, with vivid descriptions of the plague's effects and the cult's fanatical zealotry. The novel's pacing is relentless, keeping readers on edge as Benji's fate hangs in the balance.

"Hell Followed with Us" is a thought-provoking exploration of identity, survival, and the human spirit's resilience. Andrew Joseph White has delivered a powerful debut that will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned. It's a must-read for fans of dystopian fiction and anyone seeking a gripping, emotionally charged story.

First, the premise of this book is amazing — a trans boy flees a religious cult and seeks refuge with a group of LGBTQ+ teens in the midst of the apocalypse. And I’m happy to report it lived up to my expectations.

I really appreciate the growing number of YA authors who don’t talk down to their audience. This is queer horror, not watered down for teens. I’d already read The Spirit Bares Its Teeth which is probably even more horrifying than this so I wasn’t overly surprised at this but it was pleasing all the same. In the same way, the book has a cast full of LGBTQ+ characters who feel organic and realistic. I really appreciate getting multiple different trans characters in a book and having neopronouns being used. Hal Schrieve is another YA author who does this really well.

What’s strongest in this book is the rage. This book pulses with anger and trauma. I just read Chuck Tingle’s Camp Damascus which has similar themes of horror-as-religious-homophobic-trauma, but I think this was much more successful in its execution. Yes, it’s all a metaphor, that’s the point. Being a trans teenager is a special kind of horror; I’m glad there are books like this about it.

A Unique premise that had alot of potential. However, the execution was not the best. I felt it lacked structure in parts that made the story feel disjointed and a bit lacklustre. The representation of the characters is amazing and the dynamics between them was interesting. I would recommend this despite not loving it in its entirety myself.

Such a vivid story! Absolutely added to my favourite LGBQTAI+ horror stories well worth the pick up.

Each character has their own fully fleshed personality and no one seems like a tacked on diversity choice, we need so many more stories like these. It truly reaffirms my love for horror and the great representation it gives

If you like horror and queer stories. This book. Body horror, gore, queerness, survival in the face of extremism and found family. And all the queer rage you could ever hope to see. This phenomenal book will make queer folk feel angry and empowered in the best way possible.

This is a dark YA fantasy that’s got an amazing cast. What I most liked was the action scenes, the gore details and eerie atmosphere definitely delivered. The actual concept is really cool with the religious persecution and bioweapons use. The characters are diverse and likeable, we are often in their heads to see their motivations and drivers. I would have liked more character development but given this was YA I feel it was enough, this is more a personal thing. I also loved the hopeful element, fighting against the monsters externally and internally. Overall a fun book that covers some important issues in an entertaining way. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I really enjoyed this story. I loved that it started right off in the thick of things and you figure everything out as you go along. I loved all the religious stuff, the angels, the flood, Seraph, all of it. It was great. Oh, and lots of great body horror which is a favorite of mine. I was creeped out by so many scenes it was great.

There is also a lot of great representation and I did like the discussion of various things (obvious parallels to things happening). Yes, if I think about some of the world-building stuff it is a bit thin, but I also didn't really care as I was enjoying where the story was taking me.

This was not an easy read, but bizarrely not because of the high gore content or because of content listed in trigger warnings. Instead I found my brain sliding over the paragraphs dealing with religious texts, and I’d have to shake myself to re-engage with the story. But apart from that, which was definitely a me problem, this was a brilliant book. The religious elements were terrifying and sadly quite believable in this day and age.
I loved the dark humour, the terror, the gore, the love and just everything else about this book.
A very powerful story.

Hell Followed With Us is a YA novel set in a dystopian future, where the world is run by a religious cult. Benji is a transgender boy trying his best to escape the cult when he runs into a group of queer teens from the ALC (Acheson LGBTQ+ Center) who offer to take him in. But Benji is harboring a deep secret, the monster that he's slowly turning into.

I really enjoyed Hell Followed With Us, it's unusual to find a book with proper representation, and as a queer teen it was really easy to relate to some of the struggles Benji deals with. This book wasn't what I expected it to be but I had a great time reading it nonetheless and it's definitely a book I will be recommending to my friends, I'd love to check out more Andrew Joseph White books in future!

Huge Thanks to Andrew Joseph White, Daphne Press, and NetGalley for this ARC!!

This the third book that I have read by Andrew Joseph White, and I am a big fan as of now.
The other reviews explain the plot summary quite well. This is an allegorical novel with a strong concept at its core. It is a high concept novel that tells the story of Benji and his friends in a post-apocalyptic environment run by a religious cult.
The pacing 5/5.
Characterisation 4/5
Writing style 4/5
Plot 3.5/5
Themes and messages 5/5
Allegories 5/5

A great YA read.

Set in post apocalyptic America, trans boy Benji tries to escape the religious cult that has caused the apocalypse. In the process meeting Nick and his crew, a queer group of survivors who made it through by hunkering down in the LGBTQ+ centre.

This is quite possibly one of my top reads of 2024, as a queer person who grew up religious with a fairly bigoted family I feel like I can relate to Benji and the side characters quite a lot. Andrew Joseph White did a great job capturing what it is like to grow up queer in an unaccepting community and criticising those with harmful extremist religious views that seem to be quite prevalent in the US while also staying respectful of religion in general.

I cannot think of a single flaw with this book, I loved every character and thought they were all very well thought out, my only ask would've been to see more of the side characters. I also loved how much representation was in the book with people from all sorts of backgrounds being fairly prominent characters.

As a horror fan I loved the gore and body horror but didn't think anything about it was so scary that it wouldn't be suitable for older teens.

Thank you to Andrew Joseph White, Daphne Press, and NetGalley for this arc and Happy Pride month!

The concept behind this book is so so good. I mean, queer kids trying to survive after a religious extremist apocalyptic event? Amazing. However, I do think the final novel didn’t quite read as I expected it to.

It was definitely entertaining, and I really liked Benji as a protagonist. He did become a little one-dimensional at times with his only real thoughts/personality being trans, but that’s also fitting with the themes of the book so I understand it. I thought Nick was great too, and I loved him and his lizards.

There was great representation too, but most of these felt like tokenism, as for example, a disabled character appeared for a single piece of dialogue, and then was promptly never mentioned again. I don’t know if it’s better than nothing or is the bar just really low? I’m not the person to answer that question.

It was gory. The body horror was intense, and the descriptions were so evocative. It’s a YA novel, but definitely aimed more towards the older readers in that bracket because woah, it’s graphic. It really worked for me though! What didn’t work for me was the random bible quotes scattered throughout. I understand that it was to show Benji’s childhood and his unlearning of religious rhetoric, but it really pulled me away from the story.

Overall, I think readers closer to the novel’s target age will enjoy it more than me, because they’re probably more willing to overlook things that I’m not.

Thanks to NetGalley and Daphne Press for giving me the eARC for this!

Thank you Andrew Joseph White, Daphne Press and Netgalley for the eArc of Hell Followed with Us.

I requested this on recommendation from my daughter who is also a Netgalley user, so I was really excited when I got approved. This dystopian tale follows Benji a transgender teen trying to find his place in the world, After making a run from the Evangelical death cult, Benji falls into a crowd of teens who use a LGBTQ+ who use a community centre. As Benji maybe has a few weeks to live given he became the unexpected and unwilling vessel of the end of times, He starts to truly understand who he is and gets his revenge on those who have hurt him.

I love the dystopian world that Andrew built for this book. It definitely has an end of world feel about the whole thing, wrapped up in elects of religion,LGBTQ community and raw gory horror. Times are changing are they not? These elements flowed together very well, tackling many issues that Queer people endure and the fight they have on their hands to even be acknowledged. In some places, it raised a lot of emotions for me, sadness and complete anger to what Benji's family put him through, especially near the end of the book.

The pacing of this narrative was like walking down a hill. You start off at a great pace, the pull of gravity turning your feet over. Just like the turning of these pages, The pace is medium and just unravels slowly until you're just completely enthralled in this world until you're pretty much running to keep up with the latter end of the book. The pay off at the end is brilliant and I really enjoyed reading until the very end,

This book won't be the only one I pick up of Andrew's. I love his writing style and the way he is able to weave different components together, respectfully and colourfully described.

As a bonus, I also listened to the audio version with Shaan Dasani , Graham Halstead, Avi Roque as narrators. These people are fantastic and bright to life and already fantastic book. Thank you to these too.

5 stars from me

i really enjoyed the biblical references in the story and the symbolism of the angels. The trans main character representation is awsome

What a great novel to start of pride month! A dystopian look at religion and the fragile thread it holds with gender identity and sexuality.
I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that not all the characters had to agree on things to be seen as 'good'. We have trans characters who show their identity in different ways, and even if they clash, at the end of the day they can move on and just be themselves.

Thank you to Andrew Joseph White, Daphne Press, and NetGalley for a galley of this in exchange for an honest review.

Hell Followed With Us is an unusual book. Set against a dystopia of biblical proportions (literally), we follow Benji, a trans teenager, and unwilling vessel of the end times' end game. Having fled the Evangelical death cult he was raised in, Benji falls in with a crowd of young, queer, survivors, and ironically, given that he may now have only weeks to live, finally learns what it means to have something to live for.

Beset by the monstrous remains of zombie-esque plague victims, the cult's 'Angels' AKA death squads, and, perhaps most frighteningly of all, a plethora of cis white men, Benji forges real friendships with his rescuers. But the lure of love is strong, and he must figure out who he is willing to sacrifice, and what for.

This book was both queerer, and more religious than I had initially been expecting. When I read the blurb for this book I expected something that was going to end up more like Charlie Higson's Enemy series - specifically the Angus Dei angle. But I ended up with something that was a little more Evangelical, which given the US setting I should have been expecting. White builds a very plausible world, his blending of religious and environmental extremism with a kind of Evangelically intense white supremacy feels like a possible future, and whilst I would have liked to know more about how the rest of the world has fared (plagues might be global, but evangelicalism is relatively US-centric), he has managed to cram a lot of detail into a relatively short book.

For those worried about the focus on religion, particularly Christianity, particularly conservative Christianity, I, personally, don't think White's representation is 'bad,' or, like, a pointed attack. In my opinion, which is admittedly limited by neither being from the US nor of a Protestant-off-shoot persuasion, White made it very clear that the Angels were an extremist group, a cult, who had co-opted religion, but who had essentially abandoned a lot of the core tenants of the religion. This was obvious to me, as someone from a Catholic background, because the actions of the Angels are in direct opposition to a lot of very important things, e.g., Commandment not to kill. Now, again, I am not from an Evangelical background. I'm Irish Catholic, if we're getting specific, and my experience in religion is vastly different to that even of Catholics within the US, but to me this read as a commentary on the way the far-right, white supremacists, and other extremist groups pick up elements of religion and twist them. This could definitely be viewed, through that lens and given the very close relationship most conservative leaning people in the US have with Christianity, as a commentary on contemporary evangelical practice... but if you read this and thought 'you're attacking my church specifically' I think you should maybe take a step back and ask, "is my church treating others the way we would want to be treated?" If the answers no, then the call is coming from inside the house. White isn't attacking you, you are attacking others. Sit with that, and then do better.

Back to our regularly scheduled book reviewing,

I don't read a lot of horror, so I am appreciative of how the gore was handled in this book. I felt that there were some visceral moments, but for the most part the description was impressionistic, or focused on feeling. That being said, I do wish a little more time had been given to the (SPOILER) final descriptions of Seraph, I struggled to understand what exactly that might look like. My mental image was kind of dragon-y, and I think it should maybe have been more humanoid. All the same, I found the world, and the people within it, fascinating to read about.

All taken together, I really enjoyed this. There was a lot in it that gave me pause, and a lot in it I think could be polarising, but personally I found it very readable. 4 stars.

3.8 stars
Think Far Cry 5 religious fanaticism meets Last of Us post apocalyptic with a LGBTQ+ added bonus.
The first couple of chapters had me thinking this would be a typical dystopian plot with a trans MMC. Not at all!
We saw Benji being raised in a cult (reminds me of Far Cry 5 PEGgies) and breaking away from the toxic behaviour of a fanatic rhetoric. (Transphobic/homophobic/dead naming etc.) He finds new friends and family who support him through the story.

The latter half describes events with gruesome scenes with religious imagery, which sounds very Old Testament, and disturbing parallels of real world conversion camps and lack of trans rights happening today.
All in all, a great book! I read it because of the cover art, which is fantastic, I've not come across the author before but I'll pick up another by him.
Thank you to NetGalley.co.uk and Daphne Press for the opportunity to read this.