J12t reviewed Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
What an indictment of religion, traditional parenting and more.
5 stars
Also a good tale.
English language
Published Aug. 14, 2022 by Peachtree Publishing Company Inc..
Hell Followed with Us
5 stars
(3 reviews)
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 …
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.
Owen Blacker reviewed Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
Review of 'Hell Followed with Us' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
All the content notes needed here — the 16yo trans protagonist escapes a Christofascist cult that released a genetically-engineered plague that has killed most of the world and has himself been infected to transform him into a tool of their god’s wrath and deliverance. There is physical and emotional abuse, body-horror, deadnaming, and even shaming about “doing queer wrong”.
But underneath all of this is an entertaining (if horrifying) tale of, as the author puts it “trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back”. I’m not sure I’d want to offer this much body horror and religious trauma as a present to a queer young adult, but I’m sure I’d’ve devoured it as a queer teen myself, so I should prolly just get over myself.
