Review: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

 

I read a digital copy of an advanced reader copy of this book. I was drawn to this book because of its cover which is really cool and I would for sure put a print of it up in my room. 

For this book, I'm going to start with a disclaimer as the content has the potential to be offensive to some readers. This book depicts a post-apocalyptic world in which extremist Christians called the Angels have released a sickness that corrupts people and systematically murders those who do not follow their beliefs. The murder of these so-called "heretics" includes anyone who doesn't follow their beliefs including other religious people. Our main character is a transboy and we see queer youth going against this organization. 

I would say those who have religious trauma should be wary and those who would take offense with Christians being depicted in such a way should skip this. There is also transphobia, queerphobia, relationship violence, general violence, children involved in warfare, body horror, gore, and related themes. As always, I recommend StoryGraph for a full list of possible triggers. 

I really enjoyed this book. The story is fascinating and depicts what many queer youths feel that religious and more conservative society feels towards them. I would say it could definitely be a healing and release of anger for those who hold that within themselves. The book has vast representation with multiple gender identities (including someone who uses xe/xem pronouns), an autistic character, gay/lesbian characters, small mentions of characters using a cane, characters of multiple races, and a hijabi character. The representation in this book is vast and as far as I can tell (I'm of course not an expert) respectful. 

I like the depiction of the trans experience for the main character Benji as he shows the different ways that trans people can exist. I also like watching him unlearn the beliefs of the cult he lived in. The background of the world is also really well built without focusing too much on the past. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and found myself captivated by the story. It will come out on June 7th of this year so be on the lookout at your book retailers. I think this is a great read for queer youth and a possible contender for LGBTQA+ Youth Center book clubs. Andrew Joseph White is definitely an author to look out for and he went to the same college as me.