This is coming from a guy who won’t read a horror book unless it’s a buddy read or had someone to rant to, because he’s a fucking scaredy cat.

We follow Benji, a trans boy on the run from the religious cult that unleashed Armageddon upon the world. But she and her mother also deal in monsters, species regulated by the International Non-Human Police, selling their body parts on the black market.Equally intriguing is the constant musing on what makes a monster, how people respond to trauma and control, and how one’s choices affirm or deny one’s own humanity.

I think there's crossover appeal, if you liked the prose of dowry of blood or wyatt from the witch king you should pick this up! Oh god the descriptions, I reread some of it and now that I've read his short story I appreciate them even more. 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.I think that is absolutely a valid stance to take and portray, particularly in the case of Benji, whose abusers literally ended the world in their religious fervor to 'save' it, but this message does come across as not quite thoroughly thought-through or entirely earned, especially with regards to where the story does end up going. Just as Benji sheds his skin to become a dark creature of wrath, Hell Followed with Us warps our own world inside out, showing the ugliest and brightest parts that humanity has to offer.

While a bit unrealistic and not as fleshed out in its creation as I might've personally preferred, the depictions of 'living' buildings bound to and by the flesh of the people who previously inhabited this world prior to the apocalyptic plague that ended it were unsettling and vivid to great affect. Using evocative and visceral language, compact storytelling, and inventive worldbuilding, White delivers a transformative depiction of apocalypse through a queer lens.A slasher flick spliced with Crime and Punishment, this engrossing debut novel asks complex philosophical questions in a. All in all, I really loved this book, despite the fact that I am NOT a horror girl (most of the time), and this was definitely a full fledged horror book. This book will stay with me for an extremely long time and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy. The arcs are so compelling the way the body, queerness, religion and horror are entwined for Benji and the book reflects that. I wasn’t very interested in a lot of the side characters, finding myself mostly focused on Benji, Nick, and Faith.

There are a lot of CW for this book that I've copied directly from the author so I would highly highly recommend checking in with yourself before picking this one up. While some people may consider these things to be added for shock value, they play a huge role in the overall narrative of the book. the main thing that triggered any kind of reaction in me was when Benji was dead-named and forced into a dress. I will definitely be reading more of this author's work, but I don't think I could recommend this book to anyone.The trans main character, the endless queer side characters, the neurodiversity, and more—I was absolutely in love with this cast of lil' gay heretics.