AUGUST 2022 - AudioFile
Three narrators deliver a chilling apocalyptic story. Narrator Shaan Dasani introduces Benji, whose father has just been killed. Now an evangelical cult is out to get Benji because he’s transgender. Dasani’s narration gradually reveals how Benji has been set up to destroy the world. Instead, he wants to destroy the cult. Short, interspersed sections feature Graham Halstead and Avi Roque as minor characters Nick and Theo. In a calm, soothing voice, Halstead portrays Nick, who identifies as being on the autism spectrum. Near the conclusion, Roque delivers a chapter from the point of view of Theo, Benji’s former fiancé, who is disgusted by his own compulsion to assert power. This haunting, visceral audio is sometimes a difficult listen. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 05/02/2022
Billions are killed when the Angels, a majority-white ecofascist cult, “cleanse” the earth with a deadly virus in White’s gripping near-future dystopian debut. After creating the Flood, a fatal infection responsible for humankind’s decimation, the Angels force 16-year-old white trans boy Benjamin Woodside to become the perfected virus’s host, turning him into a living bioweapon. Having escaped the Angels’ experimentation and emotional abuse, which includes frequently misgendering him, Benji is rescued by white, autistic sharpshooter Nick and his ragtag band of queer rebels, who call Pennsylvania’s Acheson LGBTQ+ Center home. Together, Benji and the revolutionaries fight for survival amid crumbling infrastructure, even as Benji struggles to contain the virus as it mutates his body from the inside out. While told primarily from Benji’s perspective, brief chapters from supporting characters, including Nick, provide intriguing insight. Using evocative and visceral language, compact storytelling, and inventive worldbuilding, White delivers a transformative depiction of apocalypse through a queer lens. This debut is a moving and timely tale of queer perseverance, offering hope for those fighting for the right to exist without apology. Supporting characters are racially diverse and variously queer. Ages 14–up. Agent: Zabé Ellor, Jennifer De ChiaraLiterary. (June)
From the Publisher
"'Hell Followed With Us' bristles with energy and intensity, written with a kind of gleeful ferocity. . . . It shines in crystalline moments when Benji considers himself and his body, the viciousness of the virus taking hold and the irony of its unexpected gifts. . . . White's novel . . . [responds] with a long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like, well, a virus."—The New York Times
★ "[An] astounding and exhilarating debut. . . . This fast-paced adventure is chaotic in the best way, featuring diverse and relatable characters that readers will fall in love with, despite their flaws, and a heartrending love story that reminds us that humanity seeks comfort even in the most painful of times."—Booklist, Starred Review
★ "This cinematically gory apocalyptic horror not only delivers high stakes, fast-paced action, and fraught romantic drama, it engages critically with the intertwining impacts of colonialism, capitalism, and White supremacy. The resistance truthfully depicts diversity within queerness while also holding White queer people accountable for gatekeeping and upholding White supremacy. . . . A restorative, hopeful resolution brings the story to a satisfying close without turning Benji into a savior. A gloriously ferocious and scorching blaze."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
★ "Using evocative and visceral language, compact storytelling, and inventive worldbuilding, White delivers a transformative depiction of apocalypse through a queer lens. This debut is a moving and timely tale of queer perseverance, offering hope for those fighting for the right to exist without apology."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Rippling with righteous fury. . . . Ultimately a story of both queer survival and queer perseverance. . . . Hell Followed With Us is, truly, like nothing else you'll read this summer, and its deft balance of destruction and rebirth offers a satisfying, if far from saccharine, end."—Paste
"This authentic story of consuming fury and the power of found family to heal is an excellent choice. . . ."—School Library Journal
"A compelling, powerful, and ultimately reassuring message for teens deep in their own varied versions of misery."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"This book made me feel as understood and validated as I was unsettled and pissed off. With vivid prose and a mirror held up to the ugliest parts of ourselves, Andrew Joseph White is poised to become a defining voice of our generation."—H.E. Edgmon, author of The Witch King
"Gloriously dark and immersive, Hell Followed with Us cuts straight to the core. With its endearing cast, detailed worldbuilding, and breathtaking horror, this novel kept me at the edge of my seat. Hands down the best YA horror book I've read."—Aden Polydoros, author of The City Beautiful
"A timely and riveting tale of queer teens surviving and resisting fundamentalism any way they can. Andrew Joseph White holds a mirror up to the monstrosities within all of us, and I couldn't look away."—Ray Stoeve, author of Between Perfect and Real
"A chimera of horror, romance, and something stranger. Hell Followed with Us won me over to its vision of a grotesque future where we're still here, still queer, and more monstrous than ever."—Rose Szabo, author of What Big Teeth
"In a brutal, vibrant debut, author Andrew Joseph White does something revolutionary: he fills dystopia with hope. Readers who enjoy smart, politically-savvy speculative YA will be captivated by this powerful new voice."—Kiersten Frost, Children’s Bookseller, Brookline Booksmith
"A utopian model for queer community masquerading as a dystopian YA novel. Andrew Joseph White has dared to create a story where queer kids of all stripes love, fight alongside, and care for each other despite their personal differences and the myriad of things looking to kill them. It is as beautiful as it is hard to read. This is what horror can and should be."—Cliff Helm, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO
"This is a book with teeth, with fire, and with a bloody, beating heart. 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."—Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX
"White states that this book ‘began life as a fit of rage.’ Rage is expressed in a world under the grip of extremists with their demented version of religion. White has written a book of gore, violence, and literally vomiting out one’s guts. Fast-paced and difficult to read but more difficult to not read, the underlying message of blindly following a leader is clear."—Shirley Mullin, Kids Ink Children’s Bookstore, Indianapolis, IN
"Andrew Joseph White shows us exactly what it means to be human, in all its horrific and wondrous forms. He plants the knowledge of true family, letting it grow thick into the steady vine that keeps the characters (and us) together through the thickest of frays. Above all, he doesn’t flinch away from difficult truths, nor from ferocious emotions and pain. This will be one of the best and most important books of 2022."—Minna Banawan, Park Road Books, Charlotte, NC
School Library Journal
12/09/2022
Gr 10 Up—A queer teen brings the full weight of trauma and rage to bear upon the fundamentalist cult that abused him in this gruesome, emotional debut. After The Angels, an ecoterrorist group, released "The Flood" upon humanity in a bid to cleanse the Earth of nonbelievers, the world was left ravaged and overrun by the slavering remains of the population now hideously warped by viral load. Benji, a white, transgender teen, was raised within the group but is now on the run after they subjected him to emotional and physical abuse and infected him with a strain of The Flood designed to slowly and painfully transform his body into that of a Seraph—a grotesque approximation of an angel meant to finish the cleansing. When his father is murdered, Benji finds safety and acceptance with the remaining members of the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center (ALC), including Nick, a white, neurodiverse teen who helps him to process and harness his fury against the cult and its leaders. Vivid descriptions of viscera and gory suffering appear on nearly every page, creating an intense reading experience that is sure to appeal to movie and body horror fans. However, readers may struggle to follow when intense descriptions of rotting organs, black vomit, and disintegrating skin are immediately followed by romance, which often feels discordant. While the members of the fundamentalist group are white, the ALC teens represent a large variety of gender identities, sexualities, races, and religions. VERDICT This authentic story of consuming fury and the power of found family to heal is an excellent choice for fans of Neal Shusterman's "Arc of a Scythe" series or Rick Yancey's The Monstrumologist.—Catherine Cote
AUGUST 2022 - AudioFile
Three narrators deliver a chilling apocalyptic story. Narrator Shaan Dasani introduces Benji, whose father has just been killed. Now an evangelical cult is out to get Benji because he’s transgender. Dasani’s narration gradually reveals how Benji has been set up to destroy the world. Instead, he wants to destroy the cult. Short, interspersed sections feature Graham Halstead and Avi Roque as minor characters Nick and Theo. In a calm, soothing voice, Halstead portrays Nick, who identifies as being on the autism spectrum. Near the conclusion, Roque delivers a chapter from the point of view of Theo, Benji’s former fiancé, who is disgusted by his own compulsion to assert power. This haunting, visceral audio is sometimes a difficult listen. S.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-03-16
In the aftermath of a plague, a furious transgender boy seeks to end the movement that plans to wield him for their genocide in the name of salvation.
On Judgment Day, the Angels, a cult of White, Evangelical Christian eco-fascists, released the Flood upon the world—a plague to purge the unfaithful—but their work remains unfinished until they unleash their final weapon. Benji, a White trans boy, couldn’t escape the Angels before they injected him with Seraph, a plague mutation engineered to transform him into an abomination in control of the Flood and all its monstrous creations. However, when he’s ambushed by nonbelievers who present him with an opportunity, Benji joins forces with their resistance, determined to fight the Angels with whatever time he has left. This cinematically gory apocalyptic horror not only delivers high stakes, fast-paced action, and fraught romantic drama, it engages critically with the intertwining impacts of colonialism, capitalism, and White supremacy. The resistance truthfully depicts diversity within queerness while also holding White queer people accountable for gatekeeping and upholding White supremacy. The narrative focuses primarily on Benji’s point of view but shifts strategically with shorter sections showing the perspectives of his two romantic interests, including Nick, a White, cisgender autistic boy who plays a significant role in the resistance. A restorative, hopeful resolution brings the story to a satisfying close without turning Benji into a savior.
A gloriously ferocious and scorching blaze. (Dystopian/horror. 15-18)