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salemander's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Body horror, Blood, Death, Torture, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Medical content, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Hate crime, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, and Gore
kickitupanotch7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Homophobia, Vomit, Violence, Blood, War, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Body horror, Medical content, Child abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, and Ableism
nicosta_music's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Deadnaming, Genocide, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Self harm
Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Grief, and Sexual content
Minor: Transphobia, Body shaming, and Medical content
faetalattraction's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence
Moderate: Medical content and Vomit
refrejarator's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and War
peggyluwho's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Gore, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Body horror, Genocide, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body shaming, Ableism, and Deadnaming
Minor: Sexual content and Bullying
clovetra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
god i wanted to adore this book. i think this was my most anticipated read of 2024. like i was dying to read this. i was sadly disappointed. like when i realised i wasn't enjoying this as much as i thought i would i wanted to cry.
this book was still good. i need that to be known. i adored nick, and i loved many sequences. i just felt like the main issue for me was this book was trying to do a lot, and needed more pages to achieve its goal.
there was so much going on. the theo plot, the nick plot, the world-building, the themes. it all felt rushed. there were many times i had to pause and go back and reread previous chapters, or ask google/friends for help understanding what was going on.
i needed a lot more world-building in this. i feel like this book needed about 100 pages more to explain things. and the way information is divulged i found is hard! i prefer my exposition to be dumped honestly because hey at least i know what is going on, and the fact there are such fantasy elements i felt needed an exposition dump.
i also really had a difficult time imagining what was happening. i thought it might have been an issue with me, but when i swap to other books im reading at the moment im fine. to me there felt like a massive disconnect between the writing and the reader (me)
i also think a minor issue for me was the fact i know nothing about religion. i don't think this overall affected my reading experience, but as someone who has been to church once i felt like i was not in the story, but like i was multiple layers separated away from the plot.
i truly cannot put my finger on why i did not enjoy this as much as i thought i would. it has everything going for it. fantasy. autistic rep. trans rep. gay rep. i truly am just hoping this is an issue regarding world-building for me, as i do love how andrew joseph white writes, with the phrasing and the topical slang ("yeet" had me give a good little chuckle lol). maybe if i come back and reread this, ill have a better experience, as i'll not be left in the dark. i don't know.
edit: just remembered some things i had to add! the ending felt rushed. i wanted maybe even just. an epilogue. but there were so many questions left.
also a lot of this book was confusing and explained through subtext. but the subtext was had to grasp for me.
Graphic: Gore, Genocide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Death, Murder, War, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Alcohol
winterhartarts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Eating disorder, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Vomit, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Dysphoria, Death, Deadnaming, Child death, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Body horror, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Ableism, Grief, Gore, Classism, Homophobia, War, Cannibalism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Slavery, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Colonisation, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship
_viv_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
By going into this book being surrounded by religious grandparents and their homophobic and transphobic rhetoric I latched onto this book with vigor. The shame the main character, Benji, felt hit close to home. I found myself aching with understanding.
I loved the prose and actually enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of the chapters. I believe it set the scene well and drew readers into the story along with the characters. Being raised religious made it feel as though I was in on an inside joke. While many of the quotations were fictional or modified by the main antagonist group The Angels, they honestly felt as though they were something my grandmother would say to me like it was factual.
While this is a five star read for me, there were a few things that could be improved.
Namely, the side characters. None of them, other than the love interest, are memorable. I found myself mixing them up throughout the book and by the end I'd realized it was because I had not attachment to any of them. They felt more like a grocery list of representation through different gender identities, ethnicities, and sexualities.
It also meant Benji only had real relationships from his abusers, people in the cult, and Nick (his love interest). I would've loved to see Benji form more platonic relationships with the other characters. This was honestly such a small issue to fix. If the author had stuck to only a few side characters we would've had more page time to focus on them. We would've had time to form attachments to them, their goals, their hobbies, their love lives, etc... (plus it would've left more time to explore the identities, cultural aspects, etc... they were representing)
I am not autistic and as such I do not feel comfortable speaking about the autism representation through the love interest Nick. I will say that I wish Nick's POV was included more throughout the book. We see him sparsely and at seemingly random intervals. His POV is in third person rather than Benji's, which is in first.
Next up we have world building. While the Angels and the town near them are described in great detail, along with the history of the Angels, the rest of the world just...isn't. Now this partially makes sense considering Benji was raised in a cult that likely restricted that kind of information from him and other members. I think a lot of the lack of overall world building can be attested to this fact. Which is another reason I think more of Nick's POV was necessary as it could flesh out the world where Benji was blind to it.
Lastly, the body horror element. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the genre, the setting, the horror. It was well balanced horror between being beautifully intriguing and grotesque. It reminded me of a car crash in that way. This goes back to the prose, but I just had to mention the fact. Even the horror elements have a certain kind of beauty to them that just wraps around you.
This is the kind of book that sticks with you. The anger in every page is potent and perfect if you're an angry, queer teen. Or just anyone really. But especially if you are angry. It is asking you to be angry with it, to let that feeling sit with you for a moment. To revel in anger rather than try to push it down and away. It illustrated perfectly what I think the first step of healing is: rage. At who/what hurt you, at those who didn't fix it, at yourself for staying in a system of abuse that hurt you for so long. It showed that sometimes there isn't niceness and harmony in healing but instead the gritty underbelly that comes first.
TWs for Hell Followed With Us:
Graphic: War, Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Transphobia, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Hate crime, Medical content, Genocide, Body horror, and Child death
Moderate: Vomit and Blood
rowanguerrin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Genocide, Deadnaming, Gun violence, and Medical content
Minor: Sexual assault