Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

14 reviews

entityj's review

dark emotional fast-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Hate crime, Transphobia, Vomit, Deadnaming, Cursing, Homophobia, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cannibalism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Chronic illness

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.75

SO FUCKING GOOD BRO
u should read this if u want a 10/10 queer horror book that has a p wild and original plot and shit

Also this is the second book ive read this year about religious groups at the end of the world which is cause by a ‘flood’- what does this say about me?

The only thing is i wanted a bit more at a couple points esp the last lil bit

‘Stand on any roof, wall, or hill tonight and watch the world slow down. Watch it empty.’

‘In what world was their God ever a benevolent one?’

‘If they believe in judgment, let them feel it.’

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Violence, Deadnaming, Genocide, Vomit, War, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

hemlockbabe's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was disgusting in a visceral, gore-y way. If I had read literally any trigger warnings online, I would have been prepared, but as is it was a pretty interesting thing to discover as I read this book in the hours that the game store I was managing was completely and consistently dead.
I adored this book. I picked it up entirely on a whim during pride month on the wall of recommended reading at a small bookstore. I read (more like skimmed) the blurb on why the shop employee recommended it so highly. I love reading religious trauma inspired books, so I pretty much was sold immediately. 
I devoured this book during the span of one six hour shift at my workplace. I've always been a fast reader- it's my attention span that ruins my ability to read books. This book sucked me in hard enough that occasionally I had to be prompted multiple times by customers to buy their stuff. 
I don't know if I would have had a different experience with it if I had known of the trigger warnings, especially the violence, purposeful misgendering, and body horror. I've always loved zombie books, and I read those curled up in chairs in the library of my high school, so I didn't think much of the location I would be reading this book.
Public crying, for me, is the highest form of torture, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages of this book. The pacing, the content, the plight of the main character- all of it kept me hooked until the very end. I'm just glad I didn't snap at a kid for interrupting my reading time with a craving for Pokémon cards.
My review doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of public opinion- I have a history of really liking books and movies that had piss poor reviews and ratings- but I loved this book so much. As I've gotten older and more mentally ill, I don't get sucked into the pages of a book like a used to as a kid. I miss the ability to be absorbed in a story until it's done, and this book brought that back for me.
This book is definitely not for everyone, and all readers should be mindful of their triggers to disturbing content. But I definitely enjoyed myself, hence the five star rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Outing, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Child death, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Homophobia, Gore, Forced institutionalization, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Zombie apocalypse, and a religious cult worshipping it as the rapture. Or God's work to cleanse this Earth and remake it anew.

refrejarator's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• 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

I cannot believe I have lived this long without reading a book about characters like me - queer, autistic, trans, and angry. This felt like coming home in a way I can't quite explain. I am so deeply moved by this story and so thankful to be alive in a world where stories like this can be created and enjoyed.

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Content Warnings

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

winterhartarts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

Was a little slow for the first roughly half of the book, and most of the main characters felt slightly undeveloped at that point. However, once the halfway point happens, this really turn wild, and I was far more engaged until the very end. The world building kept me through the first half as well, so there’s a lot to be said for how the author fully actualized this kind of post-apocalyptic world filled with zombie amalgamations that all at once resembled ones from the games in The Last Of Us series and specifically the big blob from the game Inside. Imagery was always on point too, and I really felt engaged during times it was utilized. 

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Content Warnings

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

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not sure how this one ended up on my TBR but it's likely that it's because of other authors I heave read this year. This is a story that's steeped in twisted Christian doctrine and its clash with real life. It ended up feeling like some sort of mad fever dream something like Berserk, Neon Genesis, Locked Tomb (by Tamsyn Muir), The Walking Dead, Seanan McGuire, and a smidgen of Rick Riordan... o.O it's gory and messy and queer A.F. 
Yay! 

Set in a world where an Apocalypse cult has pretty much succeeded, and weird virus sculpted monsters 

This is a horror story in a lot of ways, not the least of which is body horror, and dysphoria. The main character is AFAB, trans- and a gay boy. Having been raised in a zealot community this leads to some serious baggage, and a lot of emotional unpacking. Other major characters include NB, Ace, POC, Autistic, and folk with a smattering of different faiths or lack thereof. This may seem weird but this is what happens when a community centre for queer kids becomes a survivalist enclave in a the end-times.

So there's a little bit of sexual content, and an anime-horror level of once-human, virus-twisted, flesh-eating demons, gun violence, and existential angst. I thank the author for the overt content warnings at the start of the book, especially all the deadnaming and misgendering.

Entertaining read, if very full-on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Deadnaming, Child death, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cannibalism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Minor: Islamophobia, Alcohol, and Self harm

lreeve's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Death of parent, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, Death, Deadnaming, Violence, Gore, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Cursing and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Sexual content

magnan1mouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

I can't describe how much of a sucker I am for the found family trope. 

I found it to be well-written and while I HATED Nick at some points (for his actions, not how the character was made), 

I'm glad he was good in the end.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Gore, Death, Violence, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Vomit, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, War, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Cannibalism, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, and Child death

foiblesandfiction's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've been sitting on this review for a couple of weeks because I'm just not sure how I feel about the book.

I loved it.  I also didn't necessarily like it.  And maybe those are two different things, just like we are able to love people without liking them, which makes sense for me because my mind tends to personify all books.  Books have feelings, too.

This story sank it's teeth right into my religious trauma, and the resonating ache from that is why I love this story so.  The character names, the Bible verses, the rules and judgements and negative self-talk.  I felt, I feel, all of that.  It's all very twisty and knotted up in my chest so I won't be able to say very much more than that, to be honest.  Too raw, too messy. 

Forget about the body horror, my issue was the Christians lol

Sorry Christians!  Kind of.

Why I disconnected from this story was due to the writing itself.  It's gorgeous and it's also a lot.  It doesn't read like the first-person point of view of a sixteen year old kid.  Unfortunately, this kept taking me out of the story.

Recommended for fans of Ava Reid.  If, like me, you found yourself highlighting entire paragraphs of The Wolf and the Woodsman, or disturbingly delighted at the cannibalistic horror of Juniper & Thorn, you'll find something to enjoy in this young adult horror novel as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Outing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Biphobia, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Racism, Child abuse, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

vulgarboy's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was... a ride. A lot of internal struggles, which were fine in the beginning but quickly lost their magic and became more annoying as the book went on. The concept was interesting, but there wasn't enough of an explanation on how things had gotten so bad so fast. While I don't want to poorly summarize it as a "pseudo-zombie story," that's kind of what it is. Benji is immune and a more advanced form of grace/abomination/infected. There weren't times I was on the edge of my seat. I want to say I enjoyed this book, but I'm not so sure. 

The handling of queer folks, POC, and neurodivergent folks was pretty spot on. Some things were a bit blunt, such as an autistic character having a stim toy being acknowledged for the first time, followed by an immediate "he's autistic" exxplanation. Neopronouns were used, which I haven't seen before. There's a clear amount of care with these characters, but it fell short a few times. Benji's deadname being in the book doesn't sit right with me (a transmasc person), as well as it being used approximately eight times. Yikes. 

All in all, an excessive amount of vomit and gore aside (both of them happening Constantly), I didn't hate my experience. This story sure did happen.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Ableism, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Vomit, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Racism, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cannibalism