Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

218 reviews

sunflower7skull's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

I LOVE THIS BOOK

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Gore, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Abandonment, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Vomit, War, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Body horror, Deadnaming, Bullying, and Genocide

danteeeh's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Religious bigotry, Blood, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Body horror, Child death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Deadnaming

alexlynx's review

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

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

4.5

I loved this book a lot. I read 'the spirit bares its teeth' before this, so I was already used to the body horror that White likes to use. The representation of so many different queer people was so heartwarming to see and also the neurodivergent represenation was great. I do think it is a little difficult to understand the main character's thoughts sometimes, mainly because the christian upbringing and its long-lasting effects on his brain are so well written but it's easy to forget them. It honestly should be five stars. The -0.5 come from completely subjective reasoning: I was called out so hard by this book multiple times. /pos How dare you, Andrew. /lh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Genocide, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Grief, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry

ctara2123's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Transphobia

Minor: Homophobia

charlieeee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Transphobia, Genocide, Physical abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing and Dysphoria

Minor: Sexual content

savazelena's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC, even though this was released in 2022 and I don't know why it's offered as an ARC? Anyway,

I barely have any notes, this truly gripped me by my throat like good old times. It doesn't feel very specifically YA, which I really appreciate, but there's definitely themes and moments that are YA. 

This is the first book I've read that has a character with neopronouns and it was really nice to have that experience, because they do kinda stick out of the ordinary. But far from this being a defining part of this work.

I loved the worldbuilding - very gory and chaotic. I would love to see more details on history and development of the situation, I feel like it has enough material for a proper series. On the other hand it stands perfectly well by itself, this is just my personal preference.

I was attached to Benji from the first page and it stayed that way for the entire book. It just generally felt like such a personal, enthusiastic piece; I don't think anyone could help getting into it. Can't wait to read more by Andrew!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Deadnaming, Cursing, Death, Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Vomit, and War

cnaccarato's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Murder, Sexism, Dysphoria, Police brutality, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Torture, and Toxic relationship

tea_coffee_sam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Violence, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, War, Body horror, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Ableism

clarke's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• 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

3.0

Hell Followed With Us is a multi-POV post-apocalyptic story, primarily focusing on Benji, a trans boy on the run from a cult of ‘angels’, finding refuge at a LGBTQ+ centre. Here, he meets Nick, their autistic leader, who knows that Benji has been turned into a weapon to end humanity. 

 

I’ve had this book on my ‘to read list’ for a while, especially with such an artistic cover, and I’ve heard a lot about it. I was pleasantly surprised when it became available on Netgalley as an arc. The book has a lot of religion involved, but also a lot of representation. It is descriptive of the cult’s violence and mutilations, which some may find graphic but I was left wanting more. The characters are mostly YA, and understandably some of their decisions were juvenile or stupid but mostly felt appropriate. No one is perfect in this book. 

 

There is a portion of the book, after Benji has made his gender and pronouns clear to the group at the LGBTQ+ centre, where Nick refers to Benji as ‘it’ because he knows he is a weapon. I feel this wasn’t called out enough, and whilst it is explored in the narrative with characters purposefully reinforcing Benji’s he/him pronouns and Benji expressing his hurt, it did not feel enough. I imagined it’s to express that even LGBTQ+ aren’t perfect, have prejudice, etc, but he isn’t the only trans person in the group nor do I believe Nick (or any one there) is naive enough to not think that would fucking hurt. As a trans/non-binary person, this was not fun to read and it really didn’t add anything to the story. 

 

Benji’s transition into the bioweapon (Seraph) could be a metaphor for transitioning gender, except he didn’t like these changes. He is reassured that he is still ‘him’ by his twat of a fiance, but otherwise tries to hide the changes and what he is becoming. There is some body horror here. The cult also dead name and misgender Benji, and are similar to IRL religious extremists who hate anyone who doesn’t conform to their values - these ones just set loose a plague and mercilessly kill, all in God’s name of course. These concepts are close to reality, especially in todays political climate. Benji’s identity and new found home serves as the antithesis to the cult and their agenda. They took his family away, leading him on a path to find another. 

 

I would recommend checking out trigger warnings for this book, namely death (including parental), violence, murder, body horror, transphobia, and religious extremism. 

 

Overall, this was a very interesting concept that just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I found a lot of the book slow and meandering, and was watching the percentage read increase very slowly. I also wanted more horror and less transphobia. Thank you to net galley for the arc. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Genocide, War, Violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gun violence, Gore, and Grief

ezwolf's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

I want to say that I can understand why this book has done so well and so many people have spoken highly of this book. But it really just wasn't amazing for me. I think part of it is because I'm not really a huge fan of post apocalyptic stories that are set so close to the actual event, plus I have been avoiding stories about pandemics for obvious reasons. A friend highly recommended I read this so I decided to give it a shot, but I just wasn't as enthused as I had hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Transphobia, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Gore, Terminal illness, Genocide, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Alcohol and Classism