A review by books_onthe_ground
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

adventurous challenging dark 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

My first thoughts are simply RAGE RAGE RAGE BURN EVERTHING TO THE GROUND AND SCREAM UNTIL YOUR LUNGS CUT OUT IN THE RUBBLE OF YOUR OWN DEVASTATION and I think that’s what Andrew Joseph White would want. Hello Andrew, I doubt you’ll ever read this book thank you for writing a book that I’ve been looking for for a long time and also fuck you because now I feel things.  

Rep includes: gay, trans mtf, trans ftm, non-binary, neo pronouns, bipoc characters, aro characters, Muslim, autistic, questioning, latinx  

TWs: extreme gore and violence and mentions of transphobia, transmedicalism, racism, domestic and religious abuse, self-injury, attempted suicide, murder, genocide. The main character also gets deadnamed and misgendered a lot. 

The book I read before this was The Witch King which was specifically about trans hope and love and not trans pain. This book has such a visceral theme of trans pain and rage that the whiplash I got from this switch was so intense. This book is about rage and trauma and the anger that burns within people who go through abuse and who, instead of breaking, want to break everything and everyone that ever hurt them. And my god did it make me feel a certain way. I am an angry person and I have never felt such solidarity in that rage as I found in these pages. White states that this book was born out of an angry teenager and you can feel those feelings and that pain leaking out of the words like The Flood.  

My god the fucking religious trauma that I had buried came back out full force whilst reading this. I was never in a religious cult but years of catholic school and religious guilt and being a choral singer and being queer and trans still made me relate to the theme of this book more than any other. I understood part of that pain and I felt understood. I didn’t realise how angry I was about it but now I do.

I also just want to say that the setting of the group of survivors being from an LGBT youth centre was amazing because it allowed for such amazing rep and just like Benji, being surrounded by people just living and being themselves and being surrounded by people who understand and who ALLOW you to be completely comfortable for the first time is something truly special to see in a book. Finding that family for the first time is like nothing else. I loved the casual way things were spoken about, the discussions about transmedicalism and what it means to be trans, different types of dysphoria and the different views and opinions inside of the LGBT+ community. How it’s not perfect and it’s not void of offensive views and discrimination. How there is still so much transphobia and racism even in the community. 

I devoured this book. It was horror to its core. The imagery is incredible. The descriptions are so well written they blew me away. They were disturbing and menacing and creepy and something I have been needing in my life. And the end of the world being caused by neo-fascist religious fanaticism, yeah that’s a take I rarely see and yet if anything that is a reason that I can absolutely see coming true. Rich, white, Christian fanatics burning everything down in God’s name. Sounds about right.  

This book is incredible, and I fucking loved every second. I was entranced. Andrew Joseph white is now an auto buy author. I will read everything he puts out. This book is a fucking debut and its stunning. Absolutely a book and an author that I will look up to. I haven’t been so motivated to draw, paint, write in so long but this book has helped that flame to grow very strong and I’m so so SO happy I read this book. It’s everything I needed. Fucking phenomenal. Read this book.