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

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

A great book! I love reading horror and especially body horror. I'm in particular interested in body horror as a methaphor for being trans. (Not in the sense that being trans is a horror, but more in the sense getting a body you don't recognize, the world seeing you different from who you are, and eventually using a new body to fight back) I think the author did this especially well. There was a lot of diversity in this book and even though not every character was completly fleshed out (such is the case in every book) I felt like the depictions where very ernest. I especially liked the way Nick's autism was handeld. 

That being said, the book was a bit on the nose sometimes. It felt like the author was litterally spelling out the themes for us (like found family) without giving the reader some credit in figuring it out themselves. I personally prefere to be shown those themes, not to be told. The world was well crafted but some twists where a bit too predictable, for example
Nick being in the same deadsqaud as Theo wasn't as big of a refeal as it should have been and Benji could've and should've connected the dots himself before he read Nick's letter
whilst others weren't properly forshadowed at all. for example
Sister Kipling suddenly being on Benji's side felt like a major ex machina
 

All in all I would defintily recomand this book, I couldn't put it down and read the back half of the book in one sitting. It's a very enjoyable YA read with some interesting themes I haven't really seen before. You'll have a good time if you like horror, even more so if you like queer horror. 
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