Andrew Joseph White

Hell Followed With Us

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him―the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t find him, or more importantly, the bioweapon he’s fast turning into. When cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: he is mutating into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all. Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

Paperback: 416 Pages

Language: English

Format: Kindle Edition, Audiobook, & Paperback

4.5/5
Reviewed By Reviewed By Violeta Nedkova
“Imagine the zombie apocalypse with queer heroes on the front of the battle. Imagine them fighting religious nuts and monsters. Imagine the hero being the scariest monster. If any of this sounds good, this is your book. It’s filled with delicious queer rage and everything else you need for your queer heart to be full. Let’s be angry together, and fight the oppressors. This book is a battle cry.”
Buy Now

QUEER TEENS vs. RELIGIOUS CULT in the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

This book is outrageously queer and gore-filled. Basically, imagine a zombie apocalypse with a lot of religious propaganda and queer rebellion. Brilliant, right?

Hell Followed With Us is a story about Benji, who is a trans boy, escaping from a cult. They believe he is their savior, the Seraph, a monster with six wings that will control the other monsters created by the Flood, a ravaging virus they created to annihilate the humans. Then come the ALC, the LGBTQ+ group of teenagers who save Benji and give him new purpose – to fight against his captors.

This book is so filled with action and unbelievable rage, you won’t be able to put it down. If you have ever been enraged at the world, at what it was trying to turn you into, then this book is for you. It’s glorious for a queer reader like me, who has been angry too, at times.

This is not for the faint hearted, however. It’s filled with monsters and gore and violence. But it’s also filled with friendship and purpose and hope. It’s one of those books that you can’t just put down… you can’t even slow down, so you start skipping sentences just to see what’s going to happen next. I flew through this book and while it’s not the best book I have ever read, it’s one of the best queer books out there. It’s accepting and diverse, which is not something I can say for most books.

Finally, I loved the characters and the representation in this book – a neurodivergent hero, a trans hero, a motley crew of queer kids, one of whom uses neo-pronouns… what else could you want? It’s a feast for the queer reader. I loved not only how these guys were the heroes, but that the main character was the biggest monster of all. Monsters fighting monsters… brilliant. However, even if your body is monstrous, it matters what’s in your heart.

With such visceral and immersive writing, such relatable and fierce characters, and such a realistic and horrifying world, you can’t skip this book. It’s a battle cry, a fight against the oppressors, a desperate bid for freedom at the end of the world. Because at the end, you get to choose who you are and what you do, and that counts for everything. What an amazing debut and author.

So if you like monsters and queer heroes, who fight religious zealots, this is the book for you. It’s an adventure, a crazy roller coaster ride, and a great book for young readers. I know… how can a book full of gore be for young people? Trust me, I would have loved to have read this when I was a teenager.

Lost your password?