Finding Heaven With Hell Followed With Us
Sometimes the scariest thing is just what happening in real life.
Here’s the thing about being raised an Angel: You don’t process grief.
How are we all feeling about pandemic books right now? Personally, I don’t really have any qualms about them although I know for those of us looking for escapism in our books, they might not be our cup of tea right now. This week especially, I empathise a little more as I’ve had several Covid scares this week. As someone who already has gotten it once, I’m not exactly looking to get reinfected. So Hell Followed With Us may mirror the real world too much with its religious zealots and pandemic themes.
Set in an apocalyptic future, the world has been ravaged by a disease known as The Flood, created by a cult looking to start their own plague and rid the world of evil. The unlucky few who are infected die. The even unluckier ones turn into walking teratomas, also known as Graces, that are both monstrous and incredibly susceptible to instructions. To gain control over them, the cult has infected some of their members with a modified form of the virus, which will turn them into Seraph, a slightly less gruesome version of Graces with the ability to bend the virus to its will.
We follow Benji, a trans boy and the only successful Seraph experiment, as he attempts to flee the cult. He manages to seek refuge with the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center (ALC), where other queer kids have banded together in an attempt to survive. But unbeknownst to them, Benji is starting to mutate and the cult will stop at nothing to get their hands on him.
I have been wanting to read Andrew Joseph White’s debut novel since June for my Pride month series, but since its release, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in stock in my local bookstores.
But maybe it’s serendipitous I only got to read this book now as Hell Followed With Us is The horror book I’ve been looking for this October. With copious amounts of body horror and gore, readers will find themselves cringing in disgust, peeking at the pages through their fingers as Benji gets further along in his transformation.
This transformation was really sold by the way the tension was built through the book. While I never really got the sense that Benji was going to be caught by the ALC—I don’t think that was White’s intention—the slow build of Benji’s symptoms had me genuinely worried for him. As Benji transforms into Seraph, his body constantly expels more and more of his organs, and he did it so frequently that at one point, I doubted he had anything left to throw up.
I also was really intrigued by the use of Biblical scriptures throughout this novel. White really manages to highlight how false prophets, or anybody with bad intentions really, can twist religion and use it for their own nefarious purposes. I think some of it did fly over my head though — I’m sure the use of the term Seraph probably has a deeper meaning than I can recognise and there were a few scenes in the book that I felt like I would have understood the significance of better had I ever really studied the Bible.
I would, however, have liked to see more of the cult’s backstory. We do get glimpses of why they did what they did through epigraphs and Benji’s narrative, but I would have loved to known how they got to the point of creating The Flood and what happened during the initial infection periods. There’s mentions of them being an ecoterrorist cult, but their motivations don’t really point to preventing climate change. but rather general bigotry.
I do feel like Hell Followed With Us would have also benefited from an additional chapter. One of the key arcs in the book is that Benji eventually falls for one of the leaders in ALC, and while it is not the main focus of the book, we do get to see their relationship blossoming over time. After the climax of the book however, there is only really one or two chapters before we get to the acknowledgements. (And for the eagle-eyed ones, you might spot some #booktwt tea.) I mean, I kind of understand why — there is no happy ending in an apocalypse, but it was like the literary equivalent of stepping off a treadmill without cooling down.
Still, this book was terrifying in all the right ways and I’m glad to finally get it off my TBR. If you were looking for a horror book with supernatural and religious elements, and holds up a mirror to our modern day hellscape, you should pick up Hell Followed With Us today.
Rating: 4/5
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White was released 7 June and published by Peachtree Teen.