You Weren't Meant to Be Human

De: Andrew Joseph White

Narrado por: Max Meyers

Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.

Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.

©2025 Andrew Joseph White (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

intense but excellent

this book was very intense to listen to but it is astonishingly good. I didn't know what to expect going in and I now don't really know how to explain it to people without just kind of telling them the whole story lol

Ugly crying

Reviewing RIGHT after finishing it and the thing that sticks with me is two things in the marketing that did a great disservice:
Offering it as “Alien meets Midsommar” was not at all accurate. If anything I’d call it closer to a mashup of Incision/Juno/Slither.
Secondly that by a lot of the blurbs I thought it would be more of a sprawling road trip movie like Plan B (2021). It was not.
Most importantly however, it was utterly devastating. I had snot and heavy breathing by the end.
It’s a fever dream of a not so distant future, both disgusting and sexy, sometimes jarring between the two fast enough to give whiplash and leave you to deal with the aftermath on your own.
And for a book about so desperately wanting an abortion it ended up such a touching, deeply heartbreaking devotional to what parental love truly can be in its most extreme form. And I mean stomach turning, audible sobbing in the living room at 2 AM extreme.
It’s so grotesquely beautiful and I feel like I’ll definitely do a reread more than once.

Brutal in the best way

Hard hitting, dark, honest, and sucked me in fully like all the other AJW books have done!

Worms are squishy and gross

This book is so gross and twisted, with characters who are severely messed up but still somehow relatable. I love AJW's writing and this just continued the trend. Keep in mind this is a horror novel for adults with very dark and grotesque content.

Love the story annoyed with the narrator at times

I can’t stand how the narrator whispers and then screams. I have to turn it all the way up to understand the majority of it and then my eardrums get blown out when they scream or the worms talk. It’s sad because I absolutely love this story. I do think this got better as the story went on.

rip my heart out

This was absolutely incredible. This got to me in so many ways. Visceral. Beautiful. Haunting. MAX, oh my god your performance. So, so good.

Incredible narration!

Story was great. Author did a great job at telling a horrific story. The narrator was absolutely brilliant. Made it so visceral.

Truly one of the Most Disturbing Things I’ve ever listened to.

I was absolutely so freaked out the entire time but I couldn’t stop listening. It’s so incredibly well written and reflected a lot of what it’s like to be queer and trans in America today.

Shivers

While I might have scared myself out of being so grossed out by imaging worse outcomes, I still loved the book. White has a way of making cold ice down your spine. I was scared for everyone at least once in the book.

Myers suprised me a few times with the guttural edge of his performance of Crane’s anger and disassociation. The shift in his voice when going back in time with Crane is crazy.

Good work to the both of you.

Amazingly written and completely unsettling

Really well done as a novel and narration. It's one of the most potent and meaningful uses of body horror I've seen or read, and when the hive appeared I almost shat my pants. It is definitely not for the faint of heart of heart, but I fully recommend.