Hell Followed with Us

De: Andrew Joseph White

Narrado por: Shaan Dasani, Graham Halstead, Avi Roque

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors.

"A long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like, well, a virus." —The New York Times

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 get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But 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: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him 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. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation.

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A William C. Morris Award Finalist
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A YAVA Award Nominee!
A Booklist Editors' Choice Selection
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
Named to the ALA Rainbow Roundtable's Rainbow Book List

©2022 Andrew Joseph White (P)2022 Listening Library

might be better as a physical book?

some of the action scenes are hard to follow and I had to relisten to them to fully comprehend what was happening in the plot.
otherwise, it's an awesome tale for anyone looking to see the trans experience so beautiful put to words (albeit within a dystopian, hell-like future)

Excellent

I felt so represented. Autistic characters, queer characters, and a healthy helping of fighting religious trauma. Everything is so interconnected between the main character's situation with their trauma and accepting their own queerness in the midst of the apocalypse. I will definitely be listening to it again!

Definitely recommend

Definitely recommend this book if you are interested in LGBTQA+ trying to survive areas like the video games in fall out. The three voice actors are able to capture the characters emotion and reads amazingly

A hard read, but we'll worth the pain if it's in your wheelhouse

I don't think I can recommend this book to just anyone. It is a very LGTBQ+ story (Heavy CWs for transphobia and bigotry, among many others), and its viscerally upsetting both in it's incredibly dark, heavy setting, and in it's horror. I imagine that most readers would be turned away very early on if they don't have a strong stomach for violence, suffering, hatered and the cruelty humans can inflict on eachother.

That being said though, after having gone through it, it can honestly say that it was well worth the pain I experienced to get to the end. It is a beautiful, shocking, and ultimately hopeful story despite its darkness, and I am glad to have read it, and happy to have it in my library. I'll probably need a palette cleanser before I pick up another of the authors books though.

If you are someone who is okay with intense body horror, and want a storyline about trans existence and hope in the face of despair, I can't recommend it enough.

Leaves me searching

For a new sense of self. A good book can change you, but only a great book can transform you, can twist you up bit by bit and build a new self for you. I will be searching for a new trans self that processes anger and allows myself to be angry. A self that does not shy away from my bigness or my monstrousness and frees others from the confines of religion that I was raised in. A self that fights for a better tomorrow so no one has to wind up in the one described by White. The imagery is incredible, characters well developed, plot just convoluted enough to make sense without being light years ahead of it. A beautiful read.

Incredible work through and through

This story was equal parts relatable, terrifying and beautiful. The performance makes me so glad I choose an audio book! Great to see representation where our suffering is also our salvation.

beautiful story

Great read for anyone still with religious trauma and still angry about it. . .

cool concept and interesting story

definitely worth a read, I enjoyed the authors take on Christian nationalism and religious trauma. Even as a trans man myself I didn't identify much with the main character but enjoyed seeing other's perspective on their queer experiences.

Trans teen who does right

I loved how Benji felt real, how they are hurt, the narrative, the ending, it was all amazing

So powerful!

I do not have words to describe how powerful this book is. How much beautiful and love came through despite the gore, horror, and death. The language itself has a cadence to it, like poem. I love the narrators and the author!!!