Mary: It’s time once again for YA Book Club, where we share our love of young adult lit by reading the most interesting picks we can find. Today we’re talking about Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. This apocalyptic tale follows Benji, a 16-year-old transgender boy, as he attempts to escape his claustrophobic religious cult. The cult has literal monsters (or Graces) that it uses to terrorize others, and Benji is actually turning into the greatest monster of all – the Seraph. However, when Benji finds the ALC – once a youth center for queer youth, now a refuge for those same teens – he begins to think that it might just be possible to escape his fate.
In a note in the book, White said that he wanted to write a YA book that felt messy and raw, an imperfect view of queer youth. How do you think that came through in the novel?
Emily: Well, everyone was certainly messy in this. I don’t know if I have a more nuanced answer than that. But I will say, for better or for worse, the characters felt very young. Which meant they were super annoying a lot of the time. But I guess that’s realistic because teens are annoying. Still, I’ll be real. It wasn’t always fun to read.
Mary: I totally agree that a lot of the characters felt very young and immature, and I can’t tell if I’m just getting older or if it was the book. I think something that I struggled with – and this is both depressing and showing my age – was that everyone at the ALC was so accepting and affirming of each other in terms of gender. It wasn’t uncommon for characters to ask each other their pronouns when first meeting each other, and there was a clear contrast between how the ALC treated gender and how Benji’s church treated it. I think that, living in Mississippi, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine that level of inclusivity, or believe it, so each time someone politely asked for pronouns I felt myself taken out of the story a little bit. I was like, oh so we can be this nice to each other during a literal apocalypse??
Emily: Okay, I’m going to come out in defense of this because the people Benji was interacting with in this situation were a bunch of people from a youth center for queer teens. So I feel like even today, even in Mississippi, if you went into a place like that, they would politely ask you your pronouns and share theirs.
Mary: That’s fair! Look, I want to believe in this world, but I felt so pessimistic reading this book at times.
The flipside of the very progressive, accepting ALC is the Angels, the cultish church group that believes it has to kill the world in order to destroy it. The Angels release “the Flood,” a virus that seems to melt your organs from the inside out, and slowly begins razing the world to the ground. Benji has a super special version of the Flood that’s turning him into Seraph, the monster to end all monsters who has a special place in the apocalypse. I felt frustrated at several points in the book because I wanted to know what this cult was up to. What was their whole deal? What did they believe specifically? A lot of the beats are the same as things we’re familiar with – super traditional Christian ideology – but the whole deal with monsters seemed…wild. I just had a hard time piecing together how we got there.
Thought it would be more like this TBH
Emily: Yeah, I really wasn’t trying to figure out how we got there at any point. This world is so far removed from the world we know that I just kind of went with it.
Mary: You mentioned that this book wasn’t always fun to read – and I agree. What made the book feel like a struggle for you?
Emily: I didn’t really enjoy reading about any of the characters. There was a lot of transphobia and bigotry in this book, which I know was used to make a point, but it wasn’t fun to read about. I was frustrated with Benji, the main character, because he was still holding onto feelings for a guy who was clearly manipulative and abusive, which again, was hard to read about. And also read as very young to me. In general, this is one of those YA books that felt like it was really just for young people. Which is fine, but I didn’t like reading it.
Mary: Yeah, I agree – and I hate that I didn’t like it more. I know that the author wanted to make something that was raw and gritty or whatever, but like you said, it wasn’t enjoyable at all. I appreciated some of the bigger worldbuilding ideas, but that was about it. I also think that I might have had a totally different take on this if I was actually part of the intended youthful audience.
I had a hard time with the pacing of the book. Certain parts that didn’t need to be drawn out (in my opinion) were extremely long, while things I wanted to know more about were sort of breezed over. I also didn’t feel particularly moved by the driving force of the plot. Benji wants to go back – as Seraph I guess? – and destroy the Angels once and for all, but like… is that going to destroy dangerous ideology? Can you really completely wipe out something like that?
Emily: No, ultimately, it didn’t really feel like much was accomplished in this story. It feels like there should probably be a sequel to this. But even if there was, I’m unsure where it would go. And I definitely wouldn’t be reading it.
Mary: For sure – this is going to sound really crappy of me, but a lot of this novel felt like a bad D&D campaign. Kind of wandering, lots of NPCs I didn’t really care about but some unknown force tried to make me care about, a battle with the big bad at the end that – though the book tried to imply there were big stakes – didn’t feel significant. I also wouldn’t be joining in for a sequel, sadly. Again, maybe this just wasn’t for us, and that’s okay!
Emily: Yeah, it certainly has an audience, but very early into this one, I knew it wasn’t for me. The only reason I finished it was for this blog.
Mary: I’m honestly at a loss for what else to say about this one. It kind of just is what it is, and that thing was not for me. I appreciate the mission, appreciate what it’s trying to do, and think that it’s got some good worldbuilding (in parts), but it didn’t do it for me. I think I originally rated the book much higher than I feel about it now, because I read the last parts so quickly, but in retrospect, it wasn’t that enjoyable for all the reasons mentioned above.
Emily: Ultimately, I gave it 3 stars because I do think this book will be appealing to some people, and I would recommend it to those people. Not sure who they are… Probably young people who think of themselves as “edgy” would love this book. But I am not young nor am I “edgy,” so… 3 stars.
Mary: I also gave it 3 stars. It was fine, but definitely just not for me.
Next up we’ve got something completely different, though! We’re reading Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elyse Bryant! This looks like a cute, nerdy rom-com that is equal parts cozy and tuned in to most of my hobbies, so I’m hyped.
Emily: So hyped! We’ll be back with that one soon, I hope!