Indies Introduce

Young Adult

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  Hell Followed With Us, Andrew Joseph White
  Peachtree Teen, 9781682633243, June 7, 2022 (Young Adult)
  

  “Hell Followed With Us is a utopian model for queer community masquerading as a dystopian YA novel. Andrew Joseph White has dared to create a story where queer kids of all stripes love, fight alongside, and care for each other despite their personal differences, the hellish world outside, and the myriad of things looking to kill them. It is as beautiful as it is hard to read. This is what horror can and should be.”

  —Cliff Helm, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO
  
  

  “This is a book with teeth, with fire, and with a bloody, beating heart. White’s speculative horror YA takes us to a world filled with grotesque monsters — both human and not — and furious teens fighting for their right to live. Just as Benji sheds his skin to become a dark creature of wrath, Hell Followed with Us warps our own world inside out, showing the ugliest and brightest parts that humanity has to offer.”

  —Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX
  

   

  “White states that this book ‘began life as a fit of rage.’ Rage is expressed in a world under the grip of extremists with their demented version of religion. After releasing a plague, the Angel death squads hunt and kill anyone who does not believe and accept their version of truth. Benji, a trans boy, attempts to escape after being injected with a drug to make him the Seraph who will lead them all to their eternal reward. Running from the Angels, Benji finds a group of teens in an LGBTQ center. Nicholas is their leader and then alternate chapters tell the stories of Nick and Benji. White has written a book of gore, violence, and literally vomiting out one’s guts. Fast-paced and difficult to read but more difficult to not read, the underlying message of blindly following a leader is clear.  

  —Shirley Mullin, Kids Ink Children’s Bookstore, Indianapolis, IN