Hell Followed With Us (“HFWU”) is a 2022 YA Science Fiction novel by debut author Andrew Joseph White. White, a queer, trans author from Virginia, is an MFA graduate with a long-time fascination with anything horror. HFWU draws on all of his background to present a fresh take on the story of a young queer kid leaving their birth family to find a home with a found one.

HFWU is set in a world that inhabits a violent Christian religious movement that sought to bring about the prophecies of Revelation. To that end, they developed a grotesque and violent virus that, if it didn’t outright kill its victims, would transform them into holy beasts called ‘Graces’. Everyone outside of this movement calls them abominations, for that’s what the messes of flesh and teeth are. We aren’t given an exact number, but presumably billions died or were transformed.

Against this backdrop of apocalyptic body horror is our protagonist. Benji is a teenager just coming to terms with his identity as a trans man. He also has the unfortunate distinction of being both the child of the leader of the religious group and the host of a ‘perfected’ form of the virus, called Seraph, something that would turn him into an angel on earth. Benji’s conditioning within the religious movement is reinforced by seemingly unconscious mental recitation of biblical quotes to fit the moment, even as he rejects his upbringing.

He escapes the compound that his mother trapped him in and finds refuge in a local LGBTQ+ group that have turned to holding out together in the face of apocalypse. The Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, the ALC, is an immediate haven for Benji, who still has to struggle with the continued bodily changes caused by the virus and keeping it secret, all the while encountering many of the prejudices felt even within the LGBTQ+ community.

This isn’t the first instance that body horror has been used as a metaphor for transitioning and gender dysphoria. HFWU shines distinctly by reinforcing Benji’s internal drive to be seen as a man, even in the face of a far more drastic bodily transition, one that is as inescapable as it is ultimately violent. While natural puberty wouldn’t cause the sheer physical horror that Seraph entails, the same sort of shame and self-hatred experienced viscerally by Benji can allow the audience to relate to his experience.

Portraying Seraph’s threat in this way is an excellent direction that White takes. Benji is content with their body before the onset of the virus; it’s only when the physical changes of Seraph become undeniable that Benji begins to cover up more, to try to compensate and keep himself and others from seeing the effects of Seraph. White’s choice to replace traditional gender dysphoria with the fear of Seraph allows for a discussion on the determination and fear of a young trans person while allowing any reader, no matter their background, to understand the threat of puberty for a significant portion of youth today.

In addition to White’s intended themes of found family and queer rage, I picked up on the argument that the struggles of identity and transition are timeless and will persist no matter how far divorced we become from a unified society. Even in the face of the sheer devastation wrought upon Benji’s world, it makes sense that kids like him will still have the same self-confidence and image issues that we do today. That’s not going to go away. The climax of the story reinforces the idea that Benji’s identity is ultimately up to him and his physical appearance has no bearing on it.

Definite kudos to Andrew Joseph White for writing an optimistic, uplifting take on the YA Post-Apoclaypse genre by being unapologetically queer in a way that will embolden its audience.