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Book Review: Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

Cover art for Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White.

Peachtree Teen, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1682633243

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Hell Followed with Us is an incredible and original book, but it is not an easy read. It is a scream of rage. Make sure to read the author’s content warnings at the beginning of the book.

 

Benji is a trans boy injected with a virus that will turn him into a genocidal monster, a Seraph, for a doomsday cult, the Angels. He tries running away but is captured by the cult’s death squad. A group called the Watch, queer teens inhabiting their destroyed teen center for LGBTQ+ youth, attacks and kills everyone in the death squad except Benji, who is offered refuge by the leader, Nick, an autistic gay boy. Nick knows Benji is the Seraph, but hides it to protect him, believing that his powers will allow him to control the Graces, monstrous creatures made from infected bodies trained by the Angels to attack nonbelievers.

 

The Watch successfully attacks a church with Benji’s help. Benji discovers his fiance, Theo, is hiding in the church, and visits him there, only to find that the visit was used by the Angels as an opportunity to burn down the home of the Watch. As Benji continues to physically disintegrate into the Seraph, he makes a plan with Nick to pretend to return and cooperate with the Angels, despite their murder of his father, transphobia, and religious extremism. While the first plan is botched and Benji turns fully into a Seraph, a second plan unleashes a bloodbath on the Angels and frees the Watch from fear and persecution..

 

Andrew Joseph White wrote this for trans kids facing a hostile world, to give them a mirror of a trans boy who fights back. But it’s not necessary to be trans or queer to be wowed by it.  So many of the major characters were queer that I got to see many different aspects of how they characters experienced their queerness, and it also didn’t become the only factor defining their identities. I loved the found family feeling of the members of the Watch, looking out for each other in a hostile world.

 

It’s difficult to imagine how hard-right evangelical Christianity in this country could get more repressive and violent than it currently is, but somehow White takes it to an even more terrifying extreme. Highly recommended.

 

 

Contains: transphobia, deadnaming, misgendering, graphic violence, domestic, child, and religious abuse, body horror

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on December 18, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland

Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland
Filthy Loot, 2022
ISBN-13: 978-1088029046
Available: Paperback ( Bookshop.org )

 

Before anyone starts quoting Austin Powers in a bad accent, the shagging Rebecca Rowland refers to is quite different. The title does fit the novella though, yet I can’t divulge too much. It’s unique and a quick read, easy for one sitting but this story stuck to me like a great meal– more on that later.

 

Publishing is a bloody business. It makes strolling through hell feel like petting puppies in a field of flowers. It’s not for the weak-hearted or those who want validation. When the unnamed main character arrives at a book conference, fresh in the field and looking for bites, she’s looking for a foot in the door, something to break into a world that is full of monsters of the human kind. What she finds isn’t exactly what LinkedIn typically suggests. A strange man, Daniel, greets her at a book convention and invites her back to his hotel room, but the favor he offers isn’t exactly the sexist situation that too often occurs in the corporate world. It’s something much different. He makes her an offer after she awakes to find he took something from her– something physical– but reassures her all will be well, because of what he is, a boogeyman of sorts. To be specific, a yara-ma-yha-who, a creature of opportunity who consumes their prey, only to expel them– somehow changed. To say more would ruin the novella’s magic. The relationship and interplay between the apprentice and Daniel is pure fun to read. The book begs to be completed in one enjoyable sitting (yet I’ve gone through it twice and picked up on some cool nuances I missed the first time).

 

Rowland has been moving like a banshee, editing anthologies left and right (her Generation-Exed is perfect for the best group of people out there!), but this is my first time reading her prose. It won’t be the last. Comparisons are not necessary, yet one could be drawn between Elizabeth Massie and Joe R. Lansdale due to the smooth writing and easy dialogue.

 

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who is involved in the shark-infested world of writing and publishing.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on December 17, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Bone Worms: The Expanded and Revised Edition by Keith Minnion

Cover art for The Bone Worms by Keith Minnion

The Bone Worms: The Expanded and Revised Edition by Keith Minnion

Cemetery Dance Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1587678547

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Cemetery Dance | Amazon..com )

 

The Bone Worms is one of the best horror novels of the past decade. That’s high praise, but well-earned. Keith Minnion has long been a force in the horror genre, both as an author and artist. He made his name as an illustrator for several magazines and publishers, most notably and recently for the Stephen King/Richard Chizmar novels Gwendy’s Button Box and Gwendy’s Magic Feather. His short stories have been making the rounds since 1979, and his two collections have garnered high praise.

 

This expanded and updated edition of Minnion’s earlier book The Bone Worms is immensely readable and well-written. It tears into ground that feels untrodden and fresh. These days, finding something that is both new and successful in execution is tough. This novel nails it on both counts. It is easily one of the strongest entries in the genre in the past ten years, a very strong time for dark novels. Just dive into the story with as little advance knowledge as possible

 

The sky holds secrets that man has yet to figure out: the boneyard exists somewhere above the clouds. To explain the bone worms and their lair would be akin to spilling the secrets of a macabre Santa. 

 

Back in 1921,  a six-year old is taken for a biplane ride for his birthday party. Something terrible happens up in the sky, in the boneyard, that will scar the boy and his friend for life. Many years later, in 1983, the boys, now senior citizens, hole up in an apartment together, one trying to keep the other safe from what’s been seeking them for decades.

 

Detective Frank Lomax searches Philadelphia for the killer who’s been flaying victims open all over town. Left behind are gruesome crime scenes– yet no bones. Fresh off a breakdown, he knows this case could make him, or shatter his psyche for good. The deeper he plunges into the world of the bone worms, the stranger the case becomes, and the edges of reality fray with each clue uncovered.

 

Part horror novel, part police procedural, part thriller, The Bone Worms will rattle readers’ bones, at least while they’re still inside the body. Easily one of the best reads of this year.

 

This gorgeous edition includes extras and artwork. Minnion also created the dazzling cover.

 

Recommended reading for fans of great storytelling.

 

Posted on December 12, 2022 by , Reply
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