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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: Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374313357

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

 

 

In this YA dark fantasy, Cadence is a corporeal mage whose magic comes through singing. While she comes from poverty, she is now the principal singer for the queen. Queen Elene, also originally a commoner, overthrew the previous monarchy and has forced the nobility to live in fear. Once a year they must all attend a Performing where the principal singer sings a song intended to cause pain and fear in the nobility. This is Cadence’s first year and when she sees the extraordinary pain her song is causing, she stops singing. Cadence’s disobedience leads to Ren, the queen’s torturer, murdering her dog. In return, Cadence has a tantrum that leads to the death of six people, and refuses to cooperate with the queen.

 

 

The scene of Cadence’s Performing is extremely dark and disturbing, and while we get some backstory on Elene that makes her behavior understandable, Ren and Elene’s cruelty was hard to handle.

 

 

Cadence’s mage training and social class separated her from her closest friend, Remi, who is forced to attend the performance. Remi is later arrested for going to the hospital, which is illegal for nobles, and her father is seized for treason. Elene tells Remi that if she can gain Cadence’s cooperation, she and her father can move to better quarters. Cadence is reluctant but doesn’t want Remi hurt. Despite Cadence’s monstrous actions and Remi’s position as prisoner, the two are falling in love. But Elene’s oppressive reign is about to fall to rebels, and Cadence is the one who has to decide how she will use her voice.

 

 

I like magic systems that involve music, but the magic system can’t stand alone. The character of the mage also matters. This year I have also read the YA fantasy Edgewood, which, while very different in its world building and overall plot, also has a main character who discovers she is a song mage, and she claims her agency even in the face of a cruel and capricious ruler. Cadence is passive, complicit, and easily provoked, so even though I felt sympathy for her situation, I couldn’t really cheer her on. This is supposed to be a sapphic romance inspired by Phantom of the Opera, but outside the mask wearing and the singing I didn’t see much of a connection to Phantom, and while Cadence and Remi did develop a romantic relationship, I don’t see how it could have a happy ending.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 2, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Women by Wol-vriey

cover art for women by wol-vriey

Women by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2021

ISBN: 9781948278430

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

 

The Nigerian splatmaster Wol-vriey’s latest novel of enterpainment, Women is a solid, fast-paced story, but fair warning: it contains scenes of cruelty and sadism unmatched by anything ever written before.  Unlike the somewhat toned-down material in his last novel, The Final Girl, this is the author back with a full-throated roar.  This is ultra-hardcore, and for adults ONLY.

 

The story runs two plot threads concurrently that tie together partway through.  Megan Kemp tracks a friend of hers who is late on paying back a loan, and the trail leads to a mansion in Raynham, Massachusetts.  She goes in to confront him, and winds up in a hell that nothing could have prepared her for.  Five other women are gathered there preparing to end the life of John Miller, the millionaire who married and divorced them all while dodging any sort of alimony payments.  They all got nothing due to their infidelity, which Miller facilitated by hiring a porn star to seduce each of them, thus violating the terms of their respective pre-nups.  While the women plot, Miller is held captive in the basement and subject to the machinations of Mrs. Pain, the mansion owners’ henchwoman for hire. Megan finds herself in a fight to save her life and sanity, while also trying to save John Miller.  Megan is a rare character in the modern world: she has a conscience and wants to help John, even though she has no prior involvement with him.

 

Wol-vriey’s books are usually extremely fast-paced, and this is no exception: the story fires through its 216 pages without a slowdown.  It’s a nice split between action and dialogue to fill out the characters, and there’s enough backstory to evoke feelings of sympathy (or disgust) for the five ex-wives.  Instead of weaving their backstories into the narrative, the author simply inserts a backstory chapter for each of them where appropriate.  It’s a style that works well; they function successfully as interludes to the plot.  It wouldn’t be a Wol-vriey story without a few plot curveballs, and John Miller’s fate, along with that of some of the other main characters, provides them.  Suffice it to say, this is NOT the standard hack-and-slash revenge plot, and the plot twists keep the interest level high.

 

Mention has to be made again of Mrs. Pain, one of the most psychotic characters I’ve ever encountered on paper.  Her acts of sadism make the infamous ‘Animal’ from JF Gonzalez’s landmark horror novel Survivor look like a wimp.  Her actions are what make the book unsuitable for anyone but mature adults, but they do serve a purpose: readers will be praying for her demise in a painful fashion by the end.  She doesn’t spare old people, kids, or fetuses, and grenades, chainsaws, and hedge clippers are tools of her trade.  She is what nightmares are made of.

 

Women is another creative entry in Wol-vriey’s catalogue of excitement and splat, and is perfect for readers of insane fiction who want the boundaries of conventional horror fiction shattered.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 1, 2021 by , Reply
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