Loved this! Another favorite of the year. Highly recommend it for those deconstructing from religion (especially Christianity), and especially, if you're part of the LGBTQ community.

One of my favorite passage from the book:

"When I was born, Mom named me after a women in the Old Testament. She was a Jewish queen and one of the most beautiful women her kingdom had ever known. When her cousin offended the king's adviser, the adviser gained permission from the king to slaughter her people - but Esther foiled the plan and instead allowed her people to slaughter their enemies in turn. Mom thought she could name me Esther and not even consider the woman who saved those she loved? Or is the Angels' persecution complex so deep-rooted they think they are the ones who need saving?

Who am I kidding? I know damn well it is.

If Mom wanted to name me Esther, then fine. I'll live up to the name and lay it in an honored resting place at their graves. I won't be "blessed Seraph," I will be not be theirs, and there is nothing they can do about it. I've taken what they've given me and turned it into a mockery of them. I will turn it into what destroys them.

If they want me to be a monster one step closer to God, that's fine.

In what world was their God ever a benevolent one?"

I LOVE that last line. Can't recommend this enough, especially if you're a horror fan! ( )

2 / 5 ⭐️‘s

"Hell Followed With Us" by Andrew Joseph White

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say about this one. I should have DNF’d it…

The amount of religion and bible verses were way to overwhelming that it ruined this one for me.

For me this book was book was Hilary Faye and I was Mary…


( )

This is a powerful story about how religious trauma can impact someone and the harm that the religious extremism has on society. The descriptions are impactful, both on accurately showing the trauma queer people can face from exclusion, but also the strength that comes from having a community. It made me cry several times. ( )

2022. An extreme quasi-Christian cult has decided that Earth has grown too full of sin and needs to be cleansed again. They engineer a virus which they call The Flood. It kills off most of humanity. Then they form into militias and go around shooting anyone who’s left. A 16-year-old trans kid, named Benji escapes from the cult and takes up with a bunch of trans and queer kids living in their old lgbtqia+ center for a while. Unfortunately Benji is kind of a lynchpin in the cult, and they want him back. They’ve infected him with something that’s turning him into a monster to help them finish off the rest of humanity. He opts to finish them off instead and stay with his new friends, even if he is a monster now. Pretty good read. The religious stuff was a little weak and repetitive to me, and I’d rather it had been an adult novel so it could have had some actual sex in it. But probably good for the youngsters. Includes dysphoria, non-binary genders, and the neo-pronouns xe/xem/xyr. ( )

This book had a lot of promise. It was thought provoking in regards to queer survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Also, the description of a religious cult was well done. Unfortunately, I felt that it had too many flaws. The pacing was rough. I started to lose patience with things being drawn out too long. I feel like it tried to include relationships between characters that ended up not being drawn fully because the plot needed to progress. So some characters end up with loose ends. Also, there were a lot of things left vague. It was unclear how the Graces were controlled. The whole mechanism of the virus was vague and non-specific. There were just a lot of problems. To echo some other reviews, I wish I liked this more because it had potential. ( )