Benji is a sixteen-year-old transgender boy fleeing the Angels, a fundamentalist cult that triggered a biological apocalypse to cleanse the earth. Before he escaped, the cult injected Benji with a bio-engineered virus designed to mutate him into a massive, multi-winged monster known as Seraph, capable of finishing the human extinction. Benji finds sanctuary with a group of queer rebels living in an abandoned LGBTQ+ youth center. While Benji struggles to control his decaying, transforming body, he begins a tense alliance with Nick, a ruthless marksman who leads the center’s defense. Together, they fight to dismantle the cult’s influence while Benji’s physical form slowly turns into the very weapon meant to destroy his friends.
Readers who enjoy body horror and stories about reclaiming identity from religious trauma will gravitate toward this book. It serves those interested in seeing physical transformation used as a metaphor for gender dysphoria and agency. The narrative provides a visceral look at survival in a landscape of collapse, showing how marginalized people build community against systemic violence. A reader finishes the book with a concrete understanding of how anger can be repurposed into a tool for self-preservation and collective resistance.
Insights from Hell Followed With Us
“I am a monster, and I am gorgeous.”
Benji turning into a literal monster felt like the most honest way to show dysphoria. It is messy and loud and terrifyingly beautiful.
“The cult is a meat grinder.”
Watching the angels hunt people made me realize how scary faith becomes when it loses its heart. It is just a weapon with wings.
“I’ll love you until the world ends.”
Nick chooses to stay by Benji even when the scales and teeth start showing. That kind of loyalty is the only thing that actually survives the apocalypse.
The way the ALC kids built a home in an old LGBTQ center felt so real. They took the scraps of a world that hated them and made it safe.
- Published
- 2022
- Language
- EN
