I've read all three of Andrew Joseph White's books this year. This is the one he's best known for, I think, and is my least favourite of the three but still utterly fantastic.

This book is vulnerable, messy, and tangled in the weight of its limbs - in the best way, of course. I adored Benji and Nick (I maintain that AJW's greatest strength is the writing of his autistic characters. I was obsessed with Nick), and Theo's complexity was also fascinating. I enjoyed the supporting characters even if a few were a little one-note, but what they built was a hopeful landscape in a near-hopeless setting (which was also fantastically pieced together).

The thing that really blew me away about Hell Followed With Us was its empathy. Normally, there's a predictable response to what is functionally the zombies of a zombie apocalypse, and the different approach taken to the Graces was both surprising and did a lot for making this book as unique as it was. Characters in this book do terrible things for reasons that make sense in their own way, and the understanding of that was really heartfelt.

Some of the religious elements of HFWU were uncomfortable - I have no kind of evangelical background, so the strongest association for most of the religious framing was Christianity's worst kind of bigotry. Most of the stuff in this book is intentionally worse, though, and I know it was meant to make me uncomfortable so. Success! 

The only place this book ever really falls down is the ending, which - while satisfying - felt rushed. I got the impression a few times while reading that this used to be a longer novel that had to be edited down in the first and final quarters, and would have liked a little more breathing room at the end. Otherwise, this was an incredible piece of work and I can't wait for the movie AND everything else that White writes next.