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A review by aemryreads
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
3.0
This took me longer to get into than I had thought it would, especially given the fact that we hit the ground running from page one.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say I was disappointed, but I feel it is my truth. There were elements of this book that were executed very well, one of those things being Nick’s character. However, the execution of this plot left me wanting more which is an issue since the book really focuses on the main plot - its subplots receive less attention than they deserve.
I found myself interested in the religion aspect of it - how could you not be - especially as someone with a religious background. The world building was interested for sure… to an extent. Near the beginning of my read, I found myself sort of being prompted to think about religion and you know, have some thoughts. Prime thinking time. But as the book went on, I found myself a bit bored I guess. And I think that comes down to the writing style.
I’m not sure if this is this author’s first novel (and I’m aware I could look this information up, but frankly it’s my bed time and I’m too lazy), but it seemed at times like they just wanted to get their book over with. There were several points where I wanted more. More information. More description. Details. Character moments. ESPECIALLY during the climax. That was over too soon for my satisfaction. This story deserved more than what it ended up with.
Another issue that came up due to the writing style (for me) was confusion just in general I guess. Don’t think that sentence made sense. Please bear with me.
I still don’t know the relationships between side characters. Who is Sadaf dating? Or is it Aisha? Are they together? There’s a pair that’s together and a third person that is always with them but isn’t part of the couple. Main complaint here is that I wanted more time with these side characters. There were quite a few, by the way, for them not really doing anything other than existing. No offense, but in reality, Cormac is the only one who felt real to me. Everyone else just felt like they were there for numbers.
More confusion arose near the end when Benji was fighting the enemy man. I could just be dumb as rocks but I couldn’t tell at certain points if they were underwater or not. At one point it was like “he shoved me into the water” and then further down the page it was like “he was going to crack my head on the concrete” and I was like huh? I thought we were in the water. Not to say that there can’t be concrete underwater. The wording is just weird and creates confusion.
It had a lot of potential, but it felt pretty flat to me overall. Pretty cool concept though. Definitely engaged in some pondering while reading this.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say I was disappointed, but I feel it is my truth. There were elements of this book that were executed very well, one of those things being Nick’s character. However, the execution of this plot left me wanting more which is an issue since the book really focuses on the main plot - its subplots receive less attention than they deserve.
I found myself interested in the religion aspect of it - how could you not be - especially as someone with a religious background. The world building was interested for sure… to an extent. Near the beginning of my read, I found myself sort of being prompted to think about religion and you know, have some thoughts. Prime thinking time. But as the book went on, I found myself a bit bored I guess. And I think that comes down to the writing style.
I’m not sure if this is this author’s first novel (and I’m aware I could look this information up, but frankly it’s my bed time and I’m too lazy), but it seemed at times like they just wanted to get their book over with. There were several points where I wanted more. More information. More description. Details. Character moments. ESPECIALLY during the climax. That was over too soon for my satisfaction. This story deserved more than what it ended up with.
Another issue that came up due to the writing style (for me) was confusion just in general I guess. Don’t think that sentence made sense. Please bear with me.
I still don’t know the relationships between side characters. Who is Sadaf dating? Or is it Aisha? Are they together? There’s a pair that’s together and a third person that is always with them but isn’t part of the couple. Main complaint here is that I wanted more time with these side characters. There were quite a few, by the way, for them not really doing anything other than existing. No offense, but in reality, Cormac is the only one who felt real to me. Everyone else just felt like they were there for numbers.
More confusion arose near the end when Benji was fighting the enemy man. I could just be dumb as rocks but I couldn’t tell at certain points if they were underwater or not. At one point it was like “he shoved me into the water” and then further down the page it was like “he was going to crack my head on the concrete” and I was like huh? I thought we were in the water. Not to say that there can’t be concrete underwater. The wording is just weird and creates confusion.
It had a lot of potential, but it felt pretty flat to me overall. Pretty cool concept though. Definitely engaged in some pondering while reading this.