You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

TL;DR: Really… what and wow? Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!!

Plot: A transman finds himself pregnant and at the mercy of a worm cult… it was intense.
Characters: A mess. All of them.
Setting: Dark and atmospheric, it felt somewhat true to the location though I wish we had more.
Horror: This checks almost every horror box I can think of. The worst part by far was the shock horror of the ending scene.

Summary:

Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.

Thoughts:

I have sat on this book just… thinking about it. There is a lot I did like about this. The writing is propulsive, and you move quickly through the story. There is a lot of excellent body horror, insect and mental horror. The slow degradation of Crane as he suffers through the pregnancy, it’s all very good. And yet the parts I disliked, I really disliked.

This felt very much like an extreme horror, and I’m not versed enough in horror to say for sure if it was, but for me this was extreme. Every emotion and scene is taken to the extreme. Every moment is weighty and could almost not get worse for our characters. The ending itself was so out of left field in some of the events that I was left me going ‘no way’. No way would those people show up, and I don’t know that final horrifying act of our protagonist is all that physically possible (also who thinks that up?)

Add to that my own very complicated feelings and journey with pregnancies and childbirth and I’m left at a loss for this one. I do wish we’d had more of the Hive, more out of Crane’s mind, but for what it did it was well executed and written. I think perhaps it wasn’t for me.

Can I recommend it? Maybe? Maybe not? Check every single one of your trigger warnings. Because they’re all in here. That’s the best I can say. What a strange book.