⚠️Don’t skip over the content/trigger warnings!

Early bird gets the worm! 🐛 Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC!

This book is raw, unfiltered and doesn’t hold anything back. I appreciate that the most, and the author’s courage to write and release his message to the world. Mental health is no joke, and I’m glad to finally see a story that acknowledges, without demonizing, all the intrusive thoughts and things it makes you do (or not do).

As creative as the fantasy aspect of the book is, the swarm, I feel like it wasn’t explored enough and the world kind of sat on the border of believable real life. I saw somebody say that the swarm could’ve been replaced with a cult and I share that sentiment. It would’ve planted the story in the real world and made it much more impactful.

All in all:

3 🐛🐛🐛!

i'm not even sure where to start. i don't even know how to put into words my thoughts nor my feelings. saying "i loved this book" helps to sum it up, but only a little bit. if anything, really.

i want to devour this book. i want every word, every paragraph, and every pause tattoed on my body. i want to dissect this book. tear of its pages and study them so meticulously the paper gets worn and discolored.

i liked how the author and explored the topics. i'm not typically a fan of body horror, but to be fair i'm most exposed to it through cinema rather than books. in fact, i can't recall any other book i've read within this theme, so perhaps it works best for me in literature and it's a sign for me to further explore it. that, or this book is truly something else.

i saw other reviewers mention white's previous work. this, however, was my first time being introduced to them so it's not viable for me to make a comparison of any sorts. what i can say is that i'm definitely interested to explore his work further, without a shadow of doubt.

i'd very much love to own a physical copy of it - and that's the highest compliment in my book. i think that gets my message across better than just "loved it."

I went into this with really high expectations and unfortunately it fell short for me in a lot of ways. I love the writing style and the concept but the execution and all the depravity the main character goes through felt like it was just there for shock value and didn’t provide anything to the story.

I honestly don't know how to feel after reading this book. It was such an incredibly written visceral horror and it will stay with me forever.

At times I wanted to put the book down due to how horrific things were for Crane but I genuinely couldn't do it. I was absolutely hooked.

This is a phenomenal book and I will definitely be reading more of their work!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Daphne Press for providing me with this arc

I thought I would never be ready for Andrew Joseph White adult debut and I was, in fact, not.
At first I was unsure to pick it up because of the pregnancy horror theme which is something that deeply unsettles me. Not the fact that it is deemed as an horror but pregnancy itself, thinking it would be too gruesome to handle. I'm actually glad I picked it up, for it resonated with me and, additionally, it's a great commentary on pregnancy, domestic abuse and trans identity, considering the current political situation. Despite the fact that I could handle this read, and in fact I actually devoured it in a day, it is still visceral, with a gut-wrenching prose and story. The loss of control over one's body can never be not deeply unsettling and here it is portrayed nauseatingly well. Putting aside the worms' part of the story, this is an horror that portrays what is currently happening and the reality of it makes it thousands of times more terrifying.

Five star read for me! Loved how transgender issues were explored through the use of horror and the forced pregnancy. The ending shocked me and blew me away! Would love a prequel that focused more on the worms themselves and the cult. Such a phenomenal read that I actually purchased the physical copy afterwards

I bloody loved this book. It’s raw, necessary, and deeply uncomfortable in all the ways it needs to be. Andrew Joseph White doesn’t just write horror - he drags you into it, makes you live it, and refuses to let you look away. The body horror is grotesque and unflinching, but beneath all the worms and gore is something far more devastating: a story about control, autonomy, and the violence of being forced into roles you never chose.

Crane’s perspective is messy, claustrophobic, and brutally honest. At times it feels like being trapped in their skin, and that’s exactly what makes it so effective. White’s writing is both tender and terrifying - sometimes in the same sentence.

This isn’t an easy read, and it isn’t meant to be. It’s polarising, it’s harsh, and it won’t be for everyone. But for me, it was unforgettable. It left me sick, shaken, and strangely seen.

Uncomfortable, yes. But also brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC read. My opinions are my own.

This is an incredibly well-done novel of shockingly good pregnancy horror, totally unhinged, absolutely wild, a story brimming with originality, poignance, and well-justified rage, written in deceptively plain, arresting prose! I've never read anything like it: the courage to write something so heartfelt, yet also horrifying and thoughtful; the sheer audacity to trample over several horror tropes to end up with a story so real yet also heart-piercing in ways so hard to imagine - how to convey the complexity of emotion and the novelty of ideas without spoilers?

So many twists, every one integral to the plot; a troubled young trans man as a main character, without whom nothing would make sense in the story; a former marine who kills as easily as drawing breath; and a mysterious batshit crazy idea of an insect hive mind, flies and worms, invading societies, bodies, and dark places all over. The depravity, the pain, the gore, the body horror - the body as a battlefield of ethics and politics, the mind as a battleground of perception versus ideology, the nature versus nurture dilemma - all have their place in this book of deep moral and mental conflict. The elaborate employment of the body invasion horror trope is just a bonus!

Last but certainly not least - THAT ENDING. Had to put the book down and rethink my concepts of freedom, morality, and justice. Had no trouble with the abuse, the question of consent, the forced pregnancy, the found family disaster, the male toxicity and the arrogance of the bug hive mind - but when THAT happened, I needed to recapture something lost, the raw simplicity of the violent choice, a conception I'd lost as an adult. Can't say more about it, except that the shock I felt revealed more about me than the author or the book in hindsight.

Can't recommend this enough. A journey few people can easily stomach, hard to believe that something very much like it is probably happening in the US today.

Andrew Joseph White has long proved himself to be an unapologetically bold, unflinching, and provocative author with his young adult works (all of which are absolute favourites for me), but nothing could have prepared me for what he had in store in his adult queer horror debut You Weren’t Meant to Be Human. This is one of those deeply disturbing books that I adore and abhor in equal measure, and I think that is exactly what makes it such a masterpiece.

“Crane doesn’t know this yet, but he’s been pregnant for almost three months already.”
That is the very first line/chapter of You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, and if that doesn’t set the scene, then I don’t know what does. There’s no tiptoeing around what this story is going to be about; you better buckle up real quick or get out while you still can, because shit is about to get wild.

“The swarm buzzes. The worms slide over each other in a constant wet undertone, like saliva swishing in the mouth, or – or when intestines squirm about on the operating table. His eyes are adjusting to the dark and some of the worms are watching. Older ones, with dull bodies and heavy jaws.”

Through the eyes of our autistic, mute, and transgender protagonist Crane, we’re transported into a dystopianish near-future version of rural West Virginia where festering masses of worms and flies offer salvation to the broken souls of society in return for fresh corpses and unwavering loyalty. And honestly, Crane is grateful for the new life that his hive has given him… until he discovers that his walking red flag of a sex buddy has gotten him pregnant and the hive demands that the child be born. Which, surprise, Crane is not thrilled by, and he will stop at nothing to terminate the pregnancy, even if it sends him and his dysfunctional found family into a tragic spiral that can only end in destruction.

“A total lack of self-image, he’s heard, is an autism thing. Or a trauma thing, Aspen would point out. But he’s not traumatized. A walking collection of bad decisions, sure, and a masochist with way too many messy kinks, absolutely. Traumatized? That is a word for veterans and rape victims, not him. After all, the hive saved him.”

Needless to say, You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is not a fun read, but then I don’t think it was ever meant to be fun in the first place. Initially I was a bit worried that I’d have a hard time getting invested in a story with a protagonist who doesn’t speak, but the opposite couldn’t be more true; Crane’s strong voice and personality drips off every page, and I soon found myself completely absorbed in his (unpleasant) headspace. Moreover, White’s raw, visceral and intoxicating prose is stronger than ever before, which made it simply impossible to put this book down no matter how much it upset me. Or maybe I just kept turning the pages out of a sheer desperate desire for this tragic nightmare to be over as quickly as possible, and I fully realise how privileged I am in saying that.

You see, this might be a fictional tale full of skin-crawling body horror and weird cultish alien (?) worm invasion shenanigans à la Nick Cutter’s The Troop, but Crane’s harrowing journey as a (unwillingly) pregnant transgender man is an all too real and human experience that is grossly underrepresented and unfairly treated as taboo in our society. My heart absolutely broke while reading You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, not only for Crane, but also for all the marginalized people in real life who are forced to survive instead of thrive in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile when all they want to do is just peacefully live as their true authentic selves.

“You pleaded for us to do as we wished with you, didn’t you? To mold you in our image. To give you a place. To make your choices, change your body, make you into something useful. To keep you from being something other than fuckmeat and repulsive lust and fear. To make the outside match the inside. How fortunate, then, that we’ve given you what you want.”

Now, I don’t want to make it seem like You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is all suffering and despair. Yes, this is a story full of nauseating body horror and graphic on-page triggers that explores self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, toxic love and the devastating dangers of unwanted/forced pregnancy in the most gruesome and unflinching way, but at the same time it also offers some beautiful messages of friendship, acceptance, sacrificial love, and learning to embrace the darkest, ugliest parts of yourself. And yes, Crane is one hell of a complicated man full of flaws and scars (both physical and emotional), but I truly love him in all his messy glory.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human just starts with a bang and then somehow only gets more and more intense, leading up to one of the most upsetting yet weirdly cathartic endings I have ever read. And you know what, I love it all the more for it. White accomplished exactly what he set out to do with this story, and I honestly think he is up there with Stephen Graham Jones, Eric LaRocca and Chuck Tingle as one the most talented, subversive and important voices in the speculative horror genre right now. This book is absolutely not for the faint of heart, but I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Daphne Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Andrew Joseph White does it again. While he's perfected the Young Adult horror with Hell Followed With Us, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and YA thriller in Compound Fracture, this adult horror story is another hit.
Crane's world involves solely his hive, it's all he's wanted, or all he's been made to believe to want. When he gets pregnant , involuntary might I add, and his hive decides he has to keep the baby, his self-destruction gets to a point where he gets appointed a personal worm-human/grey-skinned-grumbling-corpse/hive-assistant.
The novel clings to discomfort to make the story whole, it is an absolute integral part of it. Unwanted pregnancy is invasive and violating, and the abusive environment is inescapable for Crane.
What I love most about AJW's works, is that while the subject may be science-fiction, the motivation and actions of characters are always rooted in real life. Abusive community's, unwanted pregnancy and transphobia are all currant affairs, political affairs.
I genuinely have never been this horrified while reading a book, ever. That's not to say that I didn't love it though, because I absolutely do. I was stuck to the pages and had the constant dilemma between this is too much and I can' take it anymore, and I can't look away. I am glad to eventually have finished it, because in the story shelters some form of hope, or if that of recognition. I am a firm believer of art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, and this sure does the job.
I absolutely recommend to try to read this book, but firstly carefully read the trigger warnings because there were times I would've liked to crawl out of my skin.

Thank you to Daphne Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review You Weren't Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

I truly don't even know where to start with reviewing You Weren't Meant To Be Human. Ever since I finished the book sometime around 2am the day of release I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. There's so much to think about. And yet every attempt I've made at putting my thoughts to words doesn't feel right. What could I say that Andrew Joseph White didn't say himself in the book? I cried, a lot, upon finishing the book to the point I gave myself a headache that lasted for several hours after. At times Crane's perspective was like looking into a mirror that reflected the worst parts of myself as an autistic trans man who spent so long wondering what the hell is wrong with me. I've always struggled with understanding my feelings and putting them into words which later led to a diagnosis of alexithymia and in a similar way I don't think I'll ever be able to accurately understand or describe how I feel about this book. All I know right now in this moment in time is that I don't think I'm the same person I was when I first picked this book up.

This was WILD!!!!!!!!
What did I just read?
One of the rawest and most intense books I’ve ever come across. Oh my god 😭

This book is about freedom and identity. It explores our society, both the present we live in and the future we’re heading toward if something doesn’t change.

5 stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts!!

this book shook me to my very core. i was so uncomfortable i couldn't get to sleep. as a transmasc person who was recently pregnant with a particular fear of body horror and swarms of things this absolutely was created specifically to fuck me up.

it explores the truly dark parts of disability and identity and autonomy and does not hold punches. it embraces the deeply disturbed thoughts that traumatised people can have and does not romanticise a single moment. it somehow makes someone who is deeply broken and fucked up and out of control of their life relatable on so many levels.

and i absolutely loved it.

although, i really do beg for people to read the CWs and to not take them lightly because i honestly don't think i have read a more seriously traumatising book in my life.

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Proper review coming when I have processed this a bit better but for now: this book is incredible and so fucked up and fuckkkkk

Tried to make my thoughts into words but it’s now release day so here’s as close to a “proper” review I can manage right now with how much this book has affected me:
I fell in love with Andrew Joseph White’s writing with AHFWU and then read TSBIT then Compound Fracture and I fully blame him for my love of queer (especially trans) horror because aaa

So I was super excited for this book but I knew that it contained several personal triggers (bugs, pregnancy) so I figured it would take me a while to get through it… NOPE I read it in 2 days because I just could not put it down!! (And as it is, I’m pretty sure that the book desensitised me a bit to bugs so that’s an extra plus)

I beg anyone who says “reading isn’t political” to read this because, in a time where reproductive and trans rights being revoked and autism is being blamed on everything from vaccines to paracetamol to additives, it is so political and important

And just when you think it can’t get even more messed up… IT SO DOES??

Aaaaa I can’t

(And I’m a bit scared to say this because it’s slightly very exposing but god I kin Crane so much)

Thank you so much for my ARC NetGalley!!

Crane doesn’t know this yet, but he’s been pregnant for almost three months already.’

I will warn you that this review is going to be odd and rambling. I’ve re-written it about 6 times because none of the words I want to say convey what I want them to. Crane (and this story as a whole) made me feel seen in a way I hadn’t expected. Internal battles, big emotions without being able to name them, struggling massively with personal hygiene, and absolutely despising chunks of tomatoes on pizzas. If you read this story, you might be horrified that I’m sitting here openly saying that there are similarities between me and Crane. But I am. There are so many small things that resonated with my experience. The writing itself was wonderful (and I expected nothing less). It felt so unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and it had me gripped within the first few chapters. The opening line is perfection. If you are looking for a gritty, raw, topical and emotional horror then this is for you. If you’re looking for a story that crosses so many sub genres within horror books, then this is for you. It is a book that will stay with me forever.
I will say, please please please check your trigger warnings. This book is an adult book, and is therefore very intense.

I read an arc of this book and am leaving an honest review voluntarily🖤

Personally, this was the scariest book I read this year. Maybe the scariest book I've read for a few years.

The whole pregnancy was absolutely horrible to read about, and I spent so much of the book horrified and angry. This is a constricting and claustrophobic read that I absolutely hated, but really appreciate for it's craft and execution.

First of all, if you think of picking this one up, check the trigger warnings.This is a very graphic book so please be careful and keep yourself safe.

Andrew Joseph White. That's all, that's the tweet. This guy writes books that haunt me for ages (still not over The spirit bares its teeth). Visceral and grotesque, I probably need to see my therapist after this, that being said this is one of the best books I read this year.

This book grips your full attention and makes it really hard to look away, even though very traumatic scenes. There were moments where I wanted to put the book down but I was compelled to see where this is going.

Speaking of Crane, a bit fucked up. That being said I would die for this boy. As someone with an uterus, his story hit really close to home, even though I want children of my own, the horror of having your body used against your will is something all people capable of bearing offspring can understand and sadly slowly a very real probability.

This is a horror book, but the scary part is not the alien worms, but Crane's loss of body autonomy, his toxic relationship and the cult he is stuck in. AJW does a great job at showing exactly why it is so hard for victims of domestic violence, cults or generally toxic environments to leave or ask for help. Mostly when they are part of a marginalised group (or more).

This book doesn't sugarcoat it, it's direct, graphic and visceral. Hope you will enjoy it!

What the hive-infested F was that?!

This will worm its way under your skin, lay uncomfortable eggs, and hatch disturbing revelations.

I don’t even know how to describe this.
Basically a hive of worms (aliens, who knows? That’s not the point) ask for human corpses and unwavering loyalty in return for a place to belong. A place to escape the awful life these people had been running from before.

Crane has transitioned, is mute, and is accepted despite his tendencies for graphic, violent sec and thoughts. To give you a flavour, ‘he can’t get off unless he feels sick to his stomach about the whole thing’.
Crane becomes pregnant (something that he doesn’t believe possible given his testosterone injections) and the hive wants him to keep it despite his desire to claw it out of him.

This was INTENSE. No filter, disgusting, shocking, disturbing.
So many trigger warnings.

<b>He’s going to pray for an umbilical cord wrapped around its thick grub neck. If he’s going to look down one day and see a maggot chewing on his nipple for milk, he might as well take out his own eyes, right?
</b>
This is a bold, provocative story set in the very near future which is a backlash, a disturbing nightmarish glimpse into the potential the current USA administration has on society.

Do not read this for escapism. Do not read it if you are offended easily. Don’t read it if you have a weak stomach.

<b>Animals get fucked and eat the babies if they decide they don’t want them after the fact.</b>

Despite it sounding all grim and gritty and fake, there are also moments of light in a strange friendship and the representation of disability.

I don’t even know how to rate this because it was so out there in messaging and tone.
If you have read the author’s other books, trust me when I say, this is MUCH darker.

To anyone reading this, you are allowed to ask for help. You are allowed to ask for grace, compassion, adjustments.

Physical arc gifted by Daphne Press.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply disturbing and visceral exploration of forced pregnancy through the lens of a trans autistic man trapped under the control of both his POS partner and an oppressive hive of alien worms. Confused? Yeah… just roll with it.

Andrew Joseph White has a way of taking the real horrors of our world and filtering them through body horror in a way that’s both grotesque and uncomfortably relatable. Crane’s forced pregnancy and parasitic description of what is happening to his body serves as an allegory for reproductive oppression in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, digging into the trauma of having no agency over your own body, especially when coupled with his intense gender dysphoria. Layered with his intrusive thoughts and gradual detransition, the horror becomes not just physical but deeply psychological.

As unsettling as it was, I love how the novel refuses to shy away from discomfort. The pregnancy is painted as invasive, violating, and inescapable, mirroring the lived reality of unwanted pregnancy, and how damaging it can be. Some of the imagery was gross, but that’s what I came for.

The only thing I felt was missing was MORE WORMS. I suspect that the author wanted the hives to remain somewhat of a mystery, but some more world-building wouldn’t have gone amiss to explain exactly how the hives function and why people join them. What is life like without a hive? What exactly do they do, and how? I didn’t really get it, but in the end I just ignored it and focused on Crane.

Overall, this story was all kinds of fucked up, but deeply memorable and confronting. I would love to read more adult horror by AJW!

“It’s just that, at some point in his mother's womb, through no fault of hers or his father's or his own, he'd been put together incorrectly.”


I feel sad, I feel sick, I feel seen.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human hit me in a such a different and much more personal way than any of AJW’s previous works have. (I don’t know what that says about me as a person, but we’re not gonna unpack it right now). Don’t get me wrong, I have loved all of his books, but this one was truly something else.

I hardly even know what to say about this book. I’m struggling to form any kind of coherent thoughts other than I genuinely just think that you should read it. As per AJW, I loved the writing style and the characters were so raw and harrowingly real. As per AJW I was left staring blankly at the wall, contemplating my existence.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is violently nauseating and left me feeling horrifically and unbearably understood. But somehow, despite it all, I was also left with a quiet sort of hope. All of that to say, I thought it was phenomenal.


Thank you so much to Daphne Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

——

Please be aware that there are A LOT of trigger warnings for this book, so please do check those if you need to! A list can be found on the authors website and Goodreads.