Bestselling author Andrew Joseph White gives us a peek inside his wonderfully dark mind and his process of writing stories for all. Since his debut in 2020, White has been one of the most popular names in YA Horror thanks to his visceral writing and complex, achingly human characters. In this interview, White shares what inspires his writing and what he hopes audiences can take away from his work. In a compelling mixture of horror elements and his own lived experiences, White is ushering in a new age of horror that centers on the beauty and terror of being human. Read on to learn more about the inspiration behind his first book, Hell Followed With Us, and what the future holds for him.
Andrew Joseph White
Andrew Joseph White is a trans, autistic, best-selling author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022. His debut novel, Hell Followed With Us, was a William C. Morris Award Finalist, and his second, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, received a 2024 Stonewall Honor. Compound Fracture is his third novel.
For readers unfamiliar with it, can you give a one-sentence summary of what Hell Followed With Us is about?
Of course! Hell Followed With Us is a young adult post-apocalyptic horror about a gay trans boy, Benji, who escapes from the cult that ended the world and joins an LGBTQ+ youth center to fight back, all while slowly transforming into a giant, rotting bioweapon.
Despite being a Fantasy, Hell Followed With Us sadly includes many horrors and issues that exist and persist in our society today. What made you choose to use a post-apocalyptic setting instead of a contemporary one to reflect these horrors?
It’s a combination of two things, really.
First, I’ve adored post-apocalyptic settings all my life. From Fallout to Metro and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and so many other video games I’ve loved, it was a no-brainer that the first novel I put out in the world was going to follow in those footsteps. It’s a setting that brings out the best and worst in people, turning everything into a painful live wire—survival is a great way to push humanity to its limits.
And second, it was also a matter of logistics! Violence is at the forefront of this story, and let’s be real, it’d be a total mess if the characters had to deal with laws and police and current societal consequences. Best to just remove all that, so to speak.
Hell’s protagonist, Benji, is only sixteen, and he finds solace in other queer teens. What drew you to telling this story through teenagers rather than adults?
I have an anecdote for that: when I was a teenager myself, I was disappointed with YA horror. I could feel authors pulling their punches; they never went hard enough. But I was chasing the thrill, the adrenaline rush of pushing boundaries, so I found a list of the 100 most disturbing books in the English language and took it as a challenge. I adored the books I read on that list, but still, I found myself wishing that there was something that applied to what I was dealing with as a teen.
That’s why I write about teenagers, why I focus on the young adult segment, you know? I’m writing what I needed as a kid. I wanted Benji to be an opportunity for queer and trans kids to see themselves reflected in the horror genre, even if the world around them is a gory, confusing nightmare.
Your three published novels span a variety of genres, including science fiction, historical fiction, horror, and thriller. Can you share a bit about how these diverse ideas come to you? Do you start your stories with a specific genre in mind or let the story guide you as you write?
The inside joke with my publisher is that I write whatever comes to mind—whatever dark, uncomfortable thing I want to tackle—and then it’s their job to figure out where it fits in the market. I usually start with a vague concept of the story, and combine it with a point I’m trying to make, then step back; how do I best make that point? What can I do to make it as weird and stressful as possible? Post-apocalyptic means I get to remove societal safety nets and support systems; historical means the ability to draw metaphors across time; contemporary settings (like my 2026 book, You’re No Better) mean getting to dissect the exact moment I’m living in. It’s whatever will get my point across the best!
Your latest book, Compound Fracture, just came out in September. Your books have a running theme of an individual tearing down insidious institutions, and this one is no different. What drew you to centering law enforcement in the violent, cyclical feud Miles faces in his story?
You know that story about how NASCAR was founded by Appalachian and Southern alcohol runners outrunning the cops during Prohibition? The area has always had a healthy disdain for authority—sometimes to a fault, but often for very good reasons. In Compound Fracture, the Sheriff represents total corruption of total power, especially as law enforcement is one of the few organizations in the United States with a monopoly on violence. The story asks questions like, what do you do when the organization that’s “supposed” to protect you is one that’s hurting you? How violent do you have to get in turn? How far do you have to go to protect yourself and your loved ones? They’re such important questions, and the characters of the book have their answers; I want teens to see if their answers match.
September brought even more amazing news for your fans: you announced Hell Followed With Us is getting an animated movie adaptation! What part of the book are you most excited to see come to life on the screen?
So I have never been more excited for anything in my life, save for maybe my own wedding. I’ve gotten to see early versions of the script treatment (like a synopsis for all us book folks), and they’re so cool. I think, more than anything, I want to see how the art team translates the Graces to the screen. The giant, rotting monsters are very personal to me, as someone who dealt with childhood gender dysphoria and unrecognized autism by identifying strongly with monsters. I put so much of myself into those bizarre creatures, these melted conglomerations of human bodies, and I can’t wait for my audience to really see the vision.
Are there any details about the movie and your involvement in its process that you can share with us right now?
Everything is in the early stages right now, so there’s nothing terribly specific. I did tell the team that I didn’t want to write the script or be too involved—I have a book coming out every year until 2027 at least, and a full-time job, after all—but I’m consulting on production and making myself available as a resource for scriptwriters, the art team, etc.
To that end, I actually had an hour-long call with the scriptwriters Alvaro Rodriguez and Warren Wagner about writing autistic characters and working specific aspects of disability into the themes of the story. It’s been such a rewarding experience!
For those of us who have already devoured all of your released works, do you have any recommendations to sate our appetite for other queer horror reads this spooky season?
Oh, do I ever. Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli is wonderfully unsettling and features two very different trans guys at the heart of a terrible, broken town. Don’t Let The Forest In by CG Drews drops just a few days before Halloween—I’ve been trying to get it onto the TBR of everyone I talk to. And then, in March 2025, keep an eye out for They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran. I’m reading it right now, and it is genuinely astounding.
Andrew Joseph White is not only writing stories but dueling out weapons. By drawing on his interest in the depths of the horror genre and creating what he wished he had to get him through his own youth, he is arming future generations with the knowledge that they can survive. Hell Followed With Us may be set in a distant future, but hundreds of readers can find themselves in Benji, the resilient protagonist who defies his world’s expectations of him. Andrew Joseph White is not only writing stories but dueling out weapons. By drawing on his interest in the depths of the horror genre and creating what he wished he had to get him through his own youth, he is arming future generations with the knowledge that they can survive.
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