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A Washington Post and Publishers Weekly Best SF/Fantasy/Horror Novel of 2025
Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.
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.
You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.
Genre: Science Fiction
Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.
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.
You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.
Genre: Science Fiction
Praise for this book
"Gruesome and unrelenting, Andrew Joseph White's adult debut is a masterpiece of horror. White dares you to accept Crane's humanity when all the veneers of politeness are stripped away, capturing the intersection of the alienation of neurodivergence and the pain of dysphoria with unflinching honesty." - K M Enright
"You Weren't Meant to be Human is dysphoria bound into words. Andrew Joseph White captures a beautifully disgusting world that's all too familiar to neurodivergent and trans individuals, with a plot that offers nothing but shocking pleasure with each page turn." - Linden A Lewis
"A tenderly beating, bloody heart of a novel. Relentlessly bleak and harrowing, White's brutal adult debut also somehow manages to be deeply, devastatingly empathetic." - Kiersten White
"You Weren't Meant to be Human is dysphoria bound into words. Andrew Joseph White captures a beautifully disgusting world that's all too familiar to neurodivergent and trans individuals, with a plot that offers nothing but shocking pleasure with each page turn." - Linden A Lewis
"A tenderly beating, bloody heart of a novel. Relentlessly bleak and harrowing, White's brutal adult debut also somehow manages to be deeply, devastatingly empathetic." - Kiersten White
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