#ynb

I was given Hell Followed With Us as a Christmas present two years ago and since then I have read and re-read all of his other YA works. I have not yet read YWMTBH as it focuses largely on pregnancy and parasites which are two of my worst fears (yay me!) and I haven’t yet managed to fight off my anxiety enough to summon the courage to read it. So when I refer to ‘all of his works’ or something similar, I mean the three YA novels.

With YNB coming out soon, I thought it would be a good time to gather my thoughts on AJW and his novels, and put it all into some vaguely comprehensible ramble for anyone interested to read. I’ll start with what I love about AJW’s work, then what could be done differently, and finally what I hope to see in YNB

What I love-

AJW’s writing style is one of the most viscerally disgusting and beautiful styles that I have ever read. The way he describes gore somehow just sticks in my brain even when I’ve long finished the paragraph, and it has largely influenced my own writing as well. I’ve found myself shivering with how wonderful and lyrical it sounds at times. His portrayal of trans kids fighting their way through a life that desperately wants them gone and will do anything to do so is something that resonates so deeply with me, and it’s the type of story that is so needed at this time. Being able to read a book where these kids go through such horrors, events that change them as a person and how they view the world and the system they’ve been brought up in, and still get a happy ending? It’s something I’ve very rarely seen before, and maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but my point still stands. That’s another thing, actually. Seeing that fighting for your future is actually worth it, and that people like me can be happy and can have lives that are wonderful and full and joyous has really helped me at times when fighting has felt futile.

I also love horror, especially when it relates to spirits and death and rotting stuff, and getting all of that plus some good trans rep and autism rep is amazing! I really like how the character being trans is not the focus of the story, they are trans and it is relevant to the plot, but it is not the entire story. So many books I’ve read centre around the MC being trans, which is still good but can get boring after a while.

So those are the good things. Now, onto the criticism. (I might sound mildly pissed off in a bit of this, I still love AJW, there’s just a couple things that really need to be better!)

Things I dislike/ could be better-

WHY ARE THERE NO POC CHARACTERS OH MY GODDDD BROOO

ok there we go. Yes, one of my main issues with AJW is that there are barely any POC characters in his novels. Now, HFWU is an exception, many people of different ethnicities and religions and cultures were portrayed in that, but none who were hugely relevant or described as more than ‘the hijabi doctor’ or ‘the Black transfem fighter’ and such. I myself am a passing white Malay/English person, so my understanding of what it means to be a POC in this world is very little, but both my sister and dad are darker, and I’ve seen and heard various forms of racism against them. Now, I understand that writing POC as a white person can be tricky, and trying to make sure you get things right while still making the character feel like a genuine human being is sometimes hard, but this is what research and sensitivity readers are for! Just because representing different races didn’t go too well for you the first time (I believe he experienced some backlash due to the portrayal of some POC characters in HFWU) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again! Representing trans and queer POC is so so important, especially when they are a community that face much more prejudice than white trans folks! Because yes, being trans is much easier when you are white (not saying that it is easy, but it is easi-ER). My other issues are that, at their cores, HFWU, TSBIT and CF are incredibly similar books. Yes, they have different settings, bad guys and premises, but the formula is the same: autistic trans boy forms a ramshackle group of kids and takes down a system that has been fucking them over for years, ft. lost of gore and references to the MC’s special interest. Now, it’s a great formula and has made for three incredible books, but after a while, it gets a little boring.

This leads me nicely onto my hopes for YNB.

Firstly, I hope the side characters can be fleshed out slightly more. CF did this very well, especially with Paul, Noah and Eddie, and this being the latest book of his I have read, I hope it comes from him becoming a better writer and figuring out how to do these things while still keeping things clear and consistent. In TSBIT and HFWU, the side characters are reduced to little more than a few physical characteristics, a handful of personality traits and a measly amount of backstory (or none at all). The side characters in CF genuinely intrigued me and made me all the more interested in reading how the novel would unfold, so I’m hoping this will continue into YNB.

Secondly, I hope to see more POC characters. Obviously! At least one nonwhite major character with some form of character development would make me very happy.

Thirdly (and probably finally, unless I decide I need to yap more, in which case strap in buddy) I hope the plot is different to the previous three. Now, from the premise, I believe it will be- instead of kids fighting against a group of people, the MC is instead trying to piece together his past and convince himself that he will not become his father simply by being a man. I’m hoping it will deal with confronting your past while proving to yourself that you are not what you have done, learning forgiveness towards a younger, more vulnerable version of you who did things they thought they had to so they could survive, and coming to terms with being transmasculine when you have always associated being a man with being your father (who, in the MC’s case, is a serial killer). And also that the ‘formula’ will have changed, at least just a bit. Oh and also please can there be a POC character? Like actually please.

Anyway, that’s all for now! I’m so excited to read YNB when it comes out in October, and it’s such an interesting premise for a novel. I love AJW and his writing, and can’t wait to see how it might evolve and improve in the future.

Here, AJW reads the first two pages of You're No Better:

If you have seen my other posts, you have read the first of these pages already because it was previously published by him as a written exerpts. These are my thoughts on the new stuff:

I think it's kinda funny how Morgan just straight up ignores the documentary producer down to even not learning his name on purpose

the torture instruments are way more intense than I honestly thought ufff

Morgan's mom is A LOT

I think Morgan's therapist is onto something when she says that Morgan obsessing over how he and his family is framed in true crime and fictionalised stories inspired by them is a method of psychological self harm -> I also think it might be a subconscious attempt to understand himself and his surroundings at that point in time from a different/outside point of view and to almost kind of prepare himself for how the worls sees him

I'm honestly scared to see what Morgan's dad is like

AJW also made a very short new Q&A about YWMTBH:

The main points are:

AJW has always had tokophobia/fear of pregnancy and tried to deal with it through writing -> but he first time he really managed to put his feelings into words was in the first drafts of YWMTBH after the fall of Roe v. Wade -> he wanted his readers to feel his anguish about that decision -> he also wanted to add the transmasc and autistic lens to pregnancy horror because he didn't really see it before

he loved writing the Hive and it's underexplained on purpose -> it's supposed to represent how cruel the world is to some people -> the fact that people like Crane see the Hive as the better option because it at least pretends to care and punishes them more for their actions than their identities is there to show how horrible the rest of the world has to be

AJW wanted the alien invasion part of YWMTBH to be more of a backdrop for the real horror, which is the pregnancy and the way transmasc people are treated by the medical system -> this was informed by his own life experiences, by having to ration hormones due to medical mistreatment, by having to misgender himself to access medical care, by how stressful each clinic visit is etc -> he thought he could only properly express this existential horror through speculative elements like aliens

Crane is almost exactly AJW aside from not speaking and a few bad decisions -> writing him felt like an exorcism -> AJW uses writing to understand and express himself when he struggles to otherwise -> he also wanted to help people who aren't autistic and trans understand the experience more and connect with people who are

AJW is currently reading There is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM and will reread The Shining by Steven King after

On December 3rd, AJW also did an interview with Tal of Regarding Dracula:

most of AJW's horror fascination began after puberty, he thinks it's "probably a trans thing"

he liked wolves and dragons as a small child and later became fascinated by the Necromorphs (giant gross zombies revived by an alien virus) from Dead Space and monsters in general, which lead to him loving Horror -> partly because he didn't feel connected to himself and his body due to being trans and didn't feel connected to others due to autism, and he only saw himself in monsters in those aspects

AJW thinks Horror is deeply cathartic in general and wants to stay in that genre

Horror is a genre of social alienation and not belonging and transgressing boundaries, which AJW resonates a lot with as a queer autistic trans person -> lowkey wants to be a monster

all of AJW's books except TSBIT have been with him for a long time -> he uses the "cauldron method" where he has too many ideas to realise all of them and throws them into the back of his mind without wrting them down, where many of them fuse into one story, which works because they are often related in concepts and themes -> he lets them sit for years and then looks for a story that fits something he wants to talk about, usually a real-life issue -> then he writes a chapter-by-chapter outline (the plotting document for B//W is 9000 words already) and lets an editor look over it for big errors -> then he writes his whole first draft while already editing some chronologically -> he rewrites the whole book later in 6 weeks towards the end, which is very stressful

TSBIT is a special case -> he sold it based on a long synopsis and 3 chapters, he didn't sit with it before and didn't know what he was trying to say at the start -> he also wrote it super quickly multiple times and hated it -> editor said he tried to tell too many stories at once and had to fix that -> the realised he had to rewrite the whole thing for the forth time in scene edits, and then he still hammered out the ending and plot super quickly -> he hated it while writing it, he will never do this again, but he likes the end product

AJW writes for 16 year old him when writing YA Horror -> he wanted to read books that push boundaries that teens can still relate to and that have people as monsters, so that's what he writes -> if the MC sees it, so does the reader, so he has to be careful -> AJW never wants his young readers to think surviving isn't worth it

in a draft he's writing right now, the MC thinks seeing himself as a victim is a bad thing, so he's trying to make sure that's not true in the writing -> he's trying to impart lessons

in his adult work, AJW is as hopeless and horrible as he wants to be -> bad actions and thoughts aren't challenged in the text, he expects his readers to do that -> it's pure catharsis to write

turning anger into something "productive" is a big theme of HFWU -> before AJW transitioned, he performed girlhood so intensely that he expressed no anger at all & didn't even know he could feel it, which was made worse by his alexithymia -> he can only express his anger through art, that's why his characters are so angry -> also he sees anger as the brain trying to tell you something, so it's important to understand what you're angry about and how to fix that specifically, which are often social issues

the few funny parts of YWMTBH (like Jess' horrible AAC app) are there to break up how depressing it is -> in his YA works, the good moments are to show that there will be a positive ending

AJW is most proud of the fact that every book is better than the one before, so the newest is his favorite

AJW has read a few versions of the HFWU movie script and seen some art by now -> he reads some of HFWU in comparisons and is bewildered by some of the choices he made -> he still loves it, but thinks he improved A LOT

AJW would love a low-budget live-action movie with a good script for YWMTBH -> so it feels gritty and old -> in a documentary style -> mentions Dog Day Afternoon as a comparison (even though AJW himself can't handle Horror movies)

AJW favorite Horror media currently is the video game Mouthwashing -> he think YWMTBH feels kinda similar in vibes and themes to him

AJW would not survive Dracula's castle, or any other Horror setting for that matter -> he needs his fans and chocolate chip muffins -> he doesn't do hard physical work in any way

the advice that AJW thinks saved his art the most is not trying to be palatable or "good representation" -> he was scared to make people see trans people as worse due to his art, but realised that is killing his creativity when writing HFWU -> his protagonists or unapologetically horrible and messy -> you can make good art when you're afraid of the topic you're tackling or in general, but NOT when you're afraid of the art itself

AJW is very proud of You're No Better -> he has just turned in developmental edits at the point of this interview -> it's about autistic closeted trans boy Morgan Slaughter whose father is a horrible serial killer inspired by the Toy Box Killer, which was very hard for AJW to research -> he put his father behind bars at ten, but had been forced to help him with the murder and torture for years prior -> he lied about that to therapists, his mother, and the police -> he's super messed up from this, angry, manipulative, aggressive, combative and all around nasty -> Morgan is now 17 and his mother is making a documentary about his father and his crimes as well as the family as a whole which Morgan is forced to participate in if he wants to get his trust fund early so he can move out -> he is convinced that he will kill his mom at some point because she's horrible and loves exploiting his trauma for views -> Morgan decides to identify his father's last victim because his dad would never do that and he wants to prove he's not like him -> it goes badly -> about how exploitative true crime is to victims and the families of perpetrators -> and also about how hard being a trans man is when your only role model of masculinity is the most horrible violent man ever and you see too much of yourself in him and so does everyone else -> MC is very messy and his friends are right to be mad at him -> AJW will do scene edits soon

has started to work on Beast//Warden, which at this point isn't yet officially postponed to 2028

AJW recommends H. E. Edgmon's middle grade novel Defanged about an autistic vampire child running away from his involuntary defanging appointment -> it's about fighting for autism acceptance and against harmful organisations -> he also recommends everything by H. E. Edmon in general

AJW also recently did this post about his 2026 YA novel You're No Better, in which the vibes are described through tumblr posts:

This is what I predict and think based on these text posts:

I think it's very funny how AJW doesn't know what genre exactly his books are, it kinda shows that the story and characters are central here more than fitting into genre conventions, and also, same

I wonder if the summary on the second slide is AJW trying to workshop a good book description, as he says he struggles with that

the fatherless behaviour one makes me wonder if characters will tell Morgan stuff like that, because he's very feminine and enjoys makeup and styling himself and those are the kinds of people that nasty phrases like that are usually applied to, and we have already seen his mom slutshaming him in an exerpt

I'm kinda surprised by the monotone voice and never smiling one because I (apparently falsely) assumed that Morgan being hyperaware of social cues, which is one of the first things AJW told us about him, means that he is very good at masking his neurodivergence, but that is not the case at all it seems -> which makes sense, being able to read non-verbal communication in others doesn't necessarily mean being able to or having the energy to use it well yourself -> maybe Morgan just doesn't want to, which is very valid and understandable honestly

this might be weird, but I REALLY hope the DC metro autism one is literal because I think that would be a totally unexpected aspect of Morgan's character and I can imagine him being kinda embarassed by it -> also I think that kind of thing is super interesting myself and I would be very down for a protagonist who agrees despite being so different from me in all other aspects

also as someone blessed with amazing parents, I'm SO EXITEDDD to delve into the ind of someone whose experience is about as radically different from mine in that regard as possible

He also added this text below it:

I've said it before, but I'm SO PUMPED for the friendship breakup angle and especially that it's DESERVED. I love messy characters who are kind of assholes when they're done well, and I have full trust that AJW will do it well. Also I think friendship breakups aren't appreciated enough for how painful and devestating they are.

The blackmail-to-lovers thing is also super interesting, that can only go badly and I'm so exited to see how it does.

Also WOOOO THE COVER WILL PROBABLY BE REVEALED SOON-ISH!!!! I'M SO EXITEDDD!!!!!!!

Okay, now to the Beast//Warden section. Again, this will contain the most spoilers, so please proceed with caution. I'M SERIOUS HEAVY SPOILERS!!!!

Recently, AJW shared this image of him planning and worldbuilding for his 2028 YA novel Beast//Warden:

This is what I think is most important here:

(Also sorry that this is such a chaotic ramble that you will probably need to read at least twice to fully get)

Livia's house is somewhat removed from the Village the story primarily takes place in/is about -> this might mean that Livia's family has a special position in the community (combined with the fact that she's the only character with a Roman name so far - aside from the minor character of Vesta - which might set her apart) -> maybe she also feels like an outsider in her own way and that is how she first relates to Blythe -> her mother has the title of "Atiar Maior" (if I read it right), but I have no idea what kind of duties or priviledges that could entail

the Village seems to be in a very remote location, far away and maybe removed from the Main city Senecio by a body of water if I'm reading the map right -> I'm sure this will be relevant to the Horror aspect

the beastmark either as a concept or a material reality is created somehow -> I theorise that it is a social concept similar to Veil sickness in TSBIT and not a real illness or curse

the place at the tip of the topmost landmass the name of which we don't know due to the text box seems to be Astam, a large port, from the index card labelled History 1 -> I like that the impacts of a economic change like the founding of a big port seems to be a sort of inciting incident

due to the port, products have gotten much harder and expensive to get in the Village, which perhaps was a sort of trade hub before -> lead to scarcity and something called the Great Starving -> this is somehow related to the Blight but we don't know how -> my guess is the Blight killing plants near the Village made the famine much worse -> this scarcity was used as a justification to oust people declared unfit (most likely disabled and other marginalised people) from the community and exile them -> those people later became the Beasts

the Blight is a disease that kills plants and changes other things somehow if I got it right -> my guess is that it mutates animals and people and that this is where the body horror will mainly some from

Beasts are the people that are ousted from the Village -> they were later offered monstrous forms by Asta to take revenge on the people that rejected them and essentially sentenced them to death -> I love that concept -> Asta is the goddess of the sea and of war and the creator of Beasts -> the sea goddess aspect makes me wonder and hope if we get some ocean-themed body horror here -> might be related to the Blight -> I also think it's super interesting that Asta and Astam, the new port, sound so similar, maybe the place is named after the goddess -> Beasts are changed by strong Magick

Magick has some kind of dual system (? I think) -> you need something called a "needle-Orws" to use it -> no idea what that could be

there is something called the Major Vitrum Arca and the Minor Vitrum Arca -> vitrum is Latin for glass or crystal or a specific plant and arca is Latin for box, coffin, arch (as in the ship), till, or prison cell -> again, I have no idea what this could be in context, maybe a place something important is kept? -> probably related to Senecio and Caputia based on the fact it's Latin

in the woods surrounding the Village, there's The Pillar -> a big megalithic pile of corpses the people exiled from the Village erected, trying to get the attention of gods, presumably to help them

it seems to be important to AJW that the setting is deeply multicultural -> the main continent the story the story takes place on is called The Great Isle -> very much a reference to the British Isles I think -> Astam, the port city, is the capital city of The Great Isle, I think, while Senecio is the Capital of another continent or nation and Caputia is some other place (my guess is that it's the nation Senecio belongs to) -> I think this might be where Livia's family comes from based on the fact that Livia, Senecio and Caputia sound vaguely Latin while Lohkkam and Astam very much don't

the main setting is the Village of Lohkkam, which is named after the family that their Headmen always belong to -> there's also a place called Lohkkam Nova, maybe a settlement by people who have left Lohkkam due to its many issues

the/an antagonist is named Kyr -> 20 years old and Hawthorne's brother -> I hope we get some good sibling angst -> Kyr is a member of the Fahri clan which most likely means Hawthorne is also, unless they're half-brothers or something

Blythe is part of the Aras clan -> also cold and standoffish, but we knew that already -> after his name on his index card, there's also the word "Thistle" in brackets -> I would assume that that's his deadname, but AJW stated before that both Morgan and Blythe don't have deadnames/still use their birth names -> that might have changed, but I still think it's more likely Thistle is an alias or nickname he uses -> Oh! New theory: what if the apprentices trying to become Beastwarden get new names/titles that are nature themed and Hawthorne isn't actually Hawthorne's birth name, but Blythe knows him under that so that's what he calls him or maybe Hawthorne likes it more anyways?

in terms of other characters, we have Vesta, who we know nothing about other that they're a supporting character, the Headman of the Village, who is interestingly labelled both supporting character and antagonist and whose last name/clan is assumably Lohkkam, The Druid, who is clanless and in their 40s (I'm very curious to see what their function will be and what it means to be clanless), Livia's parents, Selthe, who we again know nothing about other than their supporting role, Rudra, a supporting character in their 30s who's also from the Dhummita clan and a mother, and Livia, the second love interest besides Hawthorne

Also, in case you haven't heard yet, AJW recently teased a new adult project of his with a protagonist named Gunwyn Byrne in this series of posts:

(Thanks to atearinspace for providing this screenshot btw)

My thoughts:

Gunwyn Byrne is a hell of name, it's honestly wild

I am so exited for this because even more so than any other AJW characters, this is me. If Silas is who I was than Gunwyn sounds like he is me as I am now. It's me and I'm so scared to see AJW take me apart and examine me under a microscope. I imagine a lot of other adult AJW fans feel the same

Lastly, this is random other info taken from miscallaneous posts and the recent article on the AJW newsletter:

AJW is currently working on two short stories he can't talk about yet, which I'm very exited about

part of the reason why Beast//Warden was delayed to 2028 is because printing and promoting is taking longer and longer

we'll probably get more news on the HFWU movie next year

the first Beast//Warden draft is due in May 2026

AJW plans to start plotting and maybe drafting his next adult project (the one with Gunwyn Byrne) in 2026 -> it'll be a fantasy-horror with complicated worldbuilding, resemble the game Pathologic in vibes and be set during WWI or a setting similar to it, it'll have a polyamorous romance, body horror, and a lot of feelings about what it's like to try to be a "Functioning" autistic adult in a world that doesn't accomadate at all

the Gunwyn Byrne story is related to the history of the f-slur somehow -> also to the masks worn by tank drivers in WWI

the appearance of the Headman of the Village from Beast//Warden is the only thing AJW hasn't nailed down yet, and his wife suggested Danny DeVito and Jeff Goldblum, who were sadly both rejected -> regardless, however the Headman gets described in the book, I WILL imagine Danny DeVito now