Synopsis:
Alien meets Midsommar in You Weren’t Meant to be Human, the 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.
Awards/Nominations:
- She Reads Best of Award Nominee for Horror (2025)
- Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Horror (2025)
My Edition:
Library hardcover
My Thoughts:
If you have any thoughts about reading You Weren’t Meant to be Human (if you don’t already, I hope you do by the end of this), I implore you to check the content warnings here. It’s kind of one massive trauma rolled into a beautiful, thoroughly disgusting story.
Crane has had a really shit time of…everything. He is finally to the point where everything is sort of leveling out into a baseline that is at least tolerable, when the entire world falls out from under him. I cannot even fathom the level of dysphoria that would result from a forced pregnancy. But, at least here in the USA, that is a level of horror many of us may have to contend with if that shit-weasel Stephen Miller gets to continue enacting Project 2026 unabated (which at this point looks horrendously likely). The levels of horror in You Weren’t Meant to be Human are so shockingly visceral that at points I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. I just wanted to see things turn out alright for Crane. And I want to see things turn out alright for the world I live in.
But alas, we can’t always get what we want.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be bleak. Reading this book while living through an armed occupation by fascist pigs was probably not the best idea I ever had. It is really, really good, but it, like the world we live in right now, is also pretty bleak.
I genuinely recommend this to people with a strong stomach and a passion for gnarly body horror, but tread carefully and read those content warnings. And most importantly, remember that reading is political, and what you choose to read is political. Choose your politics well – reject hate and bigotry, and embrace compassion, empathy, and acceptance.
Rating:
I think You Weren’t Meant to be Human should be required reading for all Christian Fascists, other various religious extremists, and transphobes. I want them to have to experience some of the horrible damage they and their shitty ideas and shitty laws are inflicting on innocent people.
Despite my poor timing in reading this relative to the reality I have been thrust unwillingly into (nice parallel to the story there, actually), I really, truly loved this book.
You Weren't Meant to be Human
By: Andrew Joseph White
Saga Press
ISBN: 9781668038079
Published: September 9, 2025
Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, Audio
336 Pages
