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Table of Contents
About The Book
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.
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.
Excerpt
Chapter One
Crane doesn’t know this yet, but he’s been pregnant for almost three months already.
One
Crane doesn’t know this yet, but he’s been pregnant for almost three months already.
About The Author
Photograph by Arielle Lewis Studios
Andrew Joseph White is the trans, autistic, and bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Compound Fracture. Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, he received his MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and lives in Virginia with his wife and their antisocial cat. Learn more at AndrewJosephWhite.com.
Product Details
- Publisher: S&S/Saga Press (September 9, 2025)
- Length: 336 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668038079
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Raves and Reviews
*“White’s adult debut encapsulates the best of the modern horror genre.”
– Booklist, starred review
*“[A] brilliant, page-turning piece of trans splatterpunk body horror and an earnest, heart-rending tragedy. White should win a whole new set of fans with this.”
– Publishers Weekly, starred review
"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, author of Lucy, Undying
“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 Lewis, author of The First Sister
"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.”
– Grimdark Magazine
"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, Sunday Times Bestselling author of Mistress of Lies
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): You Weren't Meant to Be Human
Hardcover 9781668038079
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Author Photo (jpg): Andrew Joseph White Photograph by Arielle Lewis Studios(0.1 MB)
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