English

Publication Date

2026

Document Type

Capstone

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Justin Shaw

First Advisor

Dr. Justin Shaw

Second Advisor

Mr. Phil Lemos

Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Course

ENG - 290

Major

English

Abstract

Who gets the right to define morality? Who gets to define what is monstrous? Frankenstein’s Creature, the vampires of Lost Boys, The Craft’s head witch Nancy Downs; these characters follow a pattern through the decades of those alienated from society, in this case being written with queer subtext, being deemed as monstrous. These queer monsters become the villains of the story, causing chaos, death and destruction in their wake, seeking revenge against a world that ostracizes them. The 2022 dystopian YA horror of Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White challenges the villanized monstrous identity through its transgender protagonist Benjamin Woodside. Sixteen year old Benji defies the will of the transphobic fundamentalist cult, the Angels of New Nazareth, who work to turn him into the world-ending bioweapon Seraph meant to cleanse the world of sinners in an event called The Flood. Running from their holy encampment after being outed, his body continues to mutate into a grotesque angelic creature, but he teams up with Flood survivors living at the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center to fight the Angels. While he becomes more physically monstrous, Benji becomes more of ‘himself’ through the acceptance of his new friends and challenges the corrupt system bent on destroying people like him.

This paper discusses the monstrous identity as something placed onto others instead of being the truth of the queer existence, and the reclamation of monstrosity for the LGBT+ community. Unlike past representations of queer ‘monsters,’ this reclaimed power is used to protect instead of destroy. The queer identity is still villainized today, not just in literature but in government legislation through the erasure of trans healthcare and attempts to overturn same-sex marriage. White’s novel Hell Followed With Us, and stories like it, show us how to embrace monstrosity, to fight against those who villainize and oppress, to defend their right to exist.

Keywords

queer theory, monster theory, trans theory, gender nonconformity, monster studies, the gothic, queer monsters, queer resistance, hell followed with us, queer healthcare, queer politics

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