You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

You Weren’t Meant To Be Human is an adult horror novel from YA author Andrew Joseph White, in which an autistic trans man who lives in service to a hive of worms and flies becomes pregnant against his will. Crane found solace in the hive, who have him permission to transition and to not speak, after growing up feeling like everything was wrong about him. He met Levi, an ex-Marine and fellow member of the hive, who treats Crane how he thinks he ought to be treated. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant, the hive insists that Crane must give birth, even though Crane will do anything to not have to.

Having read some of White’s previous young adult novels, I was interested to see what his adult horror would be like, and You Weren’t Meant To Be Human is suitably dark and horrifying for someone like me who much prefers adult books to YA books. The book is basically trans pregnancy horror mixed with Alison Rumfitt’s Brainwyrms, so very visceral not only in worm stuff and body horror, but also abuse, trauma, and the absolute terror of having to be pregnant when that is one of your greatest fears. That does make it quite tricky to review if you are someone who falls into that latter category, as I really don’t know how other people would find it, but if you’re a trans person who could get pregnant, this is quite a book.

I like how a lot of the background in the book isn’t really explained, because the story isn’t about worldbuilding but about Crane’s experiences and thoughts. Even the side characters mostly don’t get a huge amount of backstory, particularly those in the hive, but again, we are viewing things through Crane’s perspective. The visceral descriptions are really what make this book, with the body horror less gory and more horrifying in context. The ending has a dark twist that makes sense, and a lighter twist that I’m not sure how I feel about, though it does offer a kind of hope that might be needed in such a brutal novel.

This is trans horror that uses the horror devastatingly to explore an element of trans experience (Torrey Peters’ story ‘The Masker’ is another example I can immediately think of), resulting in a book that I think is going to feel horribly real for some people and open others’ eyes to something they hadn’t really thought about. Whilst I’ve enjoyed White’s young adult novels, I think that You Weren’t Meant To Be Human is even more my sort of book, and though it won’t be for everyone (as with any extreme horror, you should definitely take heed of the content warnings before reading), it is a tense, cutting horror novel that puts a fresh spin on some horror concepts.