Literary Review

Review: 'You Weren't Meant to Be Human' by Andrew Joseph White

Horror lives in the body—and the systems that claim it

Neil Czeszejko

13 Jun 2025 — 2 min read

Created with DALL·E 3

Perhaps the most visceral horror is the kind that touches both the mind and its captive: the body. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human excels here, delving deep into body horror where creation becomes violation and memory turns feral.

Set in alien-infested Appalachia, the novel follows Crane, a young trans man, as his loyalty to his hive is tested when he’s ordered to carry an unexpected and mind-fracturing pregnancy to term—one foisted on him by a man as desired as he is cruel.

Parasitic mechanisms form the gut of the story, from the predatory nature of pregnancy and certain relationships to cultish violence disguised as care. And yet, the novel is more contemplative than its premise might suggest.

We’re confined to airless rooms and trapped states of mind as Crane endures the blunt ravages of his body.

We move with him through fragmented memories, which, woven into the horror of his present, reveal the uneasy but palpable desires that once convinced him he was unworthy of a life beyond the worm-like, creeping hive: a putrid entity that sees and exploits all that makes humans alien to themselves.

While this inward focus slows the plot and leaves much of the world dimly lit, it sharpens the emotional core: the anguished reality of having your body breached, disfigured, and fed on by something foreign. Wrapped as the story is in painful twists and ruthless deeds, the mind is never left unengaged.

More than anything, this is a meditation on the cruelties inflicted upon bodies capable of creation—cruelties that remain deeply embedded in today’s discourse.

For that reason alone, You Weren’t Meant to Be Human should be required reading for every cis man—and cis woman, where trans identities are concerned—who legislates over bodies subject to unimaginable tortures, so unthinkable that they're dismissed with ease.

The novel offers a queasy, disquieting, sultry, and wholly consuming reflection on embodiment, exploring what it means to possess a body governed by you alone, as well as the lengths the mind will go to in order to survive that struggle.

It’s a brutal, challenging reality that invites horrified scrutiny. And for that alone, it demands a reckoning—at least once, if you can stomach it.

An advance copy was provided by Saga Press.