Hell Followed With Us

Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of gore, violence, anti-trans bias, religious trauma, escape from a cult, and death.

Dystopia is a prominent motif and the foundation of the story’s setting, as it takes place several decades in the future after climate change has ransacked the world. The Angels have taken it upon themselves to solve this issue by killing off humanity. Using a manufactured virus, they spread the infection across the world to remove everything that was seen as superfluous. Benji sees beauty in this dystopian world, despite its horror, violence, and desolation, and often comments on how beautiful the city is: “[N]ature creeps back between cracks in the road and up the sides of buildings” (83). New Nazareth itself exists on the lands of an old university, and Benji muses on the experience of having access to things and places that people never did before. There is a certain freedom to the dystopia because there are no official laws or systems. At the same time, people like Benji and Nick are forced to grow up before their time, take on immense responsibility, and constantly fear for their own safety. The thought of death is always looming overhead, and grief for lost friends is constant.