You Weren't Meant To Be Human

Written by Andrew Joseph White

Narrated by Max Meyers

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Sep 9, 2025
• ISBN: 9781797189895

Andrew Joseph White

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.

[Josette C. Vargas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was an absolute trip. As a fan of extreme horror, I devoured this incredibly weird reed. It is gritty, raw, sad and horrifying in all the best ways!

[Lane Bestold · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was so fucked up. I loved listening to it. As a Transguy this hit so many of my own fears. I audibly gasped, yelled and laughed throughout this entire book.

[9pm7dpz4jz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book changed my brain chemistry lol as an aspiring horror writer and trans person, I could not have expected how inspired this book would make me feel. It’s such a tight, clean story for all the messiness and gore of its contents, the main character is devastatingly real to such a degree that every time there was a chance for things to turn, I was praying for the pressure in this book to lighten. It never does, not in the way you want it to. Every tenderness is paid for in blood, every intake of breath is punched out by how visceral the writing is. I wept and felt ill and was buzzing with inspired energy by the end. Truly an incredible time, cannot recommend it enough if you can handle the trigger warnings. Every scene counts for something, every theme feeds through, there’s even a return to something that seemed mundane and sickening as back drop that is intensely and breathtakingly relevant by the end. I am grabbing everyone I know who can stomach it by the shoulders and shaking them to read this book, and one day when I publish I hope I can tell a story as gripping as this one.