INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A furious queer debut novel about embracing the monster
within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. "A long sustained scream to the
various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like well a
virus." —The New York Times Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult
that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s
population. Desperately he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him
or more importantly on the bioweapon they infected him with. But when cornered by monsters
born from the destruction Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+
Center affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader Nick is gorgeous autistic and a
deadly shot and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a
monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all. Still Nick
offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens as long as Benji can control the
monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until
he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda and more than a few secrets of
his own. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation . A New York Public Library
Best Book of the Year A William C. Morris Award Finalist A Publishers Weekly Best Book of
the Year A YAVA Award Nominee! A Booklist Editors' Choice Selection A BCCB Blue Ribbon
Book Named to the ALA Rainbow Roundtable's Rainbow Book List
