Jaclyn’s Review: We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

We Sold Our Souls
written by Grady Hendrix
published by Quirk Books, 2018

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Did I enjoy this book? I *mostly* liked this book. This was on Goodreads best of 2018 list, and I flagged all those books from my library. I didn’t pay close enough attention to realize that this is a horror book, which is not my cup of tea. The book grabs you from the beginning, so I decided to brave it out and deal with the potential for sleepless nights.

I liked this book because I like heavy metal, and I appreciated all the references. This book easily could have been written about any genre of music or even a big name celebrity. I thought the “darkness” level was OK for me, though there were two sections that I had a really hard time reading! I didn’t care for the ending. I thought this book had a great buildup, and the ending was a real let down. In addition, it almost seemed like it was trying to make a statement about commercialism in today’s society, which is not at all what I wanted at the end of this story.

 

 

Would I recommend it? I honestly couldn’t put this book down. I really wanted to know what was going to happen! Because it was such a compelling read, I would recommend it. You don’t have to know anything about heavy metal to appreciate this book, though they sometimes talk about music in general and an understanding of music theory would be helpful. Reader beware! There are at least two scenes that are pretty gory, and one scene that is just plain hard to read. This story is definitely not for kids!
 

 

About the book – from Goodreads: In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania.

Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris’s very soul.

This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It’s a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that’s darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul…where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.
 
 

 
 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on February 13, 2019.