‘We Sold Our Souls’ is one HELL of a ride. Grady Hendrix, King of horror at Quirk Books, has written a heavy metal masterpiece with a female lead guitarist, Kris Pulaski, as its star.
Less classic horror this time (his previous books are ‘Horrorstör’, and ‘My Best Friend’s Exorcism’), Hendrix has laden ‘Souls’ with conspiracy theory and real life horrors.

Kris Pulaski was in a heavy metal band called Dürt Würk two decades ago and they were on the brink of success when the lead singer Terry Hunt ripped the band apart and left to start his solo career. And it seems Terry’s rise to success was at the cost of selling the band’s souls.
That’s right, he sold their souls for rock’n’roll…or in this case, heavy metal.

Kris’ pitiful present day existence is working at the reception of a Best Western, and if you can stomach the ‘Welcome To Hell’ chapter (good horror always comes at the cost of reading things that make your stomach turn), then you can follow Kris on her journey as she gets whisked from Pennsylvania to a Satanic rehab center, and then across the country again to grimy Las Vegas. Years of grueling, crazy, exciting, challenging (to say the least), and often nasty experiences on the road with the band, were nothing compared to this trip, and it seems like all Kris’ heavy metal years were preparation and toughened her up. The journey to Las Vegas is overwhelming, but Kris has a mission she can’t ignore. There’s also a whole host of colorful characters along the way, but I do have to wonder if Hendrix has a thing against UPS (you will see what I mean when you read the book).

The greatest thing about this book is that Hendrix has chosen to write ‘Souls’ with a female protagonist. Not just that: a kickass, middle-aged (even though I hate that word, because that’s what I am now, I suppose), female as its lead. And she plays the guitar like a certain other Hendrix. She doesn’t take any bull from anyone and doesn’t stop fighting back once she starts on her new road trip.

While it seems as though she has given up with her hotel job, the revelation that she must stop her old bandmate Terry Hunt, lights a fire in Kris, and the book has that vibe of ‘don’t give up, don’t let the system win, don’t let the bullies push you’. That’s highly clear in the messages of conspiracy theory, our paranoia-laden country, and how culture is selling itself (its soul) particularly out to cell phones and shallow marketing. Reading the book will give you a greater sense of the way the conspiracy theory works in ‘Souls’ - I’m kind of at a loss as how to explain the genius behind how it’s woven in - but Hendrix has cleverly used snippets of radio and newspaper to show how ‘news’ travels and information spreads. This has always been the way conspiracy theories spread and this underbelly of the book is fascinating.

If you don’t know all the music in the book, this may be a little daunting, as there are a lot of heavy metal and music references, but I think if you have even the remote interest in or knowledge of decades old music such as Black Sabbath and Slayer, and remember the days when everyone thought that heavy metal listeners were devil worshipers, you will appreciate what Hendrix is doing here (and no you don’t have to actually like the music). Trigger warnings for sexual assault and creepy crawlies; this is definitely rated R.

Hendrix is an undeniable force in pop culture literature and has written an unforgettable book, one that’s not for everyone, but will be a cult classic, but not like any of the schlock he writes about in his awesome ‘Paperbacks from Hell’. No one writes like this guy; ‘We Sold Our Souls’ is funny, gross, complex, and a wonderful blend of horror, pop culture, conspiracy theory, and is infused with a heavy dose of music history. Only Grady Hendrix could have done that.

We Sold Our Souls is a fun novel that blends heavy metal mania, claustrophobic horror and a trippy road-trip into a “Black Mirror”-esqe mix that is hard to put down. However, the overall quality of the writing makes it hard to rate it more than a two.

We Sold Our Souls is a metal love ballad for horror lovers and music fanatics alike. You certainly don’t have to be a rock-and-roll fan to appreciate Grady Hendrix’s unflinching treatment of band-culture, fan-culture, and (of course) cult-culture.

Before finishing this novel, I didn’t realize the phrase “We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll” was associated with the iconic Black Sabbath. Hendrix uses this relation subtly, weaving in clever mentions of classic songs and genre heavy-weights that even I (with little experience with the genre) could appreciate.

Hendrix also succeeded in writing a very unique take on well-tread horror plots. There is a deal with a devil but it isn’t what you might expect; there is a kick-butt, strong, independent female lead but she’s flawed and kinda crazy; there is a band break-up but its filled with genuine emotion and lacking soap-opera-drama.

In the end, this was a very well developed horror novel that I think is nearly biting social commentary. In fact, the only reason this wasn’t a 5-star read for me was that I was hoping Hendrix would deliver more with the social commentary. However, even saying that, Hendrix accomplished a lot with We Sold Our Souls - entertainment with a healthy helping of debauchery

The below 5-star review was posted to Hillbilly Highways, Every Day Should Be Tuesday, Amazon, and Goodreads on 9/18/18:

I am a fan of Grady Hendrix. His essays on 1980s pulp horror fiction, the resulting book Paperbacks From [H*ck], and his commentary on the Dukes of Hazzard remake DVD special features. But I had never read any of his fiction. We Sold Our Souls struck me as a great place to start. And I was right! This is a dang good book.

Kris is somewhere in the morass of middle age working at a dead-end job on the overnight shift at the front desk of a dingy hotel. But her life wasn’t always that way. There was a time when she was at the top of the world, playing guitar in a metal band at the cusp of breaking out. And then it all came crashing down.

When she sees a billboard for the retirement tour of her former bandmate, Terry Hunt (also known as The Blind King), and his new band (Koffin), she starts tracking down the other members of her old band, Dürt Würk (a play on a term for grave digging). Why have their lives been so miserable while Terry hurtled to superstardom? What happened to their lost album Troglodyte (“the album Terry had destroyed, the one he never wanted released, the one that scared Black Iron Mountain”)? What or who is Black Iron Mountain? Why do they fear it? And what happened on contract night?

Seeking the answers to those questions will eventually lead her to [H*ck]stock ’19:
“The original Woodstock was all about hippies humping in the mud. Woodstock ’99 was a disaster where everything got set on fire. [H*ck]stock ’19 promised to combine both those events together in an apocalyptic end-times party.”

If you doubt that Terry is history’s greatest monster, consider that he says things like this:
“Koffin sings about real things, about social change, about actual emotions, about 9/11. Metal is an act. Koffin is real.”

We Sold Our Souls is very much a book about metal. Metal heads are famously pretentious. We Sold Our Souls works in part because Hendrix loves the music enough to take the piss out of it in service of the story, but he never does it out of meanness.

We Sold Our Souls is also very much a horror story. It has fantastical elements, to be sure, but they are in service of the horror. As the name suggests, We Sold Our Souls features both literal and figurative take on the selling of souls. The latter should be obvious to anyone familiar with the music industry. The former is maybe too thinly explained to work as a fantasy, but it is more than enough for Hendrix’s horror purposes.

The man knows his business (it must have been reading all of those cheap 1980s paperbacks). He knows that horror should first and foremost be creepy, disquieting, and unsettling, rather than gross and gory. I mean, there is some gore. This is a book in which someone gets their face ripped off, after all. But Hendrix gives us the former in spades.

We Sold Our Souls is a story about metal, about the working class kids who find meaning in it, about the way the recording industry inevitably works to suck the soul out of any music it comes into contact with, about making bad choices to because they hurt someone else or because we don’t appreciate the price. It is about the things in dark corners that feed off of us at night, about the violence in the dark corners of our heart. It is about the indomitable nature of the human spirit, or at least of one woman, even in the face of watching a man get his, er, face ripped off. It is scary as [h*ck], but uplifting and deep nonetheless.

Disclosure: The publisher provided me with a review copy of We Sold Our Souls via NetGalley.

Kris made a name for herself in the 90s as part of Dürt Würk, a heavy metal band whose cult following had pushed them to the brink of success. But rather than finding fame, the band fell apart and it was lead singer Terry Hunt who ended up with all the glory.

Twenty years later, Kris is barely squeaking by with a job at a crappy motel, a care that barely runs, and a house she's about to lose. And that's when she sees it - a billboard announcing Terry's return to the stage and an all our rocktastic final tour. It's the push Kris needs to finally do something. To finally confront Terry about what happened all those years ago.

But Kris soon finds that some things are better left unknown. And some betrayals are far worse than you can ever imagine.

Heavy metal and horror collide in this latest from Hendrix, a terrifying tale about how far one would go to make their dreams come true.

Grady Hendrix is not only an expert in analyzing the horror genre, he's proven himself an expert at writing it too. And yes, I do mean expert. Three books in and all three have hit my favorites list, that qualifies him in my mind.

I honestly wasn't sure when I dove into this one. Sure, Horrorstör was flat pack paradise of ghosts and My Best Friend's Exorcism thoroughly creeped me out while also appealing to my 80s obsessed nature, but heavy metal is most emphatically NOT my thing, so even I had some reservations in getting started with this latest. But given he hasn't let me down, I was excited none the less. And it was worth it!

Kris is in a dead end job, living in a house that's literally being sold out from under her. She really has no friends, no connections at all, and no direction. And part of that is thanks to the fact that she's been facing the fact that she had it all and was on the brink of a big music career, and lost everything. And the how of that particular storyline is part of the book but it's clear from the time that she sees Terry's billboard that she believes Terry is the cause of her downfall.

And thus begins her dark and horrific adventure!

This was a fabulous horror read, y'all. Super fun and super fast paced. Also, creepy as all get out! An instant favorite for any horror fan!

I’d been meaning to read something by Grady Hendrix for ages, so I jumped at the chance to review We Sold Our Souls. I’d heard so many of my friends rave about his writing in general, but as a metalhead, I was especially sold on the idea of an entire horror story revolving around this washed-up former metal star and her old bandmate’s essential deal with the devil to gain his fame.

"She had nothing. Except her music."

First, let’s talk about Kris Pulaski, our former guitarist protagonist who’s in her forties now, working the night shift at a hotel, miserable, empty, and alone. And let’s talk about how much I freaking love her. Kris is an absolute badass, full of flames and rage and a need for vengeance and justice; she’s tough, a total fighter, and frankly, she’s sick and tired of being held down by the men in her life. She’s incredibly aware of how warped the metal community’s treatment of women can be, much less how society at large treats powerful and self-confident women, but she refuses to let anyone get in her way for even a second. She’s constantly plotting her next move, and she’s just brilliant. If Kris Pulaski were a real person, I’d want to be her best friend.

"Kris had been alive long enough to know it was dangerous when men accused you of being better than them."

Kris isn’t the only enjoyable character, though—even some of the bad guys are pretty likable in their own way, and everyone, good or bad, feels flawed and authentic. I loved cycling through Kris’ former bandmates as she met up with each one, and learning about her memories of them, especially when she would couple in band-specific relations (things like, “like every guitar duo in metal, they were a little bit in love and a little bit in hate all at the same time”). It’s also incredibly fascinating to watch Kris piece together her broken memories as the story slowly reveals what drove apart the members of Dürt Würk, and why Kris has been an outsider ever since.

"She played for the losers."

While We Sold Our Souls absolutely has horror elements and a wonderful plot that kept me engaged from start to finish, what I loved most about it was the fact that, at its core, it reads like a love song to metalheads and music lovers everywhere. So much of what happens revolves around the music scene, the power of metal (and the darker sides of the community, too), and the ways that music can teach us and guide us to the light. There are loads of pop culture references (don’t be offended if a few of your faves get insulted—it happened to me twice, and all I could do was laugh), feminist undertones for days, and a few incredibly creepy (and/or disgusting) mental images that have followed me in the days since finishing this story.

Altogether, I adored every single page of this book, and see it as the kind of story I would happily read over and over again in the future. If you enjoy horror with a touch of weirdness to it, and especially if you’re a fellow metalhead, I can’t urge you strongly enough to pick up a copy of We Sold Our Souls right away. There’s not a single negative thing I have to say about it, and I can’t wait to read everything else Grady Hendrix has to offer.

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was nearly a breakout success, but the lead singer Terry went solo and became a superstar as Koffin, leaving the rest of the band in the dust. Now, former guitarist Kris is miserable as a night manager at Best Western. Then one day she learns a horrific secret about Terry's meteoric success -it may have come at the price of Kris's soul. With this information, Kris plans to confront the man who ruined her life, but first she's going have to get the rest of Dürt Würk back together again and travel across the country to a monster of a music festival where Koffin is playing his final show.

I was so excited when I realized I had been approved for this ARC via NetGalley because Grady Hendrix has quickly become one of my favorite new horror writers. His brand of horror is right up my alley - I loved Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Excorcism was pretty fantastic. Needless to say, I had really high hopes and was expecting to be thoroughly creeped out by his newest novel. Luckily for me, We Sold Our Souls totally delivers in all the ways that matter. I'm not a guitarist and heavy metal isn't one of my favorite genres, but as a musician I forgot how much I like reading about fellow musicians. I especially like seeing it in genre fiction which doesn't happen often enough, and I love how key Kris's music (and love of music) plays such a central role in this horror story. Kris herself is a fascinating lead character. Even though she's quite flawed, a bit rough around the edges, and doesn't always make the best decisions, I couldn't help but root for her throughout. In fact, all of the characters in this novel are complex and well-drawn. Finally, I just need to mention just how well this novel works as a psychological horror story. I was on the edge of my seat and there are plenty of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Plus, if you're into conspiracy theories this will probably get you going as well.

Overall, We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix is a thrilling new Lovecraft-esque horror novel that focuses on music and its cast. If you've enjoyed this author's previous works, I have a feeling that you'll love this too. I can't wait to see what he's going to do next. One thing's for sure, though, I will never look at UPS in the same way!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever had so many thoughts about something that you couldn't pick through them to properly articulate them all? This is exactly how I've been feeling about We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. What I feel is this was a total love letter to metal music and the fans who love it; We Sold Our Souls roped me in and took me on an unexpected journey that reminded me of some sort of epic Lord of the Rings & 80's metal mashup full of references to music I grew up with, as well as the ever so popular nu metal (you love it or you hate it, and it was made perfectly clear how our characters felt about this particular genre of music throughout the book)

We follow the journey of Kris Pulaski, once so close to fame and fortune with her band Dürt Würk she could almost touch it, who now-- decades later-- works in a motel lobby cleaning up the occasional puddle of urine from an unruly guest or two after being sold out years prior by the bands lead singer. This all changes when she's driving home from a particularly nasty days worth of work and spots a billboard with said lead singer on it, advertising his farewell tour. Memories start flooding in, but it's the things she CAN'T remember that lead her on a journey to figure out what happened on the night when all hopes of success were destroyed.

This is my first experience reading anything by Grady Hendrix. I'd say my favorite thing about this book was his ability to so accurately depict the struggles of a woman with all odds against her. I also love the way of which he handled a certain younger female characters storyline. He didn't make her out to be some completely airheaded, helpless damsel in distress and I really enjoyed and appreciated that.

If I'm being perfectly honest, I felt like this was the perfect book for me. Like all my previously useless knowledge of rock and metal finally paid off in a story where I actually understood all the references. I would absolutely recommend it to fans of the genre, and also anyone who enjoys quality strong female characters in literature.

Words can't describe how amazing and in a way even empowering it was to get to follow Kris on her journey, and to watch her overcome some truly horrific people and events, yet nothing was going to stop her from doing what she felt was right. Not without a fight, anyway. I look forward to reading more from the author, both his upcoming and previous works.

As a fan of some of Grady’s prior books, I was very excited to receive this review copy. This book features many of my favorite elements of Grady’s work and my own personal cultural preferences, ie rock music, horror, satanic panic and all the amazing things from my 1980s childhood or at least my memories of that time. While the premise of this novel is so perfect, I felt like about 1/3 of the way into it, it became less fun and just a generic story about a friendship gone bad with some 80s references thrown in. I found myself having a harder time staying interested in the characters and plot as the story progressed. I have to admit I was a little disappointed by it.

Such a stellar novel. Grady Hendrix demonstrates once again that he's one of our greatest living horror authors with a heavy metal anthem that pays homage to rock and roll, the blues, and cosmic horror. An easy five star read for me.

<i> Hard rock, heavy metal, stoner rock, doom metal-it all dragged itself up out of the swamp called the blues. </i>"

As a major fan of the blues, how could I not be aware of Robert Johnson's story? Legend says he sold his soul at the crossroads to play the guitar like that. Maybe he wasn't the only one doing the selling?

WE SOLD OUR SOULS is the story of a band in turmoil, maybe not a great band, but one that affected people. One that got people through the hard times...one that helped them celebrate the good. But when the lead singer decides that this isn't enough for him, he investigates...other avenues. Will the band survive his efforts and appeals to be something greater? Will they survive at all? You'll have to read this to find out!

I loved how the background of each band member was related, but I especially liked the lead character Kris, because she wasn't the stereotypical female protagonist that we so often see. (Well, let's face it-we don't see that many female leads of rock bands, in real life or especially as believable characters in books.) She was bad-ass but she didn't think so-maybe she didn't even realize it. But she was resilient and she kept on keeping on even when there was no chance of success. I think I have my first fictional girl crush.

As the tale progresses, several twists occurred that I didn't foresee at all. I will never look at a UPS truck in the same way again, (and I bet you won't either). I'm sure my mouth dropped a couple of times and it probably wasn't pretty, but hell, I don't care. (I won't even speak about how late last night my Kindle hit me in my face because I was so intent on finishing this story but I just couldn't say awake any longer.) The bruise was worth it!

At the end of each chapter you'll find little tidbits from radio or news broadcasts and some of them won't make sense until later on. I really liked them and they provided background at times, and foreshadowing at others.

Grady Hendrix blipped my radar with his beautiful book PAPERBACKS FROM HELL and since then I've been a big fan. This book, however, this one is truly something special. I rank it right up there with a few other books about bands that I've greatly enjoyed like Robert McCammon's THE FIVE.

At this point, if I haven't won you over I'm probably not going to. However, I will say, if you're a fan of well written, fast paced, dark fiction, <b> and</b> you love Rock & Roll, you will miss the boat by a wide, wide margin if you don't read this book.

My highest recommendation!

*Thanks to Quirk Books via NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*

We Sold Our Souls and all we got was this lousy band t-shirt. High concept but ultimately unsatisfying book about a fictional heavy metal band.

Kris, Scottie, Tuck, Terry and first JD and then Bill started Durk Wurk, a heavy metal band, in high school. They were good but not great. Terry, the male lead singer, breaks up the band one night by stealing their music and going solo as The Blind King in his (new band) Koffin. Terry becomes rich and famous while the other band members stumble through life.

Kris, the guitarist and song writer, decides to confront Terry during his final farewell tour show at Hellfest. As she contacts her other former band mates, she finds out more than just thievery may have happened the night the band broke up.

Similar to what occurred with the author’s Horrorstor, We Sold Our Souls has an intriguing and high concept plot. Unfortunately, its promise is never fully realized. The conclusion was exactly what was seen only a few pages into the story. There are also some credibility issues. I don’t listen to metal. But I know the Dead Kennedys and the Plasmatics were punk—not metal. I found it hard to believe that a guitarist could stop playing for years and immediately be able to play at the same level when she is handed a guitar. Also, while there are illusions to Hell, there were absolutely no scary moments in this book. If you are into heavy metal, you might enjoy this book. However, for me it only rates 3 stars.

Thanks to Quirk Books and NetGalley for an advance copy.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, I was never deep in the heavy metal/rock music culture back in the day so a lot of the feeling in this book went right over my head. The overriding message seemed to be that music was better when it was written by starving artists rather than teams of people (arguably true!) and anyone who enjoys the latter is a mindless sheep and a worthless cog in a larger machine of depressingness.

This book is a tribute to hardcore fans of classic rock, it’ll strike all the right chords with them (pun utterly intended) and give them a big ol’ bear hug made of nostalgia. I’m gutted that I’m not the target audience for this book because I LOVED Horrorstor by this author and really wanted to love this book too.
Hendrix’ books tend to be heavy on the niche interests and this one is no different, so be warned if you pick this up!

I found it a tough read when it came to holding my attention for the reasons I’ve already mentioned. The early pacing in the book is slow but around the halfway mark all of the loose threads start to weave together and everyone meets up for the grand finale.

There’s some occasional and unflinching violence and gore in this book so it’s just about the social commentary, the violence and the amped up feeling of paranoia as the narrative progressed were the real highlights for me.

4.5 stars!

WE SOLD OUR SOULS, by Grady Hendrix, is a psychologically intense novel involving a one-time metal band and the power inherent in their music and lyrics. Years ago, five people formed a band called "Durt Wurk"--a band that was good, and had the potential to be great. Then came the day that their lead singer, Terry Hunt, decided he wanted more . . .

Kris Pulaski--now nothing more than a motel clerk--clearly remembers her triumphant struggle to where she knew they had something special. Her memories of after Terry are more fuzzy.

". . . Once upon a time, Kris Pulaski had beaten entire rooms into submission . . ."

Her meaningful guitar riffs had a power she worked years to cultivate into that perfection. They were not entirely forgotten, but clearly pushed aside for a mundane job she had no passion for.

". . . the riff that said they all underestimated her, they didn't know what she had inside, they didn't know that she could destroy them all."

After a particularly depressing work night, Kris notices a billboard on her way home, proclaiming the farewell tour of Koffin--The Blind King.

The band Terry Hunt left them to start up on his own.

Suddenly, half-remembered images of their final night together start coming back to her. Although missing some crucial elements, Kris has an inexplicable feeling that something larger than all of them--and much worse--was about to happen.

". . . I don't believe in coincidence. The universe always has a plan. It's our job to perceive it . . . "

Grady Hendrix weaves this tale of a heavy metal group--before and after its heyday--with such accurate descriptions that you'll feel you were with them all along. His characters are real, complex individuals that make the story come alive. The urgency and pacing increase perfectly as the novel keeps going, bringing crucial revelations and scenes from the past to complete the picture in our minds.

". . . Nothing is ever really good or bad, it's all about your perspective."

As Kris rallies herself and sets off on a journey she never anticipated, the gaps in her memory take form as much for the reader as for her mission. Although completely from Hendrix's imagination, I couldn't help but get a "Lovecraftian" vibe from this novel--I mean that as the highest compliment.

". . . you fought with the weapons you had, not with the ones you wished for . . . "

The music--both tone and lyrics--play an integral role here. Anyone who's ever felt the "power" or "emotion" of a song can relate to this. The dynamics of the band, their roles and talents, made them seem more like a family in their early days.

"A girl with a guitar never has to apologize for anything."

This story worked so well on an emotional level, as well as the terror, fear, psychological, and physical horrors that are portrayed. The feelings evoked become real to us, and I think that many will be able to identify with some of the more "universal" themes brought up here.

". . . She'd found her best friend, and he was broken."

As the novel progressed further into "unknown territory", I still felt as though it was the "natural" way this story had to unfold.

". . . it is possible to be crazy and paranoid and totally insane and still be right . . . "

Overall, I loved Hendrix's style and the way he incorporated the band's beginning, end, and things that occurred in between, in such a manner that it all felt right--that this was the only way it could have happened. There was never a point where I felt that too much information was being thrown at me just to get it out there. Rather, the pacing was set so well that we are able to glean just as much information as we need, when we need it.

". . . Metal never dies. Metal never retreats. Metal never surrenders . . . "

Personally, I'd love to visit this world of Hendrix's gain in the future.

Highly recommended!

How is it possible that Grady Hendrix makes the best horror stories that manage to perfectly balance the horror and the comedy? I knew as soon as I heard about this book I was going to read it - Hendrix is an auto-buy for me. As a non-metal fan, I still fell madly in love with this book and it actually made me want to give metal a try. All the years of my life I have never wanted to listen to metal until I read this book.

Once again the main protagonist is flawed and makes me want to scream sometimes, but I am so glad all his books are female-led. I loved the journey and the ending despite it making me crave a sequel.

I am now convinced that Grady Hendrix could make a novel about an evil pencil and I would fall in love with it.

I am a huge fan of Grady Hendrix so when I saw he had a new book coming out (and I got approved to read it), everything else on my TBR mountain just got pushed aside.

The premise is very intriguing but also very Hendrix-esque. One part metal band, one part deal with the devil, sprinkle in some betrayal, and BAM! you have this book. My hands were literally shaking with excitement when I started to read it.

But the beginning is slow. I mean, really slow. Our story begins looking at our protagonist in her post-metal days as she is the front desk clerk of a hotel, getting berated and mistreated by guests and management. Fast forward a few chapters and she is reuniting with some of her bandmates, but people continually end up dead and she is forced to go back into her past to find out where he life went of the rails leading to a confrontation like no other.

I liked this book but I didn't love it. The plot was pretty choppy, the pacing was a little slow, and I felt like Hendrix could have done a better job smoothing things out. The book just left me wanting more. The climax was great but even in the ending I just had a "meh" feeling inside. His earlier work (Horrorstor, PFH, and his magnum opus - My Best Friend's Exorcism) really did a better job at encapsulating the reader. This book just fell flat.

Don't get me wrong, I'll continue to claim myself as being a huge fan of Hendrix and will continue to buy anything and everything the man writes, but this was forgettable.

Grady Hendrix writes real & believable strong female characters. Kris is probably my favorite one yet. Especially in the beginning when she is trying to teach herself Black Sabbath songs in a cold basement. This book is not without darkness. There is some gore in here, but that is to be expected if you've read My Best Friend's Exorcism or Horrorstor. You know what you are getting into here. The story is based around the album that lead the band to falling apart and how Terry rose to fame while everyone else did not... I do not wish to spoil anything- just read this book and enjoy it. I liked it better than the other two and I definitely see the growth in his writing.

Kris Pulaski, a washed-up heavy metal guitarist from the band Dürt Würk, is working as a receptionist at a Best Western Motel in the middle of nowhere. The band was on the verge of really making it, then their lead singer, Terry Hunt, went solo. As he rose to fame and fortune, the other band members all ended up in dead end jobs. Losers. Kris still wonders what happened on ‘contract night’, the night Terry sold them out. As she contact other band members to try and put things together, Kris realizes something is very, very wrong. She discovers that Terry sold their souls in exchange for his fame. She goes off on a crazy road trip to find Terry, before he finds her, to make retribution.

Although some of the scenes of the story are not for the faint of heart, there isn’t a lot of graphic violence. It certainly is a psychological thriller, full of suspense, and this book kept me on the end of my chair, wondering what the heck was going on. Hendrix has a very original storyline here, built it into a very nice crescendo at the end. I enjoyed it very much, and I strongly recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a fan of metal and horror I thought this married both really well and I thought it was also a great representation for how we sign up for so many things in life without really knowing what we are getting into and just turning the wheel as it was.
I do wish there had been slightly more horror elements though with the weird creatures being embellished on a bit more as I feel like there was loads of potential there. There was a certain scene however that was so well written to create a sense of claustrophobia that I have never felt so tense when reading a passage.
I also enjoyed the way it ended, and Melanie is one of my favourite characters. Sadly I did not have the same love for the main character Kris and I think my dislike of Kris did dampen my feelings towards her at some scenes.

I will be posting a full in depth review on my blog on September the 10th!

I think Grady Hendrix has quickly climbed up the list of favorite authors. If you haven't read my review of My Best Friend's Exorcism, pause right now and go read that to give you an idea of what you're about to dive into here.

What I absolutely love about Hendrix is that he writes such believable women. Like, women and teen girls who have been through the ringer and still come out strong. Kris is no different.

The opening of the book made my heart absolutely ache for my own reasons, but that could be just me. Teenage Kris trying so hard to teach herself Black Sabbath songs in a freezing basement is a familiar image to me. True, I grew up when metal was dying out and nü-metal was on its way in, but god only knows how many times I've wanted to live the life Kris had.

It's not a Grady Hendrix book without some MAJORLY FUCKED UP STUFF. In this case, it's the storyline of the Troglodyte album, the Dürt Würk album that lead to the band falling apart and Terry rocketing to the top with Koffin. The reason he rose to fame while the others had to rejoin the real world? Well. It's in the title.

There's some brutal body horror in this one, much like in MBFE. But it does serve a point. I won't spoil it, but just know, you will regret eating your dinner while reading! There are also some MAJORLY creepy creatures, too!

As another warning, there is a small scene of sexual assault. Not a rape, but some major unwanted groping.

Perfectly creepy and in a way touching, Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls is the perfect read to prepare you for spookyseason. I give it 5 out of 5 sparrows. (But don't let Black Iron Mountain know.)