It’s official: Grady Hendrix has cemented himself as one of my favorite authors. With his 2018 novel, We Sold Our Souls, I think it’s pretty clear that he’s just never going to disappoint me. First he had me horror, and this time he adds in heavy metal!
Kris is a middle aged woman working the night shift at her local small town Kentucky Best Western. One day, on her way home from a shift she comes face to face of a giant billboard with metal “god” The Blind King. Also known to Kris as former bandmate, Terry Hunt. They were in a gritty local band, slowly making their way up the fame ladder in a band called Dürt Würk, and Kris was the lead guitarist. All of their dreams ended one night when Terry ruined a gig they had opening for Slayer, and then when they showed up at their dumpy home, Terry was there with some polished lawyer and four contracts laid out to buy the band out of their work, essentially. Kris left in a huff, but when she came back she knew something was wrong and convinced the rest of the guys to leave the house before flipping their van.
Now, the details of that night don’t seem to all be there, but in the present day, Kris sees Terry’s giant ad and knows she wants to confront Terry again. When her other bandmates signed those contracts, Terry also got his hands on the last album they all wrote together, and ultimately Kris’ life work, Troglodyte, and buried it. Kris decides to gather all of her former bandmates together to confront Terry, but this is where things take a turn for the weird. And a little bit supernatural. Her first stop is fellow guitarist, Scottie Rocket, who immediately starts spouting off some crazy conspiracy sounding garbage, but then he shoots himself while UPS workers show up and kill the rest of his family! Kris flees, hoping to convince the rest of the band what she now believes Scottie said to be true.
Without giving everything else away, the interactions with Tuck and Bill are almost worse than her experience with Scottie, but his theories end up being confirmed, and Kris knows that Troglodyte is the answer to ending all of this madness. She needs to reach Terry before he performs to a sold out crowd in the Vegas desert, and the evil forces at work do more damage. Dürt Würk’s final album is her map, and ends up protecting her more than once, but she comes awfully close to death a number of times. When she finally does reach the desert, she faces Terry but realizes what he wants and what’s happening are out of his hands, too. Kris ultimately picks up her axe and gets ready to destroy this mystical and evil Black Iron Mountain with her music.
I freaking loved this book! I don’t know much about playing the typical instruments in a rock band, but I’ve sure listened to enough and seen enough of the bands mentioned in this book live to know the feeling that Hendrix is describing is real. Also, having attended many festivals over the years, when he describes the crushing pulse of a crowd, I had some horror flashbacks. Seriously, nothing is scarier than getting stuck in a crowd where you’re all breathing in the same oxygen. At first I thought I wasn’t going to like the supernatural turn the book took, but it wasn’t so far out of left field, and it was kind of a cool metaphor about how music can defeat certain evils. I also couldn’t have finished this book at a more perfect time. If all goes right, this Friday I’ll be acquiring tickets to a huge Vegas festival featuring all the emo bands of my “youth.” Wish me luck!