This book was soaked in heavy metal which was about the coolest book I have ever read in fiction! The author went deep into the metal scene and even had the chapters named as album titles. I loved seeing some very recognizable band names within this book and it was almost like a salute to them which was very cool reading. Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it’s set in the Eighties. Rolling Stone Album Guide". Archived from the original on 6 March 2011 . Retrieved 18 September 2017. Break Up Breakout: Terry Hunt, Dürt Würk's frontman, is an in-universe example. He's refashioned himself as the Blind King and launched a successful new band called Koffin while the others have been forgotten. 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?

Kris had been alive long enough to know it was dangerous when men accused you of being better than them. The novel is a charming testament to friendships and life's imperfections, with dashes of rot and savagery to earn its keep in horror literature....It's a rollercoaster [that] lands as a vampire story concreted in vileness and Southern charm.”A fast-paced ride, firmly rooted in the pulp horror tradition…Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.” Think Mean Girls with demonic possession, set in 1988 Charleston. It’s funny, it’s heart-wrenching, it’s even a little spiritual, in a very strange way.” A vampire's hunger for blood may be insatiable, but this masterpiece novel ladles out ample thrills, chills, and relevant examples of sociopolitical injustices to satisfy any literary appetite.” I loved the character, Kris as she was a no-nonsense person that was not going to take crap from anyone and she just goes into a "take charge" mode as she goes after the band leader.

A fast-paced ride, firmly rooted in the pulp horror tradition…Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.”— Booklist, starred review For most of the book, I was planning on giving this five stars but I thought there were a few too many unanswered questions at the end. The ending was satisfying but felt like it was missing something just the same, like when you don't have any bay leaves and decide to make the soup anyway. We Sold Our Souls starts with Kris early in life, as a teenager, confused, and all attitude. She wants to play the riff from Sabbath, and she bleeds herself through the first chords until it sounds right. And for one glorious shiny moment, Sabbath was in her basement. She is hooked. Next, we meet Kris at 47 years old. The end of a career, and her soul, living in her mother’s house working at a Best Western. I am one of those readers who does a thorough (and not always fast) read and can usually point out or spot some of the weaknesses in a story. Sometimes I can live with them and I won't mention anything in my review while others I will elaborate on.

Now Chris is on a mission to reunite her fellow band members and confront "Koffin" for his devilish deeds! The first scene of this is hilarious and sad. A naked man with a pillowcase over his head comes into her office and pisses all over her desk. He then farts and leaves. Her brother, who is a policeman’s first question is not “are you ok?” His first question was, “Jesus Kris, couldn’t you clean this up?” It is sad, and it shows how much she has fallen from her former life as a guitarist.

We Sold Our Souls was a fun romp of a book from the rural setting of Pennsylvania, the depressed economy of West Virginia, to the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.I have a SERIOUS love going on for all these music novels. The more wild, the more music-mythological, the more gut-wrenchingly SWEET and SOUR taste of broken dreams and soaring to unattainable heights, the better. :) Right from the start, you do not have to love thrash metal to appreciate any of the ideas in this book. You could substitute Klezmer music in for metal, and it will ring true for some people. It is not so much what type of music you like, but being able to connect with the music itself. Even though Hendrix speaks at length about Metal music, you can substitute anything you are passionate about. If you love metal music, read this. If you love horror, read this. If you love reading the personal journey of a character to 'find themselves', read this. Like a lot of music is, this is a look into the soul of selfish, snobby musicians and the ultimate price they (seemingly inevitably pay) to be successful. This book was just so much fun. I think it has it’s flaws, but I enjoyed reading it so damn much that I am happy to forgive imperfections. I also don’t think Hendrix was going for very high-brow here, and for the kind of book this is, it’s a wonderful, weird ride. It pokes fun at all the stereotypes one can associate with metalheads, but in that loving way. I think it was Christopher Guest who said that you can only do satire about something you really love, and that’s what is going on here.

We Sold Our Souls is part metal, part road book, and part horror. There were some frantic moments and one of the most claustrophobic scenes I've read. I had to stop for a few minutes and burden my wife with it. Lots of crazy, gruesome, unsettling shit happens. 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.Horrorstör delivers a crisp terror-tale…[and] Hendrix strikes a nice balance between comedy and horror.”— The Washington Post, on Horrorstör