Dont Stop Believing

 I'm hesitant to title this review with a Journey song, but sometimes it just fits the narrative.

 Grady Hendrix again, this time with his awesomely packaged We Sold Our Souls.

Which is more proof Grady Hendrix gets the best cover designs.

This one is a bit unusual as we get two characters the narrative is focused on. One, Kris Pulaski, is by far the major one, although Melanie Gutierrez is no less interesting for her role in the proceedings. 

The back of the book and the title give away the basics, that Kris was Lead Guitar for a Metal act named Dürt Würk, and the lead singer sold the souls of his band mates for fame and fortune. While that's valid, it really doesn't fill out the novel contained within. See, when we meet Kris, she's working night audit at a Best Western outside Allentown, PA. She hasn't played guitar since the band broke up, and as far as anyone, including her, knows, Kris was to blame for the break up due to a drunk driving accident. 

However, not long after her brother tells her that she needs to find a place to live, Terry (AKA The Blind King, AKA the former lead singer of Dürt Würk, AKA now singer for the less a band and more a brand Koffin) announces his retirement tour, with a few dates on the West Coast, that ends up being expanded into Hellstock '19 outside Las Vegas.

Kris, annoyed at how bad her life is compared to his, starts looking up former band mates, feeling Terry owes her something for how he built his career off their pain. The first one, Scottie Rocket, ends up shooting himself in front of her, after telling her that the album Dürt Würk had just recorded prior to the break up (Troglodyte) was a real situation, that Terry has Hundred Handed Eyes of Black Iron Mountain spying on everyone, and the only way to beat him is to play the album to the end. Mind you, after Scottie dies, UPS shows up and kills his family.

Melanie, in the meanwhile, is busting her ass as a waitress at a Hooter's style restaurant in West Virginia, encouraged by an online friend to come out for the Koffin Farewell Tour. Her boyfriend keeps spending what money he makes on video games. We get glimpses of her life between Kris's journeys, which revolve around finding out which of her former friends are in Terry's pockets, the real truth of the break up, and being held captive at a rehab facility. Eventually Kris and Melanie meet, not long after Dürt Würk's original drummer (now a crazy Viking) get to Roswell. Melanie give Kris a ride to Vegas, which leads to one of the best conversations between metalheads ever. 

Anyway, in the end, the narratives diverge at Hellstock, and we finally get to see the final track of Troglodyte play out in "One Life, One Bullet".

By far one of the biggest joys in here is when Kris is playing, and remembering what it is to perform and be lost in the moment with the music, where the screaming 440,000 cease to exist in that space. It's an awesome feeling when it happens. 

It's more horrific elements are well written, including an escape through a narrow tunnel Kris has to worm crawl through. I'm not particularly claustrophobic, but reading that section gave me pause. 

While I was concerned the plot would be a rehash of the Satanic Panic, it really isn't as much as it is about the power of creation fighting against stagnation, which is a much better moral to a story.

If you're a metal fan, you'll love it. If you're a horror fan, you'll enjoy it. If you enjoy occasional scenes of people arguing about cultural minutia, you'll laugh a lot. Well worth it.