This books' greatest strength is in its main character, Kris. Hendrix has always been so good at writing flawed and well rounded protagonists, and I think that Kris is his strongest yet. While she is rash and makes some questionable decisions throughout the book, you completely understand why she does what she does. She lives, breathes, loves metal, and having that taken away from her has driven her to the point of desperation. I loved following her as she goes to confront her former friend Terry, and loved that we get information and a background of not only her band, but many aspects of metal as a whole as she makes her journey. The references to metal always felt organic and well placed, and it gave a wider scope to the narrative. That said, once again Hendrix gets a little bogged down in the 'horror' aspects of this book, and I felt like he relied on cliches within the genre in spite of the fact he made a valiant effort at avoiding them. I was more freaked out by real world horrors within the story than by the demonic aspects, and sometimes it led to moments that felt rushed and haphazard for the sake of a 'scary' moment.

With all that in mind, I did enjoy reading "We Sold Our Souls", and I think that people who like Hendrix will find a lot of like within its pages.

I swear...Grady Hendrix made a deal with the devil to write something this damned good. An amazing mash-up of really uncomfortable horror, metal music & culture, scathing commentary on consumerism, humor, and insight as to how/why bands have such dysfunctional relationships.

Once again, Grady Hendrix is back with another fantastic, self-aware horror novel.

Playing with the classics tropes of the genre, this novel was smart and well written. The narrative was very fast paced and action packed, bringing along the reader for an entertaining adventure.

This novel will particularly appeal to readers with a background in music, specifically heavy metal. This is book was still accessible to less musically-inclined people, like myself, but I know I was the perfect target audience for the book.

If you enjoy Grady Hendrix's novels, heavy metal or deals with the devil, I definitely recommend checking out this one!

I received a copy from Penguin Random House Canada.

what i love about the grady hendrix books i've read is that though the books don't take themselves too seriously, it's pretty obvious the respect hendrix has for the subject. we sold our souls is no exception. though i'm not a heavy metal fan by any means, i appreciate the love letter to music this book essentially is (with a loving mention of my girl dolly too!)

it's not a perfect book; some of the characterization is inconsistent, (sometimes kris is ok with killing, sometimes she's not. why is terry fairly chill about allowing her to play with him on stage after all they've been through?) and the ending left me feeling lukewarm. but it is a really, really fun book to read. i loved that the main character was a middle aged rocker chick who bonds with a latina metal fan named melanie part way through the novel. melanie is a small but important character, and i love seeing women having each other's backs.

also, just want to give a brief content warning for sexual assault. if you know anything about the disaster that was woodstock '99 then that'll give you an idea of what i mean.

so to sum it up: not my favorite hendrix novel (hello, my best friend's exorcism, will anything top you ever?) but lots of fun and some truly creepy imagery. now i'm off to listen to dolly!

Grady Hendrix might be the best voice writing horror today. There’s something special about the way his books pay homage to classic horror, yet manage to feel fresh and unique. Just as I felt I was being lulled by a formulaic piece of 80s horror like I read as a kid, Hendrix just lets loose, and just like when I was a kid, I’m basically unable to do anything but read until I finish this book. Another amazing thing? One of the most terrifying elements of the book, the UPS Men, are sparingly used, and not explained. I both hope he has the wherewithal to not write a book about them, and obsessively hope they are featured in more stories.

I usually give myself a 100 pages before I throw in the towel but I only made it to 90 pages with this book. Difficult to read, story all over the place, mired down in superfluous paragraphs.

2/5

This felt like a story that could have worked with a different tone. It felt like it took itself too seriously for the type of story it was. If it had been written in a similar style as John Dies at the End I think I would have loved it. But as it was, I just couldn't get into it and it felt ridiculous. 

The first thing that put me off this story was the incessant references to bands in the beginning. Now, I love all those bands, but it felt really unnecessary and took me out of the story. Nostalgia and pop culture references can work really well (e.g. Ready Player One) but they have to feel like they are part of the narrative and not just added for the sake of having them there. For me, nothing I have read before has truly epitomised the meaning of 'Member berries' quite like this book.

Member Judas Priest? Yeah, I member! 

Nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia. It got better as the story went on, or at least it felt less heavy handed, but I really wish it had been dialled back in the beginning.

I will give this story credit for having the most claustrophobic scene I have ever read. Well done. It didn't feel particularly realistic how the protagonist got to that moment, but it genuinely had my heart racing during those pages.

Overall it was hard work finishing this book and the ending felt underwhelming.

Thank you to Quirk Books and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this title to review!

A girl with a guitar doesn't have to apologize for anything.

A fantastic book that hits the right notes every step of the way. Part heavy metal horror fantasy, part road book. This is yet another reason Grady Hendrix is one of my favorite authors.

Sure to be another hit from the writer of nostalgic quirky fiction, Hendrix once again exhibits his uncanny ability to weave a story from madness.

Tense, gripping and loaded with the hellfire of metal. We Sold Our Souls will leave you second guessing UPS drivers everywhere because when you're faced with a soul-sucking day job and very real soul-eating demons, there's only one thing left to do. You get the band back together.

Excellent, gripping read made even more interesting by the background story of the rock band and the implication of the "crossroads" type "Devil and Daniel Webster" undercurrent.. This is definitely pulp horror, but it's the kind of pulp horror we all cut our teeth on in the 70's and 80's and books like this one are leading the resurgence. I'd recommend it highly.

Grady Hendrix has filled a hole in my black heart yet again. I don't know how he managed to become the feel-good-book-of-my-life author when I didn't even know I needed one. And when I didn't really how utterly Satanic and metal it would be. Another winner from Quirk and Hendrix. #numetalisgarbage #downwiththeblindking

This book was surprisingly enjoyable. The element of metal brought back many fond memories from my high school days, so I highly recommend listening to a lot of the bands name-dropped. Even some of the sellouts. I've only read one other Grady Hendrix book, Horrorstör, and there were many elements similar between them. However, this book stands on its own like a tribute to the world of metal and its fight against the overwhelming enemy. Horror usually isn't my cup of coffee, but this is worth cracking open.

Remember: metal never dies.

This great Faustian horror novel features a kick-ass heroine and is packed to the bloody gills with cinematic verve.

Fresh off the huge success of his last book, Paperbacks From Hell, Grady Hendrix is back with a new novel. Kris and her band mates in Dürt Würk had slowly climbed in the music scene and their brand of metal was about to hit the big time. Then there was a betrayal. The band and the dream collapsed - for everyone except the singer, Terry. He reached mega stardom at the expense of the rest of the band. The name of the band changed to Koffin and the music style switched from metal to nu metal - truly horrifying already. Something happened the night the band fell apart but Kris and her band mates can't seem to remember.
Decades have passed and Terry and his band are going to put on a massive festival called Hellstock in Las Vegas with fans feverish to attend. Kris decides to get the rest of the band together to confront Terry. She quickly discovers not everything is as it seems and there are some very dark forces at work.
The first half of the book revolves around Kris putting the pieces together to figure out what happened to the band. Plenty of crazy things happen and it's fast paced. Around the midway point, the story really ramps up on the horror as more of the true nature of what is being dealt with is revealed. Kris is put in some extremely terrifying situations that will have the reader's heart racing. Kris is a really likable and determined character who goes through a lot. If I have one gripe, it's that Hendrix brings us some genuinely scary monsters, but I really wanted to see more of them.
As you would expect, music plays a crucial role in the story. Each chapter is a song title. Music flows throughout the book. It's like reading a metal opera, and alongside Kris, the music is the star. Hendrix does use some music related tropes from horror history, as you can see from the book title, but gives them a revitalized look. Grady has some broader statements to make about materialism and what people will do for fame.
This book is throbbing with riffs and is a joy to experience. It's a bit of a cliche, but describing the book as a tour de force is very appropriate. It's vibrant and fun and has everything you'd want in a summer read.

Twenty years ago, Kris Pulaski was a guitarist for the heavy metal band Dürt Würk, back when they were rising stars. Back before the night her bandmate, Terry Hunt, convinced the rest of them to sign away the rights to their original songs. Back before the car crash that left the rest of the band hating her, too. Back before Terry became the lead singer of Koffin, a wildly successful nu-metal band that is much more palatable to mainstream audiences.

Now, on the verge of losing both her house and her unglamorous gig as the night manager of a Best Western, Kris sees that Terry is planning a reunion tour. Finally, she decides that it’s time to try and right the wrongs of the past, contacting her former bandmates to get to the truth of what happened back on the night of the contract signing and the car crash.

From Kris’s very first stop on her apology tour, the journey proves fraught with violence, deceit, blood, and the slow revelation of a reality even darker than she suspected.

Though this isn’t quite as unsettling as Hendrix’s Horrorstor, it is still pretty creepy. It’s also a pretty compelling page-turner, and a lot of fun, especially if you have ever been particularly passionate about a niche genre of music.

If I had read this book at age eighteen, it probably would have been my all-time favorite: using music to defeat evil? Perfect. As an adult, it’s still a lot of fun - and provided some good flashbacks to my teenage punk rock years.

Now I just have to cross my fingers that Hendrix is almost finished with his next manuscript. :X

I received access to this title via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

We Sold Our Souls doesn't have the strong sense of place of My Best Friend's Exorcism, but Hendrix knows music just as well as he knows 80s pop culture. I loved the chapter titles, which were all metal anthems, and the many references to Dead End Justice by The Runaways. I also LOVED the fact that Kris was not romantically involved with any of her bandmates- I shouldn't be so shocked, but time after time themes like friendship and creative differences are sidelined by or forced to play second fiddle to romance plots. Kris was grimy and dogged, tough but not inhumanly so. I much preferred the small plot (Kris reconnecting (or failing to reconnect) with her old bandmates) to the bigger plot (demonic entities steal souls via user service agreements) I felt like Hendrix played a little too much on the idea of a generation of 'sellouts'- I am so sick of authors/the media/everybody hating on 'Millenials'!- though I felt that Melanie's experiences with her douchebro boyfriend and predatory 'nice guy' Hunter were accurate and timely. The effect the Special Ones had on Koffin fans was similar to the effect that Pennywise has on the townspeople in IT- you never know if they are under the influence of evil or just poised to tip over the edge themselves. The villains themselves remained shadowy throughout, emphasising 'human evils' ranging from apathy to lust for fame. The plot took the form of a road trip, but some of the stops were far too brief- I felt that Hendrix sometimes used Kris' altered state (drugs- recreational or medicinal- and alcohol) to get away with hazy descriptions of people and places. Overall, it was a quick, funny, gruesome horror read that I would feel comfortable recommending to older teens. I will continue to look out for new books by Hendrix- he is becoming a master of female-led horror!

Hendrix continues his run of must read horror novels with this excellent story of heavy metal, musical redemption and supernatural terror. In the vein of George RR Martin's Armageddon Rag, with a splash of Lovecraft like mythology thrown in, it's both a loving homage to metal music and a biting comment on the soul-sucking, corporate commercialization of the genre.

Protagonist Kris Pulaski encapsulates everything about the true metal spirit, an underdog battler who lives for the music. Her story of being left behind after childhood friend and lead singer Terry Hunt dumps the group for solo success is indicative of so many real life groups and feels as if it could be actually pulled from some MTV annuals of metal history special.
Hendrix then adds a coat of mythological horror, creating a supernatural streak of darkness that twists a familiar story into something fresh and fun.
Subtle flourishes, such as the use of album titles for chapter headings, add a nice touch too.
Destined to be one of the books of 2018.

On night at midnight at the crossroads Robert Johnson sold his soul to be the greatest guitarist who ever lived. And there was born the legend of the rock star selling his soul. In this book the question is what if he sells not only his soul but everyone else in the band. And then the band break up. Rock and roll horror in a somewhat similar vein to Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box. Well written, well paced and at times truly creepy. Well done.

I love this book. The metal references are spot on, and I do love the strong female lead, of the story and band, Kris. She never stops kicking ass and remains strong even when circumstances are against her. A must read for Metal and horror fans.

I'd read Hendrix's "Paperbacks from Hell" previously, and really enjoyed it, but this was my first of his novels. I've got to go back and read the others now, because "We Sold Our Souls" is great. I thought the story was engrossing and propulsive. And I loved our hero, the Best Western clerk and metal goddess Kris Pulaski. Some parts of the story have a great nostalgic sheen, like the story of Durt Wurk's formation, some parts are horrific (a certain car ride springs immediately to mind) and all of it is just well written. The final act has a great pace and punch, and the encore (ha, ha) is beautiful and made me a little emotional. Highly recommended.

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review