I absolutely loved this book. It was definitely way more YA than I was anticipating, but I had more than enough fun for that not to be an issue. If anything, it just made me feel like I would have loved this book when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Brom has definitely become a must read author for me. His creativity when it comes to monsters and lore is just wild, and he's just so good at creating really interesting, fun characters. I really need to buy the actual book when it comes out, because I'm dying to see his paintings of everything in this book. It's a fun, fast read, and I think my only issue is that it was maybe a bit too fast, and I felt like some things could have been fleshed out a bit more. Still, from a purely enjoyment based standpoint, this is an easy 5 stars for me. Thanks for the ARC!

I am not generally a horror reader, but Ive only heard exceptional things about Brom's work, so I wanted to give this a try. This book delivers.

Evil in Me is dark, violent, and fascinating as we follow a ring that is way more than just a ring. If you're not generally a horror reader, but want to give it a try- check this out!

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Macmillan Audio as well as the author for this eBook and audiobook ARC.
#NetGalley #TorPublishingGroup #MacmillanAudio #MacAudio2024 #EvilInMe #ShahjehanKhan #StephanieNemeth-Parker #Brom

Title: Evil In Me
Author: Brom
Format: eBook and audiobook
Narrators of Audiobook: Shahjehan Khan and Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group/ Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: September 17, 2024
Themes: religion, paranormal, demons, demonic possession, music, friendship
Trigger Warnings: demonic possession, satan, religious themes, drug use, serial killer, gore,

Brom’s newest book is here! I’m new to Brom. I’ve only read three of his books, including this one, but I’m a HUGE fan. Brom is a gifted writer with an incredibly beautiful way of writing the most heinous things. It’s delicious and I can’t get enough. He’s also a musician and artist. This book contains an original song as well as some beautiful paintings. Very impressive. The newest offering from this talented author is about Ruby Tucker and her battle with demonic forces. Ruby is down on her luck. She’s run into some trouble with the law and is required to do community service as part of her probation. While helping her elderly neighbor go through some of his things, Ruby discovers an unusual ring. When it attaches itself to her finger, it proves to be much more than a ring. Ruby must get the ring off or lose much more than her life.

The characters in this book practically became contacts on my phone. Ruby is a good person who has had some bad luck and made some bad decisions. Who can’t relate to that? I loved how real she seemed. I could imagine being friends with her, even if we don’t have the same taste in music. I also loved her elderly neighbor. Josh is a sweet and knowledgeable man who cares for Ruby a lot. I really loved the voice that the narrator gave him in the audio version. She made herself sound like an elderly and endearing Jewish man and it very much added to my experience.

I both read and listened to this book and enjoyed both formats equally. I read the book first and then listened to it so that I could read it in my own voices first. Usually, when I do this, a favorite emerges but not this time.

My only complaint with this book is the fact that it ended too soon.

Highly recommend both this book and any of the Brom’s other books.

[Snack-Size Review] Evil In Me, by Brom

Quick Bite: Now I know what would happen if I crossed Supernatural with a Coke commercial…

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Ruby has a bad home life, mental health issues, and might go to jail if she isn’t careful. So it’s the perfect time for her to become possessed by a demon who can only be cast out if she can get enough people to sing along with a magical song. How hard can it be?

A Word From The Nerd: Despite my snarky description, I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit. It’s set in 1983, and as an 80’s kid, I can say that the author nailed the clothes, the music, and of course the Satanic Panic. The characters were great, especially a certain delightful demon who was indeed a Good Egg. I just had a hard time with the cheesiness of the song itself, and its roughly 45875648 repetitions.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and to teach the world to sing. But spike mine please.)

This is my first Brom book and lemme tell you what, it won't be my last! The spirit and flow reminded me a lot of Grady Hendrix. Also go listen to Ruby's song, played by The Maxines!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to the author, Net Galley, and Tor Nightfire for this ARC.

I love everything by this author and this book is no exception. Such unique dynamic characters and interesting plot line. Very immersive story that pulls you in. I did not want to put it down.

It's the first story I can think of where music was REMOVING demonic possession instead of causing it.

It was a fun story about 1980s punk and satanic panic, but there are actual demons involved. It had some dark humor that worked for me. There's an absurd drummer that shouldn't work but would've been right at home in some 80s comedy with Andrew McCarthy or Steve Guttenberg.

There were a few things that didn't work for me, mostly when the story left Ruby to follow a few side characters. One in particular bothered me because it was a redemption arc that went a little too meta with the character knowing it was a redemption. That kinda cheapened the moment for me.

Still, it was a fun read.

Incredible art is what makes Brom's work. I read Slewfoot and really enjoyed the story. But, the art truly enhanced that story.

I received an advanced ebook copy of Brom's Evil in Me. It had only the story, no art. I know it lessened my enjoyment, engagement, and complete understanding of this book.

The story, while good, had a few character and story inconsistencies, and things added for shock value that were never revisited.

It gave a very YA feel. I love YA, but I was definitely expecting an adult horror book.

As I said, I believe Brom's art makes his books great. So, I feel like I truly missed out on the full experience by having only the text version. I think his artwork definitely would've brought this story up a level and made any inconsistencies less noticeable.

That being said, I gave this 3.5⭐️

As always, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In theory, this would have been the perfect book (demons, 80s, satanic panic, punk rock, mysticism). Alas, it fell VERY short of that. In short, it was so surface-level that I doubt I'm going to remember much about it. I think Brom may have tried to do too much with the plot and a large cast of characters who seemed to be there solely for the sake of moving the plot forward. The serial killer...what was his name, Richard?...seemed pointless and I'm still scratching my head over the fact that Brom thought he needed him in the story. There wasn't enough of anything in this book to warrant a higher rating and in fact, I felt a little like I was reading a YA book from my adolescence in the 90s (lots of superficial stuff but no real depth to anything). I really loved Krampus by Brom so I'm going to consider this book a blip and see how his others are.

This was such a fun, campy horror novel! With a super unique twist. Ruby is currently volunteering at her local YMCA, doing community service to work off her parole. Also as part of her parole, she is assisting her elderly neighbor in his day to day tasks. During one of these visits, Ruby stumbles upon a golden ring - it calls to her and once she puts it on she finds that she is possessed by the demon trapped inside. Only through the power of friendship and Rock-N-Roll (more like punk but Rock-N-Roll sounds better) does Ruby have any semblance of freedom, and exorcising the demon trapped within her.

I loved that the magic system in this world is perpetrated through music, and that the only limitations to what music could carry the magic were that it be filled with "heart and soul". I loved the juxtaposition of religious fanatics and the satanic panic surrounding punk and punk culture, very reminiscent of the 80's (which was definitely the intent).

Super fun story with a unique plot and well fleshed out characters for being a campy horror. Will definitely pick up something else by Brom in the future.

Big thank you to NetGalley, Brom, & to Tor Publishing Group for the e-ARC!

Ruby Ruby Ruby, god love her has had a time in life. She was definitely lost and then found her way, with a cursed ring of all things. I liked most of the cast of this book, there were a few I didn’t like. This was my first Brom definitely won’t be my last.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Brom for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Evil in Me coming out September 17, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is an author who I wanted to check out. I love horror novels, so I thought this would be right up my alley. I kind of thought it’d be like Late Night with the Devil or something. There was a lot of horror, but I wasn’t feeling it. The characters were all right, but there was a lot going on with the plot. I liked parts of the book. I would check out other books by this author!

I love Brom, I hate Brom, and as usual I am torn but leaning towards loved it. lol His whole thing is fairy tales for the downtrodden; he's a modern Grimm's brother, but the original, bloody brothers. Reading along with the audiobook helped a lot due to the frequent musical interludes, so that may also be making me favor it more (the title song is an ear worm).

What I loved: While it feels a bit YA at times, there is a good amount of gore, a lot of it over the top kind of silly. Act II Ruby (though it felt forced), Tina, Vutto, basically Act II in general. I can't write much more without spoilers.

What I didn't love: Basically all of Act I. While I think Grady Hendrix leans more Goosebumps than Brom in general, this felt very Goosebumps with the young protagonist and cartoony bad guys - and the bad guys were just ridiculous. I'm torn on whether that's a bad thing though because I'm sure that's the point since the whole thing is a fairytale gone wrong (set within Judeo-Christian mythology lol). Also Act I Ruby can be a lot to tolerate at times. Everything with Richard was unnecessary; he didn't need to be in the book, period.

But like Brom always does, his endings satisfy. They're also left kind of open-ended so you're not entirely sure the fairy tale ending is truly the fairy tale ending. I think he aims for like a more philosophical gruesome Grimm brother's ending. Anyway, I've enjoyed the endings to all the novels of his I've read, including this one.

While getting through the first half was difficult, the second half was well worth the effort and a lot of fun. And more music!

Thank you to NetGalley/Tor Publishing Group for providing an early copy of this book.

I really appreciate the depth to all characters in this one, including the secondary characters. Ruby is a tough cookie who has been dealt a bad hand both with her family life and her recent run-in with the law. Despite kick after kick to her ego, she is determined to fight the demon possessing her and rekindles her relationship with her old bandmate in order to do so. The range in ages, mental sanity, and species(?) of characters is fun too - why is Vutto cute despite being a demon? Even our mysterious, added evil character helps to add some depth here.

I have to admit my main negative is on me, and it's that the core plot of "we need to sing a song in order to exorcise a demon!" is a little too cheesy for me. I'm not a fan of singing in really any media (books, movies, etc.) and I went into this book knowing that. Despite this making the book feel very YA to me, it was still a fun read. 2.5 rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

Unfortunately this ended up not hitting that well for me. I found it leaning into a lot of trite cliche and I found myself being able to guess easily where the story was going to go, which, for a horror book, is not a great sign.

So this was my first Brom book, so this might just be a case of me being in a little bit of shock. The very beginning of the book Is Jarring and I had to reread passages again to make sure that I was fully getting the concept of what was happening. Once the story moves to Ruby it does get a lot easier to follow and understand. There are a few things in the begining of Ruby's story that are dark but over all as a character I did end up liking her towards the end. Dick on the other hand I hated, and I know I was supposed to but I found some of his parts in the story to feel dis-conjoined with the rest of the story and he annoyed me. There were a slew of side characters that I did enjoy, I liked Tina, the demon, and towards the end I kinda even liked the goddess. I also really enjoyed the setting and 80s culture that was written well. Over all this was an intense, binge-able horror novel and I will be picking up another one of Broms books.

The story opens on an insane scene of demonic possession, Jewish mysticism, and graphic violence that definitely sets the premise for this one.. And then, just as quickly, it moves to the daily life of young Ruby, who just wants to move to Atlanta to play punk rock with her best friend, but has to get off probation first. She has one week left. Things quickly go from bad to worse as Ruby is possessed by a demonic ring, chased by a serial killer, and bounty hunted by her mom's Jesus-loving boyfriend. Ruby must get the band back together and get enough people to believe in her music to set herself free from evil. Nothing says punk-rock like a demon as your drummer ;)

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this e-arc.*

This is my second Brom novel and I have to say— I love the pacing and the the story has such a great premise! Brom does horror very well so definitely check out this newest release!

Fast-paced and gory!

I love this author’s writing, he has a way with words and his stories always fascinate me. This one in particular had a little bit of everything in it! Mental Health, possession, magic, ghosts, demons, a serial killer, Hell, the 80’s, music, a pretty pissed off ancient god and some great character development.

👹👹👹👹/5

Thank you to the author, @tornightfire and @netgalley for the ARC, opinion is my own.

Brom never misses! This was a really fun story that fused together a lot of interesting elements that worked so well together. I loved the relationships between our main character and the demons. The play on satanic panic was great and he always does such a brilliant job of making bad or morally grey characters likeable. I love Brom and I truly think he can do no wrong - I'll read anything he writes!