A review by wardenred
We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It is possible to be crazy and paranoid and totally insane and still be right.

The book definitely delivers on all the most interesting elements of the blurb that spiked my interest in the first place. Heavy metal horror! The mythology behind a specific (made-up) niche metal album turning out to be true! An older protagonist confronting the past! All of this are very much present and reasonably well-done, and I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes horror and has ever been, to any extent, a metalhead.

I loved how a bunch of popular conspiracy theories from the 90s were casually woven into the plot and the worldbuilding, and I enjoyed the structure of this novel, with all the flashbacks and radio transcripts thrown in. On the macro level, it’s really well-crafted, with the tension points spread wonderfully over the entire thing. Although on the scene level, I felt it meandered at times, with the narrative getting bogged down in the details and asides. Never to the point that it would frustrate me out of wanting to know what’s next, though.

I was kind of surprised that I found the MC’s younger self from the flashbacks a lot more interesting to follow than the main timeline Kris. Normally, I really like reading about older characters and I’m of a mind that people—real and fictional alike—generally become more complex and exciting as they age. Then again, character work definitely isn’t this book’s strongest point. I wouldn’t call the characters flat precisely, but most cast members embody specific archetypes with a heavy metal bend, and all in all, the focus is very much on the plot. 
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