We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

We Sold Our Souls
by Grady Hendrix
⭐⭐

Kris Pulaski wasn't always a failed, washed-up, wannabe rockstar in her 40s working at a motel to make the ends of her miserable life meet. She was once a badass guitar player for a band named Durt Wurk... at least she was before her bandmate Terry Hunt sold out and went solo, leaving his ex-bandmates to fall in his shadow. One day, Kris is driving home when she sees a billboard sign promoting Terry's post-retirement concert, and she instantly knows that he must be stopped. As she contacts her ex-bandmates, Kris stumbles upon a conspiracy theory that may just be true - Terry isn't who he says he is. There's also killer UPS men and demon creatures and lots of metalhead trivia. 

As a metalhead myself, I wanted to love this book. I was really appreciative of the fact that our main character is a middle-aged woman and was excited to follow her on her journey of kicking men's asses. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen. Actually... nothing really happened. The concept of the plot was strong, but it was executed poorly in my opinion. It was so loosely tied together, and the most interesting parts of the story were completely brushed aside. There was close to no characterization, and there is also barely any exploration into the relationships between Durt Wurk's members. Kris was the only female in an all-male metal band - to go deeper into that dynamic would have been interesting, especially as she was the creative force behind the music. 

There were cool aspects of this story but it mostly all fell flat. There was a total of three months in the book that were completely cut out of Kris' journey to reach Terry Hunt. This was like a story where things just happen for the hell of it, with no real explanations or storytelling whatsoever. The ending is bizarre and rushed. Between each chapter are radio show snippets and they were completely unneeded. They were mostly pointless - not adding humor or knowledge that was needed for the story. It really seemed more like an attempt to make the book look longer than it really is. 

I was honestly so disappointed in this story and I wanted a lot more from the plot and characters. This is unfortunately another example of a great idea executed poorly. I really think that with a little more time and effort, this could have been something special. With that said, this is just my personal opinion! If the story interests you, definitely give it a try!