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!

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's
Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix
⭐⭐

This was such a great concept and I had really high hopes of loving this book. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out that way.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires follows the story of Patricia, a middle-aged house wife, as she discovers a ghastly monster living and feeding off of her quaint, suburban neighborhood. Out of pure desperation, she enlists the help of her book club - consisting of all the housewives that live in the neighborhood - to defeat this ghoul.

Most of this book consists of Patricia trying to convince her friends that she isn't crazy. There was so much wasted time in this book because it was like every chapter was the main character trying to prove that the monster and the threat he poses is real! It gets extremely repetitive and boring pretty quickly. I also felt like there would be more humor in this book, which is typical of Grady Hendrix, but it didn't really have much of that, either. The actual vampire wasn't very intimidating and I feel like this book could have been a bit darker and more gruesome. Patricia is also quite the White Savior in this story, which was totally unnecessary. 

There were some things that I did like, though, like the cast of women in the story and how diverse they were. I also thought that Grady Hendrix's portrayal of the relationships between these housewives and their husbands was a very nice touch. 

Overall, I would suggest skipping this one. It wasn't terrible, but it felt a little pointless upon completing it. Grady Hendrix is a great author though, and I'd absolutely recommend The Final Girl Support Group.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The Final Girl Support Group
by Grady Hendrix
⭐⭐⭐⭐

In The Final Girl Support Group, we meet Lynette - a Final Girl whose real life horror story has made her live her life in lockdown, cutting out all relationships and refusing to leave her apartment, except to attend the Final Girl Support Group (which is exactly what it sounds like). Every week, every Final Girl (women who are the sole survivors of a mass murderer) gets together to work through their past trauma in a therapy setting… until one day, one of the girls doesn’t show up, and each woman seems to be targeted by a mystery threat. 

I loved this book. Each character has a unique personality, voice, and response to trauma. It is very rare for a book to have a large cast of characters that don’t bleed into one another. Grady Hendrix did an impeccable job building these characters in a realistic and totally believable way. I also loved how funny the story was. There were no laugh out louds or punchlines, it was more of a social ineptitude that caused many snorts of mini laughter. I just loved Lynette and her inability to interact with any other human in a somewhat normal capacity. She is a pretty unreliable narrator, which also adds a fun twist to this story. Due to her trauma and PTSD, she fears and distrusts every person she comes into contact with, so you’re really as confused as Lynette is throughout this entire story. 

Generally, the story moves fast - it’s a page turner for sure. The twists are great and the effort that Grady Hendrix puts into world building and fabricating things like newspaper excerpts, movie reviews, and Final Girl interviews really adds to the story and makes it even more enjoyable. 

I would have given this book five stars but its ending was rushed and felt a bit unsatisfying. The ending wasn’t bad, it was quite good story-wise, but the climax at the end was too quickly pushed into a resolution. There was so much good about this book, so much that really stood out. I just wish the ending had been a little better. I still really enjoyed this book though and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror movies. This is definitely a story for you!