Tag: Music

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Author: Grady Hendrix
Published: September 18, 2018
336 Pages

Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

A new novel of supernatural horror (and pop culture) from the author of Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Paperbacks from Hell.

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania.

Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris’s very soul.

This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It’s a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that’s darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul…where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.

Kim’s Review:

Grady Hendrix has a way of creating a metaphor for abstract ideas and then making those metaphors so realistic and takes them as far as they can go. He did it with My Best Friend’s Exorcism and he does it even better in We Sold Our Souls. And I learned so much about rock and metal while reading this! He throws in songs and bands and I had to keep stopping and going to iTunes to check them all out. I think I may be a closet metalhead . . . ok maybe not, but I can appreciate the life of a metalhead!

I like how I felt like I could still understand what Hendrix was trying to say. I’m not a rocker, I’m lucky to know who Metallica is, and I’m a shallow person who doesn’t always get the deeper meaning of things, but I got this book. I really love the look into this world and culture of rock bands and their fans. Kris is a believable character who, even tho she is completely different from me, I still got her. I think I identified with Melanie more than anyone else. She treats Koffin’s goodbye tour like I treat author signings . . . I love that kind of passion. Overall, I ended up liking this book way more than I thought I would. I did miss some of the more technical musical elements, but I enjoyed watching the conspiracy unfold. I absolutely recommend this to anyone who even remotely identifies as a musician or even a fan. And those who love conspiracies are gonna love it too!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

**BONUS**

Goodreads is giving away 100 kindle copies!  The giveaway ends at the end of November. Jessica just entered this giveaway!!!  The link for the giveaway is here.

Blog Tour: Dear Mr Pop Star


Today I am on the blog tour for Dear Mr Pop Star by Derek & Dave Philpott. I share my review on this one!

Book Description:

A collection of hilarious letters to iconic pop and rock stars with fantastic in-on-the-joke replies from the artists themselves: Eurythmics, Heaven 17, Deep Purple, Devo, Dr. Hook and many, many more…

For more than a decade, Derek Philpott and his son, Dave, have been writing deliberately deranged letters to pop stars from the 1960s to the 90s to take issue with the lyrics of some of their best-known songs. They miss the point as often as they hit it.

But then, to their great surprise, the pop stars started writing back…

Dear Mr Pop Star contains 100 of Derek and Dave’s greatest hits, including correspondence with Katrina and the Waves, Tears for Fears, Squeeze, The Housemartins, Suzi Quatro, Devo, Deep Purple, Nik Kershaw, T’Pau, Human League, Eurythmics, Wang Chung, EMF, Mott the Hoople, Heaven 17, Jesus Jones, Johnny Hates Jazz, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Chesney Hawkes and many, many more.

Authors: Derek & Dave Philpott
Published: September 20, 2018
416 pages

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: October 6-7, 2018
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Jessica’s Review:

Letter writing is becoming a rarity in our instant electronic world.  Growing up, we all seemed to write to a celebrity or two.  Maybe we heard back from the celebrity, but most likely we did not.  Derek and Dave Philpott have done this: They actually wrote letters to pop stars, and  they even got letters back!…..

The letters to the pop stars can be hilarious as are the responses they get. Sometimes the responses are ‘normal’ and sometimes the pop stars continue their answer in the way the Philpotts sent their original letter. They even included letters where there was no response.

Admittedly, I have not heard of most of the bands in this book. The bands range from the 1960s through the 1990s so most are ‘before my time’ or not as well known.   Some kind of background info would have been helpful on the bands.

This would be the perfect coffee table book/Christmas present for the music lover in your life!  You could pick up the book and turn it to any page knowing you are going to be entertained for either 5 minutes or a couple of hours!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

About the Authors:

Derek and Dave Philpott are the noms de plume of two ordinary members of the public, working with help from a worldwide social networking community. Neither they, or anybody assisting with the creative aspects of this project had any connections with the music, entertainment, media or publishing industries whatsoever at the time of its commencement. Despite these humble origins, however, they now find themselves in the bizarre but enviable position whereby many pop stars and people within these circles are their friends “in real life’” (whatever that means!). Many artists consider “getting a Dereking” as a badge of honour, and, as one has participant succinctly put it:

‘’This is an ingenious and extremely inventive concept. You have given us a platform to answer questions that have been asked of us for years by our fans, and respond on a public platform of immense fun. You’ve created a weird and wonderful world loved and admired by 1,000s of people worldwide, and you have your own army of loyal fans. That pretty much makes you part of ‘us lot’ now!’’

Contact the Authors:
Goodreads
Unbound
Twitter  @DerekPhilpott

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