Not entirely sure anymore whether I picked this one up because of coffeeshopreader’s review or badkittyuno’s, but between the premise and the cover, I thought it sounded fun. And I think it is, but it’s not quite my cup of tea. I guess it’s a sense of humor thing and sometimes it can be hard to predict what will be incredibly amusing vs. kind of entertaining, even if everything else seems like it should fit.
For some reason, something about the vibe reminded me of Space Opera even though the two novels are very different. But they both go for a type of quirkiness with lots of extra twists? This is simply the metal rock version of it. It might be that they both had a similar frantic/frenetic energy because the world is on the line here, people, let’s do something! And both had lots of superficial craziness mixed with the occasional deep thought.
Kris Pulaski used to be in a heavy metal band but just when they were about to hit it big everything changed and their lead singer Terry went on to have a career without the band while Kris was left debt ridden, working a dead end job, and despised by everyone, including her former band mates. After yet another horrible night at work, she realizes it might finally be time to bury the hatchet – potentially all the posters advertising Terry’s latest tour help inspire the timing of her decision.
However, while she goes on a quest to reconnect with her old band mates, make peace and also maybe figure out what happened during that missing piece of time from the night that changed everything, it doesn’t take very long for her road to go down a dark and twisted turn. The first person she reaches out to kills himself in front of her, and evil UPS men finish off his family.
Her attempts to warn the other band mates lead to even greater danger but her escapes from death also provide some answers, as Kris pieces together the parts of the night she remembers (finally explaining to the reader why the band hates her) and fills in the missing gaps. Combined, these answers lead her the real explanation of why their lead singer made it and they didn’t (the title might be a bit of a spoiler for the solution to that mystery).
The novel also introduces a few other new characters, fans of Terry’s act, and it is clear that only Kris stands against Terry as all paths lead to that final performance of Hellstock ’19. It’s really hard to say whether a reader might like this one or not – it’s certainly unique but there are some very graphic and disturbing scenes in addition to the specific sense of humor potentially required. I tend to have mild reactions to a lot of comedic novels others love, such as Space Opera, anything by Chris Moore (I liked him, I just always thought he took one step further than necessary) so that might help determine if you’re on my wave length when it comes to comedy or not.