We Sold Our Souls - One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
I’m not much of a music person. When I was a teenager I was. Music WAS LIFEEEE. I lost myself in angsty lyrics and I’d go to shows and make friends and my bangs covered my left eye so much I still can’t see well out of it. But around my 20th year on this earth I just moved on from music. Instead I just watched more movies, and read more books, and found myself there instead.
Then last year one of my favorite bands got back together and played a show and my brain exploded. I started listening to them constantly, and then that led to me remembering other bands from my teen years that meant a lot to me and I started listening to them. I felt myself come alive again in a certain way that I hadn’t in a long time. Not to say I wasn’t alive before, movies and books gave me everything I needed, but listening to this music again made me feel powerful. It made me feel less alone, it made me feel understood.
And that’s the power of music right? This isn’t a news flash. But to me it was like I forgot what music felt like.
Then I read We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix and it was almost like the perfect cherry on top of me evolving into my 30 (almost 31 year old) self. It is genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read and I’m forcing everyone to read it.
Kris was a rockstar. When she was young and angry, she found a guitar, and she found metal, and it healed her. It gave her a place to be herself, to vent her anger, to be understood. But her band never quite got to that level of fame that all bands strive to be. They came SO CLOSE! But something strange happened, and none of them really remember that night, but it’s all over. All they know is the singer of their band broke away from them, stole their music and is now completely fucking famous and none of them can do anything about it.
Now it’s 34 years after Kris first picked up that guitar and she’s working in a hotel and has completely lost who she was. She’s just going through the motions. She is drab and grey and motionless.
But then her ex-singer is back, he’s going on a reunion tour before he retires forever. This triggers Kris, it wakes her the fuck up and she sets out to find out what exactly happened that night and to get what she’s owed.
We Sold Our Souls is a freakin’ masterpiece. And I don’t want to make your expectations super high but hot damn. It just hit me in the right time and I just loved it.
book mood board - all images found on wehearit
Here’s all the things I loved:
Kris is this uber flawed individual and she remains flawed until the very end, but she’s incredible and you are so hardcore rooting for her. She goes on this massive journey, literally across the states, but also towards accepting herself and gaining an understanding of where she’s been. Kris is honestly just everything.
The other members of the band are just as fascinating. And what’s great about this story is how Hendrix handles the nature of conspiracy theories and the judgement we place on those who believe in them. Scottie, who has completely dissolved into what we deem insanity, is in fact right. He is being watched, he is being listened to by a “big corporation” but no one believes him, including his wife. And of course, JD. He’s highly medicated and unpredictable and has spent his whole life being deemed “difficult”. But when Kris finds him and brings him into her journey, he is also right about his “theories” and plays this incredibly important role.
I like that we’re shown this other side of humanity. Those folks who are weirdos and “basement dwellers” - in here they’re heroes.
What’s beautiful about this book is that EVERY CHARACTER MATTERS. There’s no fillers here. Everyone has a point and everyone is so thought out.
“it is possible to be crazy and paranoid and totally insane and still be right. Maybe the problem with everyone is that the world has become so insane they’re not out of their minds enough to comprehend it.”
Sleep’s Holy Mountain - This. Fucking. Chapter. This is one of the scariest chapters ever written. And I’m not the only one who thinks this, you bring up We Sold Our Souls to anyone whose read it and they’ll immediately bring up this chapter. I won’t spoil anything but it’s the most claustrophobic, terrifying scene. And I’m not claustrophobic, that doesn’t bother me, but I was SO SCARED reading this.
“Let the sky come down
Wash everything away
Worms scream underground
I no longer feel afraid.”
The lore in this is incredible. Again, I don’t want to spoil this too much, but there are these….creatures….and they’re so creepy. And it’s this awesome concept of that ol’ monster sucking out your soul. But the way Hendrix has come up with their descriptions is going to give you some damn nightmares. And the story within the story, Troglodyte, is so rich with this fascinating old school metal fantasy horror realness. I loved it so much.
“Down
Through the dirt
Through the floor
Through the Blue Door.”
And finally, the ending. What a fucking ending. Grady Hendrix has always been strong with his endings so it’s not like I was worried. But I felt so satisfied closing this book and felt such incredible hope; for the characters, for this world, and honestly, for myself.
“How does a sparrow destroy a mountain? One pebble at a time.”
Look, I’m not a rockstar, I can’t hold a tune to save my life, and I’ve never wanted to be a rockstar. But this book made me feel accepted, and I could see myself in Kris. And it made me remember how to feel confident, and how to embrace music as a savior. But it also reminded me that we can’t ever give up. If the entire world is pushing against you but you’re doing something you know is right, keep fucking pushing. One damn pebble at a time.
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