I've been reading a lot of stories lately that are more fun than scary, more spooky than horrifying. Which is usually what I prefer. When I pick up a book, I'm looking for a certain mood and atmosphere rather than anything more visceral.As we get closer to Hallowe'en, though, I start feel that it itch for proper horror, waiting eagerly to be scratched. That's when I turn to Grady Hendrix, a writer that I know will, like any decent UPS worker, always deliver.We Sold Our Souls is the story of Kris Pulaski, a former rock star living out her middle age in a dreary and dull existence as a night clerk in a cheap chain hotel. Kris was the lead guitarist in Dürt Würk, a nineties metal ensemble that never quite made it, thanks to the machinations of lead singer, Terry Hunt, who, at the expense of the rest of the group, went on to fame and superstardom. After meeting with another down-on-his-luck bandmate, Kris soon finds out the true circumstances behind Hunt's meteoric rise — he met the devils at a crossroads, and sold the souls of his friends. Fueled by rage and a desperate desire to understand just why, she lights out towards Hellstock '19, a festival headlined by Hunt that will ostensibly serve as his farewell show, only Kris is certain there is a more depraved design at hand.This is a novel with a recognizable enough premise to be sure, but as the saying goes, still waters run deep, and the sheer amount of themes explored in this novel is enough to take one's breath away: social class and poverty; conspiracies and mainstream mores; sexism and misogyny; fandom and toxic tendencies; art and commercialism. It is epic and overwhelming in scope, but much like his legendary namesake, Hendrix plays these themes on his guitar with a skillful, calloused hand.Which bring us to the music.I always get a kick out of a stories that make me appreciate a subject matter or a subculture in which I hold next-to-no interest. I'm not very into hardcore rock music. I like some songs and band, but despite my uncle's best efforts, I'm just not anywhere close to being a metalhead, nor do I have any interest to be. But dang if this novel didn't have me nodding along to the music it was making me hear in my head.It speaks a lot as to Hendrix's writing. This heavy metal horror novel is written with such earnestness and fervor that not only does it hear the music being described in the page, it makes you feel it as well. Which is the most important thing: music means nothing without listener, just as story means nothing without the reader. We must feel what the character feels. In this particular instance, we must hear what the character hears, as well. It's a rough tune, but the message behind it is as sweet as anything.I first became familiar with Hendrix's work a couple of years ago with his New Wave throwback My Best Friend's Exorcism, a book I started because of a Stranger Things-induced eighties binge, and finished with a fierce love for the story it told and the characters within it.My experience with this book was similar: I expected it to be good and to enjoy it, but the premise wasn't one that initially grabbed me. I finished loving it, wholly and completely. Loving the story's message of hope in defiance of all the horrific, hopeless things that happen in it. Loving what it had to say about the importance of creativity and art, and how the human soul truly resides within those concepts.At the end, though, what I loved most about We Sold Our Souls was Kris, our indomitable, vulnerable, metal-as-all-hell protagonist with her axe and her iron will. "A girl with a guitar never has to apologize for anything," is a constant refrain throughout the novel. Kris embodies that conceit perfectly, and I already miss reading about her.